BIOSTATISTICS
Biology 244       - -       Fall, 2006     - -     Bates College
Prof. Eli C. Minkoff, Ph.D.

TEXT:   J.H. Zar. BIOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

C L A S S   S C H E D U L E   and   R E A D I N G   A S S I G N M E N T S

DATES: TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS:
Sept. 7 (B1)
 
  		Introduction; the nature & history of statistics.   Types of data and data coding.
Discrete data; frequency distributions. (Zar ch. 1).
 
Sept. 12 (B2)
  		Continuous variation: accuracy, precision, significant figures, frequency distributions.
Populations & samples.   Introduction to central tendency.
Sept. 12, 13 Work session #1 this week.
Sept. 14 (B3,4)
  		Descriptive statistics: central tendency, dispersion, variability. (Zar ch. 2, 3, 4)
 
Sept. 19 (B5,6) Probability. Binomial distrib.; limiting distributions: Poisson, normal. (Zar ch. 5)
Sept. 19, 20 Work session #2 this week.
Sept. 21 (B7)
 
  		Normal distribution: parameters, tables for SND, tables for any normal distribution;
sampling statistics, standard error. (Zar ch. 6)
 
Sept. 26 (B8) Statistical inference, Student's t. (Zar ch. 7)
Sept. 26, 27 Work session #3 this week.
Sept. 28 (B9)
  		One-sample & two-sample t-tests. (Zar ch. 8, 9)
 
Oct. 3 (B10) Problem session and review. Nonparametric comparisons. (Zar ch. 24)
Oct. 3, 4 Work session #4 this week.
Oct. 5 (B11)
  		More review.   FIRST EXAM:   PART I passed out as take-home exercise.
 
Oct. 10 (B12) FIRST EXAMINATION:   PART II in class; PART I DUE at 8:00 a.m.
Oct. 10, 11 Work session on MINITAB.
Oct. 12 (B13,14)
 
  		Goodness of fit, chi-square, comparison to a theoretical distribution;
contingency tables. (Zar ch. 22, 23, 25)
 
Oct. 17 (B15)
  		Introduction to ANOVA;   one-way ANOVA. (Zar ch. 10)
Do work session #5 on your own; hand in on Oct. 24.
Oct. 18-22

HAVE A GREAT FALL BREAK

Oct. 24 (B16) ANOVA, continued. Post hoc comparisons (Zar ch. 11)
Oct. 24-25 Work session #6 this week, except cattle problem.
Oct. 26 (B19)
  		Data transformation; ANOVA assumptions; nonparametric alternatives (Zar ch. 13).
 
Oct.31 (B17,18) Two-way ANOVA. (Zar ch. 12)
Oct. 31, Nov. 1 Cattle problem, incl. Tukey tests.
Nov. 2 (B21)
  		Multi-way ANOVA (Zar ch. 14).   Nested ANOVA (Zar ch. 15).
 
Nov. 7 (B22,23) Circular distributions: descriptive, inferential. (Zar ch. 26, 27). REVIEW.
Nov. 7, 8 Work session #7 this week.
Nov. 9 (B26)
 
  		Additional review if requested. Linear regression; comparisons. (Zar ch. 17,18)
SECOND HOUR EXAM will be passed out as a take-home exercise.
 
Nov. 14 (B28) Correlation. (Zar ch. 19)
Nov.14,15 (B27) Work session #8 this week.
Nov. 16 (B30)
 
  		SECOND HOUR EXAMINATION DUE at start of class.
Multiple regression I. (Zar ch. 20)
 
Nov. 18-27

HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Nov. 28 (B31) Multiple regression II. Curvilinear regression (Zar ch. 21); polynomial regression.
Nov. 28, 29 Work session #9 starts this week & continues next week if needed.
Nov. 30 (B32)
  		Transformation and curve fitting.   Growth and allometry.
 
Dec. 5 (B34) Path coefficients and path analysis. Review problems.
Dec. 5, 6 Finish Work session #9 if needed.   Work session #10 this week.
Dec. 7 (B35)
  		Discriminant functions; Mahalanobis' distance.   Problem session and review.
TAKE-HOME portion of final exam will be handed out.


ADDITIONAL COURSE MATTERS: