Plots and Probability

We see plots everywhere—not just in stories, but also in data such as flu forecasts, risk dashboards, and public opinion polls. This seminar asks how probability and statistics help us make sense of uncertainty, and how stories, language, and culture affect how we understand data. Co-taught by a statistician and a professor of literature and medicine, the course builds statistical literacy while connecting mathematical concepts—such as risk, randomness, and probability—to fiction, film, and real-world examples. We will learn how to spot misleading statistics, ask smart questions about where data comes from, and see how numbers and stories affect our health and lived circumstances. Activities will include spotting misleading graphs and headlines, playing and busting rigged games, debating what counts as evidence, and creating your own “data stories” to explain uncertainty in fun, clear ways. Through active and varied modes of discussion, hands-on games, and team challenges, you’ll uncover how unfair odds work and see how numbers and narratives shape the world in the face of uncertainty.

• Plots and Probability
• Part I — Statistical Machinery
  • Sampling and populations and experiments, oh my
  • Experiments Outcomes and Datapoints
  • Data Visualization
  • Exploratory Data analysis
• Part II — Probability, a world of exactness
  • Sets, Outcomes, Experiments, Probability and other perfect things
  • The law of large numbers
  • Random variables, Risk, and the Poisson distrbution