BIO 663: Project Design & Assessment
Fall 2024 Elective W+ Course
In-Person Dates: 9/7, 9/19, 9/24, 10/6, 11/2, 12/3
Location: Bronx Zoo
3 credits, Letter Grade
This course instructs students about one of the most important scientific endeavors: evaluation to indicate whether their own work or the work of others is showing a trend and, thus, having an impact. The course is focused on two main sets of evaluation, natural science and social science studies. The course will review statistical thinking and discuss how to construct successful studies that will open students to accurate and effective evaluation. We will discuss how to choose between different statistical tests and the consequences for their experimental design. Students will be engaged in the different ways researchers and others apply statistics to natural science and social science studies. Students conducting social science research will determine whether to conduct qualitative or quantitative studies and will parse out the differences and values of each approach.This is a Miami University online course with experiential learning on-site at an affiliated Dragonfly Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) institution.
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Engage with each other to interpret introductory statistical theory and assess statistical tests for their usefulness given different experimental models in a hypothesis testing format
- Design, conduct, and analyze a research project using appropriate experiential design and statistical analysis
- Evaluate, choose, and justify statistical tests based on sound experimental design
- Propose appropriate assessment techniques for a diversity of natural science and social science projects
- Engage the differences between qualitative and quantitative data collection efforts, and reflect on the appropriate analyses for a study question
- Interpret, represent, and communicate evaluation products to the public and peers
- Employ community resources, including the AIP site's environment, and outreach to create connections and use the network as a learning resource
- Engage in reflective and evaluative peer review in face-to-face environments and on the web to provide colleagues with personal insight, new perspectives or analysis, ideas for useful applications, and connections to other reserach and projects.