The math of science!
I spent a lot of time in my first year making economic simulations to test out my ideas, but I was inexperienced in the process of how to actually run experiments. What determines if a result is "statistically significant?" How do I properly design an experiment to minimize bias? I knew the theory, but I didn't know the actual math behind managing data.
Time to learn! I was registered for the AP stats exam in the spring, but I was learning entirely through Khan Academy (with other resources here and there to supplement). I screwed up the pacing initially and had to race the last semester, but I felt like I did pretty well on the test (we'll see come July). Here's what I did to learn it!
Time to learn! I was registered for the AP stats exam in the spring, but I was learning entirely through Khan Academy (with other resources here and there to supplement). I screwed up the pacing initially and had to race the last semester, but I felt like I did pretty well on the test (we'll see come July). Here's what I did to learn it!
NotesThe vast majority of my time in stats, especially in the second semester, was spent on taking notes. Really good notes are essential to my learning process (see this document !!!! TBD !!!); if I can translate what I learn into thorough notes, and then translate those notes in to Anki cards, I've got that understanding on lock. It also helps me teach it to others if I need to - or to myself if I forget.
Notes Q1 Notes Q2 Notes Q3 & Q4 |
The Conway experimentWhen I first started stats, I wanted to be doing experiments all the time, and constantly applying my stats skills to them. In the second semester, I really had to focus on covering ground, so I put a pause on experiments to learn the subject matter. But first semester I conducted an experiment in stats on Conway's Game of Life, modifying the rules and seeing how it affected different variables. Since hypothesis testing comes towards the end of the AP curriculum, I was limited to descriptive analysis rather than significance tests, but I still made a full scientific report.
Final Report Planning code (in Python) |