Faculty of Pharmacy Mathematics Sem 1
Basic Sciences Education
Foundation Year
Faculty of Pharmacy
Mathematics
Module N⁰: PHY 113
Course Coordinator’s Specialty: Basic Sciences Education
Credit Hours: (2+1) 3 hr
Semester: I
1. Course in perspective
The main goal of this course is to relate some of the concepts of statistics to biology and living systems and pharmacy practice. This course will give first year students at pharmacy and introductory statistics series for biology and medical sciences. It emphasizes an understating of the fundamental principles of statistics. The course will introduce student to the biostatistics such as: measures of Central Tendency, mean, median, mode, variance and standard deviation, probability, statistical decisions and Hypothesis. There are two hours of lectures for math each week.
2. Course Objectives
i. Goals
- To enhance students’ understanding of science through the application of the scientific process into disciplines that overlap their interests, but view the material from a different perspective, thereby providing a richer understanding of the interconnectedness of their discipline to other fields.
- Develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, by provision of a fundamental core of knowledge and skills which will assist smooth transition to the next level in medical sciences.
ii. Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, student will:
- Explain to the basic concepts of probability and statistics.
- Be able to use the mathematical and logical tools of science as it can be seen through their success on in-class homework and assignments.
- Obtain the skills necessary to recognize which principles and techniques are necessary to solve a problem and applying quantitative reasoning to solve that problem.
- Show the ability to formulate rational approaches to problem-solving both in conceptual situations and hands-on experiments.
- Learn how to collect, organize, summarize, analyze, and draw conclusions from data.
- Learn about Statistical Decisions; test of Hypothesis and Significance using normal distribution function.
3. Prerequisites
Pre-college algebra and some calculus concepts are essential.
4.Course contents
Mathematics
- Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Central Tendency, mean, median, mode, variance and standard deviation.
- Probability and statistics.
- Statistical Decisions and Hypothesis.
- Tests of Hypothesis and Significance, Type I and Type II Errors, Level of Significance,
5. Educational Methods
- Theory
Mathematics:13 lectures (2hr/week)
- Tutorials
Method | Hours/wk | Method | Hours/wk |
Lectures √ | 2 | Small gr. Tutor √ | 1 |
Assignment |
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Assignment √ | 1 |
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6. Students Assessment
- Mid semester exams (only theory papers):20%.
- Final Exam: End of semester Exam: 60%.
- Assignments & portfolios 20%.
7. Exam
- Midterm and final exams consist of two sections, multiple choice questions MCQs (40 marks) and structure questions STRQs (60 marks).
8. Students Guide to Study
- This is a demanding course. There is a lot to learn. The course moves at a fast pace. Since each new topic builds on previous work, it is of great importance that you do not fall behind.
- Your primary learning tools in this course will be your textbook and the working of problems from your text lecture notes provided by lecturers.
- The assignments will include a set of conceptual questions to reinforce key concepts from the reading. The assignments will also include three to six end-of-chapter problems. These will be collected and graded. After a period, solutions to the problems will be posted so that you can compare and analyze your solution against a correct solution. Any of these problems can appear in the class final exams.
- It is important to solve the problems, whether they are simple exercises or context rich problems, as best as you can before be examining the solution provided by an “expert.” As the first step in this, it may be most beneficial to your reading if you treat the examples given in the text as problems, solving them yourself before you read the authors’ solutions.
9. Module Evaluation
- Method/s used students’ participation and feedback.
- Staff feedback.
- Continuous assessment & final exam marks results.
- Facilities & resources: Adequacy and utilization.