abc

10 tips for using this site to best effect:

 

  1. This website has been formulated to help undergraduates (in Conservation Sciences) to grasp the main foundation concepts that will be needed in dealing with numerical / experimental data.

  2. This learning aid is not intended to be a substitute for lectures or indeed for the possession of a good textbook!! Each topic is outlined with the essential core features, it is then up to each student to " read around the topic" starting with the two (textbook and electronic) reading lists provided on the site.

  3. Each topic is dealt with in a gentle, logical and progressive fashion. You should possess a scientific calculator and familiarise yourself with the statistics calculations that it can perform. They are especially useful for quickly calculating means and standard deviations. The Union shop sells them for about £8.00.

  4. You may follow the topics in the order in which they were written or you may go directly to a particular topic that interests you.

  5. DO NOT try to jump ahead too far, you will need to absorb all of the material in Level C before moving on to Level I

  6. It is possible that your individual course of lectures does not follow the same topic progression as laid out here but it will not differ greatly.


  7. All the examples are taken from relevant, plausible and topical situations that any environmental scientist might be expected to have to deal with. Be prepared to think up more 'real life' situations of your own. Each example is characterised by an image such as the ones indicated above and this acts as a reference point for your work.

    Click on the first or last image below to see this feature...


  1. The worked and partially-worked examples are to show you how logical thought can be applied to 'real' environmental and 'workplace' projects. The intention is to show you also how good experimental design will help you to produce experimental outputs that will stand up to rigorous scientific scrutiny.

  2. Always be willing to enter any data set into either EXCEL or SPSS. It is part of your training as a scientist (in terms of professional skills) that you are familiar with both of these programmes. Many of the datasets have already been attached to the site via the SPSS data set index page.

  3. Be prepared to experiment with any of the data sets provided. Simply open them and explore for yourself to see what inferences can be drawn.


    Back to Home page

    Back to contents page


    Go to Level C STEP 1