Course

Probability and Statistics for Science & Engineering

Faculty
Science & Technology
Department
Mathematics
Course code
MATH 2260
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Tutorial
Typically offered
Fall

Overview

Course description
Introduction to descriptive statistics, laws of probability, distributions of continuous and discrete random variables, inferential statistics, correlation and linear regression. This course rigorously develops statistical theory and is intended for those students who will continue on in applied disciplines or wish to pursue more statistics courses.
Course content
  1. Descriptive Statistics.
  2. Laws of Probability.
  3. Distributions of Continuous and Discrete Random Variables.
  4. Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit Theorem.
  5. Estimation and Hypothesis Testing.
  6. Regression and Correlation.
Learning activities

Lectures, in-class assignments and tutorials.

Means of assessment

Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy.  The instructor will present a written course outline with specific evaluation criteria at the beginning of the semester.  Evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

Quizzes 0-20%
Assignments 0-20%
Attendance 0-5%
In-class work 0-10%
Projects 0-20%
Tutorial 0-10%
Term tests 20-70%
Final exam 30-40%
Learning outcomes

Students who complete the course successfully will be able to discuss and solve problems involving the following topics:

  • different data types
  • graphical representation of data
  • numerical measures of a data set’s central and dispersive characteristics
  • a sample space and events
  • basic probability rules
  • independence
  • conditional probability
  • Bayes’ theorem
  • general properties of discrete and continuous random variables and their distributions
  • expected value, mean and variance for a random variable with a given distribution
  • binomial, hypergeometric and Poisson distributions
  • normal, gamma and exponential distributions
  • jointly distributed random variables
  • covariance and correlation
  • distributions for sample means and linear combinations of  independent identically distributed random variables
  • central limit theorem
  • estimation of a population mean, difference of means, variance,  proportion or a difference of proportions based on sample data
  • qualification of a claim regarding a mean, difference of means, variance, proportion or a difference of proportions based on sample data
  • scatter plot of bivariate data
  • linear regression model for bivariate data
  • correlation coefficient of bivariate data
  • the use of a significant amount of, and sophisticated level of, technology (such as R, Minitab, SPSS, etc.)
Textbook materials

Textbook will vary by semester, see College Bookstore for current textbook, example:

Hayter, Probability and statistics for engineers and scientists, (current edition), Duxbury.

Requisites

Prerequisites

MATH 1120

Corequisites

MATH 1220 (must be taken before or concurrently with MATH 2260)

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers to Other Institutions

Below are current transfer agreements from Douglas College to other institutions for the current course guidelines only. For a full list of transfer details and archived courses, please see the BC Transfer Guide.

Institution Transfer details for MATH 2260
Camosun College (CAMO) CAMO STAT 254 (3)
Coquitlam College (COQU) COQU STAT 270 (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG STAT 2281 (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU STAT 270 (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU STAT 2230 (3)
University Canada West (UCW) UCW MATH 200 (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO STAT_O 230 (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3) or UBCV STAT_V 251 (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC STAT 371 (3)
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) UFV MATH 270 (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC STAT 260 (1.5)
Vancouver Island University (VIU) VIU MATH 211 (3)

Course Offerings

Fall 2025

CRN Days Instructor Status
Maximum seats
35
Currently enrolled
35
Remaining seats:
0
On waitlist
3
Building
Anvil Office Tower
Room
712
Times:
Start Time
14:30
-
End Time
16:20
Section notes

MATH 2260 001 - Students must ALSO register in MATH 2260 T01 or T02.