This combination lecture/seminar course will have a number of
objectives:

(1) to provide a basic introduction to statistics; (2) to provide a
basic introduction to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(SPSS);(3) to accomplish both of these tasks within the framework of
the research literature in Bioanthropology, and (4) to provide the
opportunity for students to analyze a body of data, testing one or
more hypotheses, and writing up the results in the form of a
manuscript in AJPA or AJHB style. The primary focus of the
introduction to statistics will be both descriptive and inferential
statistics, concentrating on univariate and bivariate applications.
Levels of measurement, hypothesis formulation and testing, tests of
significance for both quantitative and qualitative data,
effect size and power, bivariate correlation and regression, and
one-way ANOVA will be emphasized.  An overview of the use of SPSS in
data analysis will be another primary focus.  I will provide an
initial data set for you to analyze using SPSS.  We will concentrate
on the aforementioned statistical operations but in the latter portion
of the class we will briefly touch on the interpretation of
multivariate programs within SPSS. For many of the weeks in the
semester, the first session will be devoted to presentations of
statistical operations and the second to discussions of
Bioanthropology articles that use the statistical operations under
consideration. Students will seek out these articles and be
responsible for leading discussions on them.  The research paper will
allow you to apply what you have learned to a data set of your own
choosing.  These will be no formal exams in the course but students
will be responsible for turning in worked problem sets, bringing SPSS
printouts to class, leading and participating in discussions of
research articles that they have selected and the final paper.

Tentative textbooks:

Madrigal, L. 1998  Statistics for Anthropology. Cambridge
University Press, New York

Norusis, MJ 2003  SPSS 12.0:Statistical Procedures Companion.
Prentice Hall, Inc.,
Upper Saddle River, NJ

NB.  Based upon a recent ruling of the department's Graduate Affairs
Committee, this course can count as the first statistics course, which
when combined with a more advanced course in another department, will
fulfill the research tool skill requirement.