SYLLABUS
Research Design and Analysis (GB 750)
Fall 2011

instructor: Dwight Moore, Ph.D.
office - Science Hall 144
phone - 341-5611
email - dmoore@emporia.edu
http://www.emporia.edu/biosci/moorbiol.htm

office hours:Monday and Friday 9:00 - 10:00, Tuesday 12:00 - 1:00, and by appointment. In addition, I am usually on campus by 7:30 am and do not leave until after 5:30 pm.    my schedule
section:GB 750, MWF 1:00 - 1:50, Science Hall 156
text:Zar, J. H. 2009. Biostatistical Analysis, 5th ed. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (required)
I. course description:

Research design and analysis is for graduate students in biology. The course is designed to introduce research design and the statistical analysis of biological data. The course will describe various research designs starting with a examination of comparative versus experimental designs. The course will then look at a variety of designs for research projects and then examine the appropriate statistical techniques for analysis of the data. Students will also read several papers from the scientific literature in order to examine the design of the research and the analysis of the data.

II. course organization:

Material will be presented primarily in the form of lectures, material placed on ESU's web server, and reading assignments. Lecture and notes on the server will cover the points to be learned and will direct your study from the text. Various handouts will be given to illustrate points in lecture, and readings outside of the texts will be assigned. You should keep the handouts in a notebook as they will prove useful at various times in your graduate career.

III. course objectives:

To calculate and interpret appropriate descriptive statistics
To select appropriate inferential statistics for a variety of experimental designs
To understand common statistical procedures in the primary literature
To apply critical thinking skills to the interpretation of statistical analyses
To find and apply new statistical methods as they may be needed

IV. grading:

Your grade will be determined based upon the total points (500 possible) earned on four examinations and some homework assignments (approximately 40). There is no provision for doing extra or outside work to improve your grade.
A  = 92.0% to 100%
A-  = 89.0% to 91.9%
B+  = 86.0% to 88.9%
B  = 83.0% to 85.9%
B-  = 79.0% to 82.9%
C+  = 76.0% to 78.9%
C  = 70.0% to 75.9%
D  = 60.0% to 69.9%
F < 60.0%

examinations: Three tests plus a final exam are scheduled for the semester (see class schedule). The final exam is half comprehensive and half over material since the last test. Each test is worth 100 points and the final is worth 200 points for a total of 500 points.

problems: Various problems and exercises will be assigned during the semester. These can be found in the yellow boxes in the notes on the web and the answers will also be posted on the web site. These problems will not be turned in nor graded, however it is important that you do these problems so that you understand the process for crunching your data. If you have any questions about the problems feel free to ask questions, either in class or in my office. After you have worked the problems on your own you should consult with your classmates about the problems, as this will help you to learn the material better.

In addition, various assignements will be made that require you to find and describe different statistical procedures or experimental designs from the primary literature. These will be graded and they must be turned in on time for credit. Total points possible will be around 40 points.

V. attendance:

I will not take attendance. You should be committed enough to your education to come to class, otherwise you are just wasting your money.

VI. academic dishonesty:

Any student who permits another student to use his/her work (except where expressly permitted) will get a zero on the assignment. Finally, any copying or other forms of cheating during a test will result in a zero on that exam. The Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences will be informed of all acts of academic dishonesty and the action taken against the offender. In addition, your name will be placed on a list in the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Be sure to review the Policies on Academic Dishonesty of Emporia State University and the Department of Biological Sciences.

VII. accomodations for disabilities:

Emporia State University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students need to contact the Director of Disability Services (South Morse Hall 211, 341-6637) and the professor as early in the semester as possible to ensure that classroom and academic accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. All communication between students, the Office of Disability Services, and the professor will be strictly confidential.

VIII. important and useful information from the registrar.

TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE

week starting
17 Augwhat is science, scientific method, inductive vs deductive reasoning, experimental vs comparative method, Honor in Science

22 Augintroduction to biometry, types of data, measures of location, measures of dispersion

29 Augnormal probability distribution

5 Sepnormal probability distribution, distribution of the means,
No class on 5 Sep (Labor Day)

12 Sepconfidence limits for point estimates
EXAM #1 on 14 Sep

19 Sephypothesis testing, design in which a sample is compared to a reference population (one-sample hypotheses)

26 Seperrors in testing

3 Octassessing normality, two sample t-test,

10 OctMann-Whitney test, match control design or repeated measures design
EXAM #2 on 12 Oct.

17 Octmultiple sample designs: one-way analysis of variance; one variable, completely randomized design; choosing alternate hypotheses in analysis of variance
No class on 21 Oct (Fall Break)

24 Octcompletely random design for two or more variables (multi-way analysis of variance)
26 Oct is the last day to withdraw with a "W" on the transcript

31 Octrandomized block design and repeated measures designs, nested ANOVA, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)

7 Novexperimental design to test a cause and effect relationships, linear regression
EXAM #3 on 10 Nov.

14 Novlinear regression

21 Novdesign to test the linearity of the response of one variable to another (multiple Y's for each X)
No class on 23 and 25 Nov (Thanksgiving)

28 Novpolynomial regression, correlation

5 Decmultiple linear regression, multivariate analysis of variance

12 DecFINAL EXAM on Monday at 1:00 pm
half over material from first three exams and half over new material since the previous test


Last updated on 16 August 2011.
Provide comments to Dwight Moore at dmoore@emporia.edu.
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