Statistics and Measurements I (3 Credits) FOR College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Department of Forestry

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1 Statistics and Measurements I (3 Credits) FOR College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Department of Forestry Times: Lecture: MW 10:00 10:50 am (TPC 113) Lab: Thursday 1:00 3:00 pm (TPC 212) Instructor: Dr. Darryl W. Cremeans Office Phone: Office Address: 121A T.P. Cooper Building dcremean@uky.edu Office hours: Daily 9:00 AM 10:00 AM or by appointment Course Website: Course Description: This course covers the application of statistical concepts, computations, and software to forestry sampling and inventory problems. Land, individual tree and timber stand measurement techniques will be covered as will the design and implementation of sampling systems to derive information necessary to meet landowner objectives. Prerequisites: None Student Learning Outcomes: After completing this course, the student will be able to: 1. Define statistical concepts and population distributions. 2. Calculate statistical descriptors for a dataset (manually and via software). 3. Understand how variability affects the necessary sampling density to accurately describe a population. 4. Apply stratification techniques to best collect representative samples. 5. Analyze sample populations to infer if populations differ. 6. Utilize hypothesis testing to determine if samples adhere to expectations. 7. Measure tree parameters using forestry tools and methods. 8. Conduct forest inventories using multiple sampling designs. 9. Summarize forest inventory data using software tools. Required Materials: Textbook: none required Recommended T.E. Avery & H.E. Burkhart Forest Measurements. 5th edition. McGraw-Hill. Course Assignments 3 Exams at 15% each All graded homework will total to 20% of the course grade All lab work will total to 20% of the course grade 1 timber inventory project at 15%

2 Summary Description of Course Assignments There will be homework covering the statistical methods learned in class to provide practice with them and illustrating how they are utilized in the practice of forestry. Some lab work will involve follow up paperwork to be handed in. This allows you to summarize the data collected and associate those numbers with what you saw in the field. The timber inventory project will expand the sample measurements taken in the field and summarize the timber cruises. It should be comprehensive as if presented to a land owner. It also allows us to compare the results from multiple cruising methods. You will present your findings in an informal class setting. We will compare the results from different groups to illustrate sampling variability. Course Grading A = 90 to 100 B = 80 to < 90 C = 70 to < 80 D = 60 to < 70 E = < 60 Final Exam Information Monday December 14 th at 1:00 PM in TPC 113 Mid-term Grade Mid-term grades will be posted in myuk by the deadline established in the Academic Calendar ( Accommodations due to disability: If you have a documented disability that requires academic accommodations, please see me as soon as possible during scheduled office hours. In order to receive accommodations in this course, you must provide me with a Letter of Accommodation from the Disability Resource Center (Room 2, Alumni Gym, , address: jkarnes@ .uky.edu) for coordination of campus disability services available to students with disabilities.

3 Course Policies: Attendance Policy: Students will get the maximum return from this course if they attend all lecture and lab sessions thus it is highly recommended. That said, lecture attendance is not taken or graded. Some testable material is only presented in the lecture and may not be contained in the PowerPoint files, thus grades are consistently better for those students who attend class regularly. Lab attendance will be graded if no assignment is associated with that field session. Since we often work in teams, a missing member can cause the team to not be able to finish the exercise in the lab time allotted. Missed field work will have to be made up on the student s own time for credit. Excused Absences: Students need to notify the professor of absences prior to class when possible. S.R defines the following as acceptable reasons for excused absences: (a) serious illness, (b) illness or death of family member, (c) University-related trips, (d) major religious holidays, and (e) other circumstances found to fit reasonable cause for nonattendance by the professor. Students anticipating an absence for a major religious holiday are responsible for notifying the instructor in writing of anticipated absences due to their observance of such holidays no later than the last day in the semester to add a class. Information regarding dates of major religious holidays may be obtained through the religious liaison, Mr. Jake Karnes ( ). Students are expected to withdraw from the class if more than 20% of the classes scheduled for the semester are missed (excused or unexcused) per university policy. Make-up opportunities: Late homework, make-up quizzes and exams will only be given with an excused absence (S.R ). It is the student s responsibility to inform the instructor of the absence, preferably in advance, but no later than one week after the absence. The instructor will make every effort to accommodate the needs for make-up work for students with a valid excuse. Verification of Absences: Students may be asked to verify their absences in order for them to be considered excused. Senate Rule states that faculty have the right to request appropriate verification when students claim an excused absence because of illness or death in the family. Appropriate notification of absences due to university-related trips is required prior to the absence. Submission of Assignments: Homework assignments are due at the beginning of the class one week after they are assigned, unless otherwise noted. Late homework may not be accepted for a grade.

