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This paper is from Session 4E: Statistics for Environmental Science
which comes under Topic 4: Statistics education/training and the workplace             Full topic list


(Thursday 6th, 10:30-12:30)

Introducing data analysis in a Statistics course in Environmental Science studies


Presenter


Abstract

Education in methods of applied statistics is important for students who will be involved in management and decision-making processes. This paper discusses issues related to the teaching of statistics to students enrolled in an undergraduate environmental science degree course. The aim is to describe the teaching of graphical and numerical methods for summarizing and exploring data obtained in environmental studies. The application of descriptive and exploratory methods provides useful information regarding the distribution of the data at hand and of its patterns and associations. These methods are presented at the beginning of the course, following an introduction to the steps involved in the process of learning from data through the use of statistics. Students are instructed in the reading and interpretation of graphic and numeric data summary techniques. The importance of visualizing the main patterns and associations in the data is emphasized using environmental examples.