Introduction to Statistical Reasoning

 STAT 110: Introduction to Statistical Reasoning is a course in statistical literacy.  Statistical literacy is the ability to understand, interpret, critically evaluate, and effectively use statistical information in everyday life, work, and decision-making.   Topics include data sources and sampling, concepts of experimental design, graphical and numerical data description, measuring association for continuous and categorical variables, introduction to probability and statistical inference, and use of appropriate software.  Two of the main goals of this class are for students to understand and critique statistics they encounter; and apply statistical reasoning to make better decisions. Students should be able to understand, interpret, and critically evaluate statistical information that appears in news, research, politics, and everyday life.  This includes recognizing when statistics are used well, when they may be misleading, and how context, sampling, bias, and uncertainty affect conclusions.  Students should be able to use basic statistical reasoning to make sound personal, civic, and professional decisions.  This means applying concepts such as variability, correlation vs. causation, risk, and probability in practical contexts, even without advanced mathematical calculations.

STAT 110 is a general education that fulfills the Carolina Core requirement in Analytical Reasoning and Problem Solving.  As such a variety of students from across the University of South Carolina enroll in this course.  Additionally, STAT 110 serves as one of the possible prerequisites for STAT 201: Elementary Statistics. Some undergraduate programs require successful completion of STAT 110 to meet the statistic requirements for that program.   There are also some programs that require a combination of STAT 110 followed by STAT 201 to meet their statistic requirements.  During the fall 2025 semester, there were 61 different majors for students enrolled in STAT 110.   STAT 110 has minimal required math skills, up to square roots and squaring.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate claims based on statistical reasoning from survey and experimental results and understand the basic principles of statistical design of experiments. 
• Understand, interpret, and evaluate statistical reasoning from data using basic statistical terms, descriptive statistics, and charts and graphs, including using appropriate software. 
• Understand, describe, and utilize simple principles of probability, including the normal curve, and their application to social and physical phenomena. 
• Obtain and interpret confidence intervals in simple settings and understand their relationship to sample size and variability. 
• Demonstrate understanding of the concept of hypothesis testing and that statistical significance does not always imply importance. 
• Recognize and evaluate the relationship between two variables through linear regression and correlation and be able to explain why correlation does not imply causation.