AVU-PARTNER INSTITUTION
MODULE DEVELOPMENT TEMPLATE

PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS

Draft

By

Paul Chege

Version 19.0, 23rd March, 2007
C. TEMPLATE STRUCTURE

I. INTRODUCTION

1. TITLE OF MODULE
Probability and Statistics

2. PREREQUISITE COURSES OR KNOWLEDGE
Secondary school statistics and probability.

3. TIME
The total time for this module is 120 study hours.

4. MATERIAL
Students should have access to the core readings specified later. Also, they will need a computer to gain full access to the core readings. Additionally, students should be able to install the computer software wxMaxima and use it to practice algebraic concepts.

5. MODULE RATIONALE Probability and Statistics, besides being a key area in the secondary schools’ teaching syllabuses, it forms an important background to advanced mathematics at tertiary level. Statistics is a fundamental area of Mathematics that is applied across many academic subjects and is useful in analysis in industrial production. The study of statistics produces statisticians that analyse raw data collected from the field to provide useful insights about a population. The statisticians provide governments and organizations with concrete backgrounds of a situation that helps managers in decision making. For example, rate of spread of diseases, rumours, bush fires, rainfall patterns, and population changes. On the other hand, the study of probability helps decision making in government agents and organizations based on the theory of chance. For example:- predicting the male and female children born within a given period and projecting the amount of rainfall that regions expect to receive based on some historical data on rainfall patterns. Probability has also been extensively used in the determination of high, middle and low quality