36-200 Reasoning with Data

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course is an introduction to learning how to make statistical decisions and how to reason with data. The approach will emphasize the thinking-through of empirical problems from beginning to end and using statistical tools to look for evidence for/against explicit arguments/hypotheses. Types of data will include continuous and categorical variables, images, text, networks, and repeated measures over time. Applications will largely drawn from interdisciplinary case studies spanning the humanities, social sciences, and related fields. Methodological topics will include basic exploratory data analysis, elementary probability, significance tests, and empirical research methods. There will be once-weekly computer lab for additional hands-on practice using an interactive software platform that allows student-driven inquiry.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Fall 2026, Summer 2026, Spring 2026, Fall 2025

Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.