Biology

This course provides an introduction to methods that Biologists use to address, develop and test hypotheses in biology. We will ask: How do students, researchers, and professionals in biology set up questions for their research and/or assess evidence? How do they design their experiments? What traps and pitfalls do they know to look out for? How do we know if a scientific study is flawed? This course focuses more on ideas about why we do statistics and how to interpret them, rather than the mathematical details of different tests. Examples will range from cell biology to community ecology. Students will be exposed to a range of computer software necessary to explore, interpret and understand data and test hypotheses. This course will be important for students taking upper-year lab or field courses and Honours by thesis.