Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/N000838/1
Data Analysis with R Statistical Software
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr R Thomas, Cardiff University, School of Biosciences
- Grant held at:
- Cardiff University, School of Biosciences
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Atmospheric
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- Animal organisms
- Community Ecology
- Conservation Ecology
- Statistics & Appl. Probability
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Abstract:
- The course: This 1-week residential course (with ongoing post-course online support) is designed to help postgraduates to become familiar with the R statistical software package, and together to explore its potential as a powerful tool for analysing their own data, whatever their specific field of research. The course will be delivered by Eco-explore, a spin-out enterprise of Cardiff University that specialises in the development of educational resources and in scientific education and engagement work. Eco-explore staff members have extensive experience of delivering high-quality R-statistics training courses in a range of formats and contexts, including 2 highly successful NERC PPSDA courses delivered to 60 delegates in 2014. Rationale: The ability to understand, use and interpret statistics is one of the most empowering skills that an environmental scientist can possess, because it enables the researcher to address any kind of scientific question in a rigorous and quantitative manner. When using statistics, scientists need to be sure that they are collecting the right sort of data in welldesigned studies, using the most appropriate statistical tests, and interpreting the results properly. Statistical analysis does not necessarily come easily to many environmental scientists, but it is an increasingly important and useful part of the toolkit of techniques that are available for understanding the world around us. For postgraduates, investing some focused time and effort in getting to grips with statistics will pay dividends for the rest of their scientific career. Expertise: The course will be led by Dr Rob Thomas, Lecturer in Biosciences at Cardiff University and co-Director of Ecoexplore. Dr Thomas has over 12 years of experience of teaching statistics to undergraduates and postgraduates at Bristol and Cardiff Universities, and (more recently) through Eco-explore. His approach is to combine formal teaching (short "minilectures") with informal workshop-style "hands-on" practical sessions, and this has proved to be both popular and effective with R-learners ranging from first year undergraduates encountering data analysis for the very first time, to highly experienced staff transitioning to R from other statistics packages. At Cardiff University, he has used this approach in a data analysis module on the MRes in Biosciences since 2006, and thrice-yearly general staff/postgraduate courses in R since 2011. Over the last 3 years, Dr Thomas has also instigated the teaching of R to first year Biosciences undergraduates at Cardiff University. Together with colleagues, Rob Thomas has published a 150-page guidebook: "Data Analysis with R Statistical Software: a Guidebook for Scientists" (published by Eco-explore, 2014). This guidebook maps directly onto the structure of the course materials, which include Powerpoint presentations, template script files, example datasets, reference publications and other electronic and printed resources. These courses are also supported by a Facebook group called "R-space" https://www.facebook.com/groups/308600982528221/ which provides updates, additional resources and specific advice for students after their training course has ended. R-space has over 750 users including some excellent statisticians working in a range of research fields and in many different countries. The R-space Facebook forum is a supportive and open forum in which users can ask for help and advice, and typically receive a range of answers from course leaders and other users within the same day. The proposed 7-day residential course (including 1 rest day on day 4) is designed to develop competence and confidence in data analysis, encompassing the majority of statistical methods that most environmental scientists need to use in their day-to-day research, as well as a conceptual framework for learning more specialised methodologies for particular research fields.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/N000838/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £45,000
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £45,000 |
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