GEP 280 Assessment Instructions

Assessment Requirements

Your screencast narration should be 30-60 seconds in length and address the following elements for full credit

  • Your thought process for the problem should be evident in the narration
  • Your narration must demonstrate your understanding of the concepts and computation
  • Your work on the page must be legible, complete, and accurate
  • Your work must adhere to conventions of quantitative communication
    • Must have a reasonable number of significant figures
    • Must use scientific notation when appropriate

If you do not get credit on your first attempt, you may repeat for credit, with a small points deduction. Your repeat work should also address the following elements for full credit

  • Narration should focus on the change in your work since the previous attempt
  • Narration should mention the change in your thinking or mental models since the previous attempt.

Assessment Assignment Tips

Here is a suggested workflow to create your video assignments for these. Let me know if you find apps or ideas that could help others.

  • Take a photo or scan of your assignment, ensure it is legible.
  • Use Zoom (or other screencasting software) to create a video focused on the window with the scan.

1 SSU Estimation

Come up with an estimate that involves all the students at SSU and describe a simple model to calculate it. Show how you computed your estimate and provide your estimate. You will upload a video narration for this assignment.

2 Moon Shoulders

We’d like to go to the moon, but budget cuts are preventing rockets from being built. The NASA director has instead suggested we get there by standing people on each others shoulders.

Show an estimate for the number of persons standing on each others shoulders that it would take to get to the moon. Clearly describe the assumptions you are making. You will upload a video narration for this assignment.

3 Unit Conversion Length and Speed

You will upload a video narration for this assignment. There are two parts to this question that you will write down:

  • Express the quantity 5 meters in units of feet
  • Express the quantity 70 miles per hour in units of meters per second
  • Your work and discussion should clearly indicate how you handled the units

4 Unit Conversion Birth Rate

The worldwide crude birth rate is 18.5 births per 1000 people per year. The world has a population of approximately 7.7 billion. What is this birth rate in units of births per world per second?

Show you work using the factor-label method to make the units clear. You will upload a video narration for this assignment.

5 PEMDAS symbolic

Which of these calculations, when typed into a spreadsheet, will match the mathematical expression below? (Assume your calculator or computer uses PEMDAS.) You will upload a screencast for this assessment.

There could be multiple answers.

\frac{a}{b} \cdot \frac{c}{d} \cdot \frac{e}{f}

  1. a * c * e / b * d * f
  2. a * c * e / (b * d * f)
  3. a * c * e / b / d / f
  4. (a * c * e) / (b / d / f)

6 Moon Spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet that calculates your answer in the Moon Shoulders estimation. Place each of the input quantities in their own cells and put the output in its own cell. Label the quantities in each cell to make the calculation more readable. In your screencast, show how your answer changes when you put in different values. For your final answer, use scientific notation formatting to show a reasonable number of significant figures. (Also, for legibility, zoom the screencast window on the cells you used instead of the entire spreadsheet.)

7 Base Conversion

Choose a (normal, base 10) number between 100–1000 and show how to represent it in base 5 and base 8.

  • show clearly how you went from the base 10 representation to the other base representation
    • your narration must demonstrate that you understand your method
  • draw a numberline for each representation and show two of the neighboring numbers on each side for all three bases

8 Scientific Notation

When you represent these in normal decimal notation, how many zeros does each have (between the lowest non-zero digit and the decimal point)? Show how you arrived at your anwsers.

  • 4.0 \cdot 10^{37}
  • 0.4 \cdot 10^{37}
  • 4.123 \cdot 10^{37}

Hint: Use a smaller number in the exponent to see the pattern and then reason up to larger numbers. This is called induction.

9 Linear Relationship

Find a news article describing a topic of interest that mentions a relationship between two variables and write a short essay (~150 words) covering the following points. (There is no video for this assessment.)

  • Include a link to the article and its title
  • Describe the units and dimensions of these two variables
  • Sketch a graph of the relationship (you make assume it is linear over a small area)
  • Discuss what questions you can ask or answer using this relationship

To receive full credit the essay must

  • meet the word length
  • demonstrate understanding of important concepts and issues
  • demonstrate engagement with the questions

10 Unit Conversion areas

You have an area of 900 square meters. Use the fact that one meter equals 3.28 feet and one yard equals 3 feet.

