Experimental Design and Data Analysis for Biologists

2008 Details


What to do before attending

You will either be attending the entire course or selected modules/topics, depending on who you are. Before attending the modules, you need to download and print the handouts for the particular days. Because the number of people attending varies widely from day to day, it's difficult for us to bring copies without wasting large amounts of paper, or running very short.

Assessment

Some of you will sit an exam, as indicated in the table below. The exam will be open book, composed of 10 questions. Each question corresponds roughly to a half day of lectures. You can get a sample exam paper from (2000) or 2001 here. Answers to some of the questions are available, as notes on another version of the file.

Melb 600-601
Attend all topics; full exam; see separate schedule on WebRaft
Melb Zoology Hons (Disc.)
Attend at least 5 of 10 topics; exam assessed as Pass/Fail only
Melb Zool. Hons (Links)
Attend all topics; full exam based on all topics
Melb Botany Hons
Attend at least 5 of 10 topics; exam assessed as Pass/Fail only

Background Material

It's assumed that you have an understanding of basic statistics. You will probably have that from one or more undergraduate subjects that you've taken. If you're feeling stressed, we have prepared some refresher material as pre-recorded lectures. They are large files, so the easiest access is by borrowing a DVD. The DVD's will be available soon.. If you are on the U of M campus, you can download the files readily, without download charges. Off campus, you should check your dowload limits (if any).

Revisionary material

Uncertainty and Probability (Multimedia files; Windows Media Player compatible download either the stand-alone or the wmv version; 20 mb each)

Introduction to statistical inference, I and II or Multimedia (Windows Media Format; download two files, I-stand-alone or wmv, and II-stand-alone or wmv; 35 mb each)

Exploratory Data Analysis and Assumptions of statistical analyses or Multimedia version (Windows Media Format; download the stand-alone or the wmv version; 65 mb each)

Experimental design stand-alone or wmv version (36 mb each)

If you have any problem playing the files, the free VLC multimedia player will deal with it. It plays most kinds of files, and works on pretty much any operating platform.

Lecture Handouts

Lecture handouts are ready for you to download, print, and bring along to the relevant days.

Module 1(22 and 23 July)

Session

Topic

22 July AM

Single factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) model

22 July PM

Multifactor analysis of variance: Nested and factorial designs

23 July AM Miscellaneous ANOVA issues and

23 July PM

Complex multifactor analyses: Randomised block, repeated measures and partly-nested analysis of variance

Module 2 (24th and 25th July)

Session

Topic

24 July AM

Simple linear regression models

24 July PM

ANCOVA and multiple regression

25 July AM Power analysis and Categorical Data analysis

25 July PM

Categorical Data Analysis (cont.) and Presentation of results

 

Module 3 (31 July and 1 Aug)

31 July AM

Multivariate statistics (including resemblance measures, clustering, data standardisation, PCA) and guide for PCA in R

1 Aug AM

MultiDimensionalScaling (including SIMPER, hypothesis tests, Bio-ENV) and R guide

 

Tutorials/Worksheets

Arrangements depend on which group you fall into:

Melb 600-601

Melb Zool. Links

Formal sessions, following each module.

Melb Zool Disc.

Melb Botany Melb

Work through remaining worksheets at own pace. Tutor available at Melbourne available after each module
Postgrads Work through worksheets in own time.

 

Tutorial Material

The worksheets can be done in two formats, using common commercial stats packages, such as SYSTAT or SPSS, or using the free package R. The two formats cover the same material, although the breakdown of the worksheet material differs slightly.

R

Follow this link to download R and the tutorial material onto your own computer, or to work through the material while it is stored on the web (you will still need to have R installed)

SYSTAT and SPSS

The data files for the worksheet questions are provided here in spreadsheet format with an .xls (Microsoft Excel) extension. These files can be imported into SYSTAT or opened in SPSS (make sure you tick the Read Variable Names box), or opened in pretty much any spreadsheet package. Alternatively, you can also cut and paste the data, column by column, from Excel into SYSTAT, SPSS or NCSS, or any other statistical package.

Worksheets

Module 3

Data files

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 2

Worksheet 3

Worksheet 4

Worksheet 5

Worksheet 6

Worksheet 7

 

 

Software

We have provided copies of two pieces of software that we find useful for power analyses. Both are free, but you should acknowledge the use software in papers, and you may want to go to the authors' web sites periodically to check for updated versions.

File Name

Description & www link

Size

 

Gpower ver. 3

G Power

800k

Download

R www.r-project.org    

PiFace.exe

PiFace add-in for Excel

83k

Download


All of the worksheets, handouts, powerpoint presentations are Copyright © Gerry Quinn, Jan Carey, & Mick Keough, 2003 - All Rights Reserved. Please do not distribute them beyond the course.

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Maintained by Mick Keough & last modified July 25 2008