THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE

FACULTY SENATE

Senate Document Number 5610S

Date of Senate Approval 04/08/10

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Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

APC Document 43:    Change prerequisites for STAT 220 and STAT 225

Effective Date: Fall 2010

1. Delete: On page 217, in the course description for STAT 220:

Prerequisites: STAT 185 and MATH 192

Add: On page 217, in place of deleted entry:

Prerequisites: STAT 185 and MATH 191.

2. Delete: On page 217, in the course description for STAT 225:

Prerequisite: MATH 192.

Add: On page 217, in place of deleted entry:

Prerequisite: MATH 191

Impact:

Enrollment in STAT 225 may increase, but need for additional sections are not anticipated.

Rationale:

The original rationale for requiring the second semester calculus class as a prerequisite for these courses was that students needed to be exposed to exponential functions and improper integrals. Both of these topics are now routinely covered in the first semester of calculus. In one topic of STAT 225, the study of distributions and their means, there may be examples that require knowledge of MATH 192 material. Specifically, these are the integration technique, “integrating by parts” and the rules for convergence for an infinite series. These examples are not essential to the course and if an instructor wishes to include them they can still be discussed by giving a short explanation of the necessary methodology / theory within the class.

The benefit of reducing the prerequisite is to encourage students to take this class earlier in their studies. Statistics is essential for many upper level classes both within and outside the department. Allowing students to take this statistics immediately after MATH 191 means students can take STAT 225 in their freshman year.

STAT 220 is designed to help students who already took STAT 185 but are required to take STAT 225 to complete major requirements. STAT 220 covers those topics that are in STAT 225 but not in STAT 185. Thus any change in STAT 225 must also be carried over to STAT 220.