  • Draw a square with the same area and label the length of the sides.
  • Express this quantity in square feet
  • Express this quantity in square yards

11 Unit Conversion Volumes

You have 2.5 cubic meters of water. Use the fact that one meter equals 3.28 feet, one yard equals 3 feet, and 1 cubic meter equals 264 gallons.

  • Draw a cube with the same volume and label the length of the sides
  • Express this in units of cubic feet
  • Express this in units of cubic yards
  • Express this in units of gallons

12 Area of an Oil Slick

When oil is spilled in water, it creates a thin film of oil approximately 1 micron (10^{-6} meters) thick that floats on the water. A barrel of oil is approximately 42 gallons of oil. If we spill a barrel of oil on the water, what is the area covered by the oil slick

  • Draw a sketch showing the relevant dimensions.
  • State your answer in square meters.
  • State your answer in square kilometers.

Hints:

  • You cannot directly convert between gallons (volume) and area using a proportion because they are different dimensions.
    • (I’ve found calculators online “converting” gallons to area but I do not understand why they exist. Its like saying I want to buy 10 gallons of carpet.)
  • You should imagine the oil slick as an imaginary box with a height of 1 micron and use algebraic reasoning.

13 Sketch an Exponential

By hand on paper, draw a graph of an exponential function with a doubling time of 2 days. On day zero, the value of the exponential function is 1. Show the value of this graph from day zero to day 16.

  • create a table showing your x and y values
  • indicate each data point with a dot
  • draw with a linear y-axis
  • draw with a logarithmic y-axis

14 How long for N cases?

Imagine we are observing an illness where the cumulative number of cases is follows the equation

\textrm{cumulative cases} = A e^{b t}

Where A = 100 cases and b = 0.231 per day and t is the time since there were 100 cases.

  • Draw a graph of these cases
  • Use the graph to make an estimate of the time t when there will be 100,000 cases
    • Be sure to explain your method clearly.
  • Optional: show your graphical estimate is equal to an algebraic solution

15 Estimate Logarithm with Distance

Show how to estimate the logarithm of a number between 20 and 90 using a logarithmic scale on paper and a length measurement.

  • Choose your own number
  • Show the base 10 logarithm
  • Show the natural logarithm
  • Show explicitly how the measured lengths in mm can be converted to the logarithm

16 Create a Histogram

You will create a histogram in a spreadsheet using the data source of your choice.

  • Cite the data source in the spreadsheet
  • Create a histogram using the spreadsheet
  • Label your axes appropriately
  • Write and explain a probability question (for example, “How likely is it that if I draw a state at random, the population will be above 10 million?”)
  • In your video, show the area of your histogram that answers your question.

17 Associations

Recall that an association between a cause and an effect is one of the conditions for causality. For this exercise, find an example in a popular or journal article of a statistical association in an area of interest to you.

Write a short 100-word report that adresses the points below:

  • Include a link to the source
  • Show a graph or table from the article showing evidence of the association
  • Comment on whether the cause is binary or continuous
  • Comment on whether the outcome is binary or continuous
  • Comment on what the data points represent
  • Explain how this association helps establish causality

18 Final Review and Self-Assessment

This essay assignment gives you an opportunity to look over the class and reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve spent your time. (You may want to keep a copy of this essay for when you write job search materials in GEP 310 and beyond.) Before answering the questions below, please review your notes and assignments for this class and reflect the work you have done.

Based on this review, please write a 400-word essay that addresses the questions below.

  • What skills and knowledge have you gained?
    • How do you know that you’ve mastered that material? You can reference assignments from the course here.
    • How has your confidence or belief in your skills changed?
  • What skills and knowledge do you want to continue to work on?
    • Why do you think you need further study?
    • How will you continue to learn beyond this class?
  • How will the things you’ve gained in class be valuable for your future goals?
  • Which of your attendance and time-management practices were most and least effective?
  • What achievement are you most proud of?

For full credit the essay must

  • Meet word count
  • Address all questions
  • Demonstrate a depth of engagement