4 Classroom behavior, decorum and civility: A classroom is a formal setting, but formality does not mean that the educational interaction that takes place in the classroom is by nature impersonal, rigid, or "stiff." Both instructors and students in a classroom have rights and responsibilities, both should respect the other, both should do all they can do to help the educational process achieve its maximum effectiveness and to help the classroom truly become an environment for learning for all present. Etiquette is an important lubricant that keeps interactions between people moving smoothly. Here are some rules of classroom etiquette: Do not talk to your neighbor during class except when asked to in a cooperative learning session. Your fellow students appreciate a quiet learning environment and resent students who continually disturb their concentration. The lecture hall is designed to make voices carry. Be on time for the start of class and stay until the end. If you know you are NOT going to be able to get to the classroom in a timely manner, or that you will habitually have to leave early, then drop the class or reschedule it so that you can attend the whole class. Walking in late is very distracting and rude to the other students. Walking out before class is over disturbs other people and gives the unmistakable impression that you don't respect the class, the other students or the instructor. All cell phones and beepers and pagers must be turned off for the duration of class. If it rings, you may be asked to leave the class. No Eating and drinking in class. Participate when you are asked to, and listen to others' participation also. No sleeping in class. This is from the recently adopted Student Code of Conduct for the University. "Article II. Paragraph 7 Standards of Classroom Behavior The primary responsibility for managing the classroom environment rests with the faculty. Students who engage in any prohibited or unlawful acts that result in disruption of a class may be directed by the faculty member to leave the class for the remainder of the class period. Longer suspensions, or dismissal from a class due to disruptive behavior, must be preceded by a disciplinary hearing as set forth in Article II, Section 24 of this Code. " Professional preparations: Students should prepare to actively learn in this course. Taking good notes during lectures is recommended. It is a good practice to review the previous notes prior to coming to lectures. This refreshes the memory and allows us to build on that material. Some outside readings will be made available; I recommend you spend some time reviewing them along the way. Do not wait until the last minute to finish your assignments (especially the timber inventory report), all your work will receive the grade it deserves. When studying, set aside plenty of uninterrupted time to concentrate on the subject matter. The skills this course can teach you are a major cornerstone of the knowledge needed for a career in natural resource management. What you take away from it is up to you. Group work & student collaboration: This course includes field work that must be completed in groups. It is your responsibility to contribute to your highest ability equally sharing the division of efforts to create the whole project. Please show professionalism in dealing with your classmates, it is good practice for the real world.

5 Academic Integrity: Per university policy, students shall not plagiarize, cheat, or falsify or misuse academic records. Students are expected to adhere to University policy on cheating and plagiarism in all courses. The minimum penalty for a first offense is a zero on the assignment on which the offense occurred. If the offense is considered severe or the student has other academic offenses on their record, more serious penalties, up to suspension from the university may be imposed. Plagiarism and cheating are serious breaches of academic conduct. Each student is advised to become familiar with the various forms of academic dishonesty as explained in the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Complete information can be found at the following website: A plea of ignorance is not acceptable as a defense against the charge of academic dishonesty. It is important that you review this information as all ideas borrowed from others need to be properly credited. Part II of Student Rights and Responsibilities (available online states that all academic work, written or otherwise, submitted by students to their instructors or other academic supervisors, is expected to be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression. In cases where students feel unsure about the question of plagiarism involving their own work, they are obliged to consult their instructors on the matter before submission. When students submit work purporting to be their own, but which in any way borrows ideas, organization, wording or anything else from another source without appropriate acknowledgement of the fact, the students are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism includes reproducing someone else s work, whether it be a published article, chapter of a book, a paper from a friend or some file, or something similar to this. Plagiarism also includes the practice of employing or allowing another person to alter or revise the work which a student submits as his/her own, whoever that other person may be. Students may discuss assignments among themselves or with an instructor or tutor, but when the actual work is done, it must be done by the student, and the student alone. When a student s assignment involves research in outside sources of information, the student must carefully acknowledge exactly what, where and how he/she employed them. If the words of someone else are used, the student must put quotation marks around the passage in question and add an appropriate indication of its origin. Making simple changes while leaving the organization, content and phraseology intact is plagiaristic. However, nothing in these Rules shall apply to those ideas which are so generally and freely circulated as to be a part of the public domain (Section 6.3.1). Please note: Any assignment you turn in may be submitted to an electronic database to check for plagiarism.

6 Tentative Course Schedule DATE (Fall 2015) TOPIC HOMEWORK or Exam Wednesday, August 26 intro/syllabus Thursday, August 27 no lab this week Monday, August 31 Labor Day no lecture Wednesday, September 2 Compass, Pacing and GPS Thursday, September 3 Compass, Pacing and GPS Monday, September 7 Measuring Tree Diameters Wednesday, September 9 Continued and Timber Marking Thursday, September 10 Measuring Tree Diameters Monday, September 14 Measuring Tree Heights Wednesday, September 16 continued Thursday, September 17 Measuring Tree Heights Monday, September 21 Tree Defects and quality Wednesday, September 23 Volume Determination Thursday, September 24 Cull Deduction and Tree Grading Monday, September 28 Data Recording and Establishing Plots Wednesday, September 30 Exam 1 Exam 1 Thursday, October 1 Crown Diameter Monday, October 5 Fixed Plot Cruising part 1 Wednesday, October 7 Fixed Plot Cruising part 2 Thursday, October 8 Fixed Plot Cruise Monday, October 12 Variable Point Cruising part 1 Wednesday, October 14 Variable Point Cruising part 2 Thursday, October 15 Variable Point Cruise Monday, October 19 Cruise summaries and calculations Wednesday, October 21 Nontimber resource Notation Thursday, October 22 Cruise makeup lab Monday, October 26 Stand Valuation Wednesday, October 28 Site Index and Stocking Thursday, October 29 Site Index Monday, November 2 Stand Density Wednesday, November 4 Log Rules Thursday, November 5 Stocking and Stand Density Monday, November 9 Timber Prescriptions Wednesday, November 11 Exam 2 Exam 2 Thursday, November 12 TBA Inventory Project Due Monday, November 16 Introduction to Statistics Wednesday, November 18 Notation Thursday, November 19 Lab Make-up day Monday, November 23 Population Homework 1 assigned Wednesday, November 25 Thanksgiving holiday no lecture Thursday, November 26 Thanksgiving Holiday no lab Monday, November 30 Sampling Homework 1 due Wednesday, December 2 Variability Homework 2 assigned Thursday, December 3 Lab Make-up day Monday, December 7 Frequency & Distribution Wednesday, December 9 Stratification Homework 2 due Thursday, December 10 Review Finals Week Final 1:00 PM