Aims
To teach students how to design and analyse experiments for ecological and evolutionary studies. To prepare students for future and ongoing thesis projects.
Content
Students from all fields of ecology and evolutionary biology are invited to attend as these methods are needed in all experimental sciences. The course will consist of a mixture of lectures, exercises and extensive assignments. Lecture topics include ANOVA, regression and categorical data analysis. As time permits, multivariate analysis and more specialized statistical methods will be included. The statistical software package SAS is used in the course. Focus will be on performing and evaluating analyses on datasets from ongoing experiments in ecology and evolutionary biology. Students are required to bring datasets with them, preferably from their own work in progress. The course and all written assignments will be in English.
Prerequisites
Only basic knowledge of statistics is required and a desire to know what your data says! Preference will be given to Ph.D. students but other students are invited to apply with further preference given to those currently working on research projects.
Credits
10 ECTS credits for completion of all assignments during the course period. Additional 5 ECTS credits can be obtained for successful completion of a research paper or grant proposal based on student's current work to be done within 3 months of the course.
Examination
Two written assignments are required for 10 ECTS credits. These plus a final paper/grant proposal for 15 ECTS.
No. of participants
Limited to 12.
Materials
Sokal, R.R. and Rohlf, F.J. 1995. Biometry (3rd edition) - W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, USA
Rohlf, F.J. and Sokal, R.R. 1995. Statistical Tables (3rd edition) - W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, USA. (This is a set of two books that should be purchased together.)
Original journal articles. A list will be provided to applicants.
Access to a computer with spreadsheet, statistics and graphics software. In particular, the statistical software package SAS should be available (campus license). Students are responsible for obtaining access to computers and software.