Preparing future life science researchers to engage with statistics in research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52041/iase2023.101Abstract
Life science students who take undergraduate statistics courses will engage with statistics as consumers, and perhaps even producers, of quantitative research throughout their studies and professions. Several years ago, a study was conducted in an undergraduate statistics course at our institution that was designed to improve the quantitative preparation of life sciences students. Although we observed improvements in students’ confidence in their abilities to choose appropriate statistical procedures and to interpret results from the beginning to the end of the course, there were still noticeable gaps in their abilities to do both at the end of the course. A follow-up survey study was recently conducted in the same course (n=164). This paper will highlight results on students’ self- efficacy and abilities to recognize dependency in data and select appropriate statistical procedures. Implications for future quantitative life science course offerings will also be discussed.References
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