Mathematics & Statistics Courses for Non-Majors
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers mathematics and statistics courses that meet the General Education and major requirements for all undergraduate students pursuing majors in other disciplines. Below you will find some general information regarding these courses. Be sure to consult with your academic advisor on the specific math/stat requirements by your degree program.
NOTE: THe information below is applicable until Fall 2012. This page will be updated with semester specific information prior to that date.
Important notes:
- Before registering for your first math or statistics course at Wright State, you will need to take the math placement test unless you have non-developmental math transfer credit.
- Developmental math (DEV) classes are offered by University College. Please refer any questions about DEV 083 and DEV 095 to your academic advisor. The Business Statistics courses MS 204 and 205 are taught by the School of Business.
- A list of campus resources for assisting your math and statistics courses can be found here.
COMMON MTH/STT COURSES REQUIRED BY NON-MATH PROGRAMS:
NOTE: The following information is applicable until Fall 2012 when the university switches to a semester calendar. The information will be updated to reflect the semester courses in Spring 2012.
MTH 128 or 129 – College Algebra or Accelerated College Algebra: These are two different versions of a standard College Algebra course, whose primary goal is to prepare students for the applied calculus course MTH 228. Both MTH 128 and 129 cover the same materials, but MTH 129 (3 credits) has fewer class meetings than MTH 128 (5 credits).
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 4 OR MTH 126 or 127.
- Textbook: College Algebra, custom WSU edition, by Stewart. Cengage Learning, ISBN: 9780495837558.
- Syllabus: Departmental
MTH 130 and 131 – Precalculus and Trigonometry: This is a standard sequence in precalculus with trigonometry, and its primary goal is to prepare students for the regular calculus sequence MTH 229/230/231/232.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 4 OR MTH 126 or 127.
- Textbook: College Algebra and Trigonometry, 2nd Edition, by Ratti and MCWaters. Pearson Higher Education, ISBN: 9780321644718.
- Syllabus: Departmental
MTH 143 – Quantitative Reasoning: This is the first course of the 3-course sequence on math fundamentals required for students in pre-service teachers programs in the College of Education and Human Resources. The other two courses in the sequence are MTH243 and MTH244.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 4 OR MTH 126 or 127.
- Course Description: Discovery of fundamental concepts and skills of quantitative reasoning by exploring real-world data from many disciplines. Data collection, organization, display, analysis, probability simulation, variation and sampling, and expected values. Students work with appropriate software and graphing calculators.
- Textbooks: Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers and Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers Activity Manual, custom WSU editions, by Beckmann. Pearson Higher Education, ISBN 9780558834524 and 9780558834548.
- Syllabus: from instructor
MTH 145/MTH 1450 – Mathematics and the Modern World: This is a general education course required by many non-technical degree programs, mostly those in the liberal or performing arts.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 3 OR a passing grade in DEV095.
- Course Description: An application of mathematics to modeling real world problems from the behavioral, computational, managerial, and social sciences. Includes such topics as graph theory, linear programming, probability, descriptive and inferential statistics, voting systems, game theory, population growth, computer algorithms, and codes and data storage.
- Textbook: Using and Understanding Mathematics, 5th edition, by Bennett and Briggs, Pearson Higher Education, ISBN 9780321652799.
- Syllabus: from instructor
NOTE: A Review of Algebra in Preparation for MTH 1450 workshop will be offered prior to the beginning of Fall semester 2012. More information→
MTH 228 – Calculus for Management, Life and Social Sciences: This is an applied Calculus course designed mainly for students in sciences and economics/business programs who are not required to take the regular Calculus courses. Completion of this course does not automatically place students in a regular calculus course. It earns no credit for students already with credit for any regular calculus courses.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 5 OR MTH 128 or 129.
- Course Description: Functions, rates of change, limits, derivatives of algebraic functions, applications including maxima and minima, exponential and logarithmic functions, and indefinite and definite integrals with applications.
- Textbook: Calculus for Business, Economics and the Social or Life Sciences, 10th edition, brief version, by Hoffmann and Bradley. McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9780077292737.
- Syllabus: Departmental
MTH 257 – Discrete Math for Computing: This is a course required by the CS/CEG degree programs.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 5 OR MTH 128 or 129 or 130.
- Course Description: Discrete mathematics useful in computing. Emphasis on mathematical induction, recurrence relations, asymptotic behavior of functions, and algorithm analysis.
- Textbook: Mathematical Structures for Computer Science – a Modern Approach to Discrete Mathematics, 6th edition, by J. Gersting. MPS, ISBN: 9780716768647.
- Syllabus: Departmental
STT 160 – Statistical Concepts: This is a survey course in the basic statistical concepts and methods, mostly required by programs in nursing and psychology. It cannot be used as a prerequisite for other MTH/STT courses.
- Prerequisite: WSU Math Placement Level 4 OR MTH 126 or 127.
- Course Description: An introduction to the fundamental ideas of statistics. Topics include descriptive statistics, probability, confidence intervals, and testing hypotheses, as well as the basics of Chi-square tests, regression and correlation, and analysis of variance.
- Textbook: Elementary Statistics Using Excel, 4th edition, by Triola, Pearson Higher Education, ISBN 9780321564962.
- Syllabus: Departmental
STT 264/265 – Elementary Statistics I/II: This sequence covers the elementary probability and statistical concepts and methods that are required by many programs in the sciences.
- Prerequisite for STT 264: WSU Math Placement Level 4 OR MTH 126 or 127.
- Course Description: STT 264 - Numerical and graphical methods for finding and summarizing important features of data. Principles of designing experiments for collecting data. Introduction to probability. Use of statistical computing package to apply methods and illustrate concepts. STT 265 - Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing introduction. Applications to means, proportions, two-sample comparisons, contingency tables, linear regression, and analysis of variance. Use of statistical computing package to apply methods to data sets.
- Textbooks: Statistics, 11th edition, by McClave, Sincich and Mendenhall. Pearson Higher Education, ISBN 9780132069519.
- Syllabus: Departmental
