Principles of Data Science

DSC 10, Spring 2026 at UC San Diego

Janine Tiefenbruck

she/her

jlobue@ucsd.edu

Lecture(s): (A) MWF 10-10:50AM, (B) MWF 11-11:50AM in PODEM 1A19

The Midterm Exam is this Friday, May 1st during lecture in PODEM 1A19.

Jump to the current week

Week 1 – Python Basics

Mon Mar 30

LEC 1 Introduction   

CIT 1.0-1.3

Keywords: data science, course structure, policies, syllabus, Little Women demo

DISC 1 Getting Started with Jupyter Notebooks

Wed Apr 1

LEC 2 Expressions and Data Types   

BPD 1-6

Keywords: Jupyter notebooks, expressions, variables, assignment, functions, int, float

Thu Apr 2

SUR Welcome Survey

SYL Syllabus Check

Fri Apr 3

LEC 3 Strings, Lists, and Arrays   

BPD 7-8, CIT 14.1

Keywords: string methods, mean, median, lists, arrays, array arithmetic

Week 2 – DataFrames and Visualization

Mon Apr 6

LEC 4 Arrays and DataFrames   

BPD 9

Keywords: array methods, np.arange, .read_csv, .get, .assign, .sort_values, .iloc, .loc, index

DISC 2 Arrays and DataFrames

LAB 0 Expressions and Data Types

PRE Pretest

Wed Apr 8

LEC 5 Querying and Grouping   

BPD 10-11

Keywords: .set_index, Booleans, querying, .shape, &, |, .take, .groupby, aggregation

Thu Apr 9

LAB 1 Arrays and DataFrames

Fri Apr 10

LEC 6 Grouping and Data Visualization   

CIT 7.0-7.1

Keywords: .groupby, numerical vs. categorical, scatter plot, line plot, bar chart

Week 3 – Histograms and Functions

Mon Apr 13

LEC 7 Distributions and Histograms   

CIT 7.2-7.3

Keywords: distributions, density histograms, binning, total area, overlaid plots

DISC 3 Querying, Grouping, and Plotting

HW 1 Basic Python, Arrays, and DataFrames

Wed Apr 15

LEC 8 Functions and Applying   

BPD 6, 12

Keywords: functions, arguments, print vs. return, .apply, .reset_index

QUIZ 1 Quiz 1 covers Lectures 1-6

Thu Apr 16

LAB 2 Data Visualizations and Functions

Fri Apr 17

LEC 9 Grouping on Multiple Columns, Merging   

BPD 11, 13

Keywords: .groupby([col_1, col_2, …]), subgroups, MultiIndex, .merge, number of rows

Week 4 – DataFrames, Control Flow, and Probability

Mon Apr 20

LEC 10 Conditional Statements and Iteration   

CIT 9.0-9.2

Keywords: in, not, and, or, if, else, elif, for-loops, np.append, accumulator pattern

DISC 4 Functions, DataFrames, and Control Flow

HW 2 DataFrames, Data Visualization, and Functions

Wed Apr 22

LEC 11 Probability         

CIT 9.5

Keywords: event, conditional prob., multiplication and addition rules, independence

QUIZ 2 Quiz 2 covers Lectures 7-10

Thu Apr 23

LAB 3 DataFrames, Control Flow, and Probability

Fri Apr 24

LEC 12 Simulation   

CIT 9.3-9.4

Keywords: np.random.choice, replacement, np.count_nonzero, coin flipping, Monty Hall

Week 5 – Simulations and Sampling

Mon Apr 27

LEC 13 Distributions and Sampling   

CIT 10.0-10.4

Keywords: probability vs. empirical distribution, SRS, .sample, parameter, statistic

DISC 5 Probability and Simulation

HW 3 DataFrames, Control Flow, and Probability

SUR Mid-Quarter Survey

Wed Apr 29

REV Review      

Fri May 1

EXAM Midterm Exam covers Lectures 1-12

Week 6 – Confidence Intervals and the Normal Distribution

Mon May 4

LEC 14 Bootstrapping and Confidence Intervals

CIT 13.0-13.2

Keywords: inference, bootstrapping, resample, np.percentile, confidence interval

DISC 6 Sampling, Bootstrapping, and Confidence Intervals

Tue May 5

PROJ Midterm Project

Wed May 6

LEC 15 Confidence Intervals, Center, and Spread

CIT 13.3-13.4

Keywords: interpreting CIs, robust vs. sensitive, center, standard deviation

Thu May 7

LAB 4 Simulation, Sampling, & Bootstrapping

Fri May 8

LEC 16 Standardization and the Normal Distribution

CIT 14.2-14.3

Keywords: Chebyshev, standard units, normal distribution, CDF, inflection points

Week 7 – Central Limit Theorem

Mon May 11

LEC 17 The Central Limit Theorem

CIT 14.4-14.5

Keywords: distribution of the sample mean, square root law, CLT-based CIs

DISC 7 The Normal Distribution and the CLT

HW 4 Simulation, Sampling, & Bootstrapping

Wed May 13

LEC 18 Choosing Sample Sizes, Statistical Models

CIT 14.6, 11.1

Keywords: standard deviation of 0s and 1s, np.random.multinomial, Robert Swain jury

Thu May 14

LAB 5 Variability and the Normal Distribution

Fri May 15

LEC 19 Hypothesis Testing

CIT 11.3

Keywords: null and alternative hypotheses, test statistic, fair or unfair coin

Week 8 – Hypothesis and Permutation Testing

Mon May 18

LEC 20 Hypothesis Testing and Total Variation Distance

CIT 11.2, 11.4

Keywords: fair or unfair coin, p-value, midterm exam scores, Alameda County jury, TVD

DISC 8 Hypothesis Testing and Permutation Testing

HW 5 The Normal Distribution and the Central Limit Theorem

Wed May 20

LEC 21 TVD, Hypothesis Testing, and Permutation Testing

CIT 12.0-12.1

Keywords: confidence intervals for hypothesis testing, body temperature, smoking/babies

QUIZ 3 Quiz 3 covers Lectures 13-17

Thu May 21

LAB 6 Hypothesis Testing

Fri May 22

LEC 22 Permutation Testing

CIT 12.3

Keywords: smoking/babies, np.random.permutation, shuffling, Deflategate

Week 9 – Prediction

Mon May 25

No Lecture (Memorial Day)

HW 6 Hypothesis Testing and Permutation Testing

Wed May 27

LEC 23 Correlation

CIT 15.0-15.2

Keywords: association, correlation coefficient (r), predicting heights, regression line (su)

QUIZ 4 Quiz 4 covers Lectures 18-21

Fri May 29

LEC 24 Regression and Least Squares

CIT 15.2-15.4

Keywords: regression line in original units, outliers, errors, RMSE, best fit, least squares

Week 10 – Review

Mon Jun 1

LEC 25 Residuals and Inference

CIT 15.5-16.3

Keywords: residuals, residual plots, patterns, datasaurus dozen, prediction intervals

DISC 9 Regression

LAB 7 Regression

Wed Jun 3

REV Review

PROJ Final Project

Fri Jun 5

REV Review, Conclusion

Sat Jun 6

EXAM Final Exam (3-6PM)

SUR SETs and End-of-Quarter Survey (due 8AM)