Introduction to Statistics for Ecology using R
- Start Date: February 18, 2025
- End Date: February 20, 2025
- Time: 9am - 4pm Pacific
- City: Castlegar BC
- Venue: Selkirk College
- Instructor: Brendan Wilson
Course description
This course provides an introductory primer for statistical concepts and techniques. Learners will explore ecological data, assumptions about probability distributions, hypothesis testing, one and two sample tests, ANOVA, regression, and model building topics. Emphasis will be placed on integrating practical examples into course exercises.
The course will be taught using Excel and R software. Each day is broken into a morning and afternoon class block, each with a lecture component (1 hr) and a lab component (2 hrs).
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Understand the concept of data variability and how this is central to the use of statistics to help guide natural resource management decisions
- Manipulate datasets in different software programs enabling error checking and outlier identification
- Visualise data to understand patterns and structure
- Recognize different data types, scales, and distributions
- Identify the appropriate statistical test to use for a given situation
- Develop and use scripts to complete data exploration and analyses
Who should take this course?
Field biologists, managers, consultants, and students wanting an applied refresher of the basic classical statistical methods using modern tools. To get the most ouf this course participates, ideally, will have completed a diploma or 2 years of post secondary study in science that included a single statistics course.
Preparation and what to bring
- Students need to come with their own laptop computer, a secondary monitor is welcome.
- Pre-reading: Douglas A, Roos D, Mancini F, Couto A, Lusseau AD. 2023. An Introduction to R.
- Please read and use chapter 1 to help find and install software and then try the exercises in at least chapter 2 and 3 if you have not used R before
- Software requirements: Students will need to have the latest version of R and RStudio installed on their laptops. See web book noted above for help with this
Our instructor & course supporters
Dr. Brendan Wilson is an instructor and research scientist in the School of Environment and Geomatics at Selkirk College. He teaches statistics and research methods in Selkirk’s GIS degree program. He completed a B.Sc. in applied environmental biology at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. His Honours thesis investigated the effect of selective harvesting on understory plant communities in an Australian subalpine forest. In the Alberta Rockies, Brendan examined the regeneration dynamics of alpine larch for his doctoral work at the University of Alberta. Brendan has been an active member of the CMI community for well over a decade.
A big thank you to Selkirk College for the use of classroom space.
Registration
Registration for this course includes catered refreshment breaks. There is an option to add bagged lunches for all three days of the course.
Member registration: $635
Non-member registration: $680
*Annual memberships fees can be paid via the registration form if needed, or via a seperate member registration form here
