Chance is an unconventional math course.
The standard elementary math course develops a body of mathematics in a systematic way and gives some highly simplified real-world example in the hope of suggesting the importance of the subject. In Chance we will choose serious applications of statistics and probability and make these the focus of the course, developing concepts in probability and statistics only to the extent necessary to understand the applications. The goal is to make you better able to come to your own conclusions about news stories involving chance issues. During the course, we will choose a variety of topics to discuss, with special emphasis on topics currently in the news. We might start by reading a newspaper account of the topic in a newspaper like the New York Times or the Boston Globe .