• Mr. Kurzius
  • Room 31
  • Period A3 (S1) and B1 (S2), 2025–26

Course Description

This is the most important math course that isn’t required for graduation. The world is inundated with polls, charts, and claims by people trying to sell you something. Understanding how to read and understand those charts and claims is a large part of the course, along with how to take it a step further and develop your own polls, charts, and claims based on good data and science.

Units of Study

  1. Exploring and Understanding Data Learn the difference between categorical and quantitative data, and how to summarize them through various charts and averages.

  2. Exploring Relationships Between Variables Learn how to determine if two data variables are associated, and if they are, create a model to predict behavior.

  3. Gathering Data Gathering data is tricker than it seems. Learn when to use simulations and how to account for bias in surveys.

  4. Randomness and Probability This last unit focuses on predicting events using probability laws. This includes events that are independent of each other and those depend on the occurrence of another event.

Text and Resources

We will use the book Statistics, a high school level textbook provided by OpenStax. This is an online and free-to-use textbook, with a PDF version available alongside the web version.

Outside of that, I recommend Khan Academy as a first stop for any extra practice. They have their own Statistics & Probability course that that’s good for extra practice.

Grading

  • The official grade book exists on Canvas, with Genesis only having a (possibly unreliable) copy
  • There will be three or four quizzes each marking period
  • There is also one exam at the end of each marking period
  • All work is due the day of a quiz or exam and late work will receive only partial credit
  • Grading is point-based, though assignments are worth roughly 10%, quizzes 40%, and the marking period exam 50% of your grade