ST2304 Statistisk modellering for biologer/bioteknologer (våren 2023)

This page contains the timetable and links to all of the material (modules, exercises etc.). There will only be small changes from previous years: the course material (lecture notes etc.) from last year are here.

For å få full tilgang til emnet, så må du

• ha en aktiv NTNU-brukerkonto
• ha betalt semesteravgift for våren 2023
• være undervisningsmeldt i emnet (sjekk på StudentWeb)

Kontakt faglærer Bob O'Hara hvis du fremdeles ikke har tilgang.

To hand in exercises – go to Blackboard. Emnet går i Blackboard Vår 2023.

We have set up a discussion forum, so you can use that to ask questions (and to answer the too). You should be able to post anonymously.

We also have a Zoom room which we will use during the lecture and execise sessions.

Finally, the exam is here, and here are the solutions

- The permitted exam aids are C here: in practice this means you are allows a calculator, a yellow A4 sheet of paper with your notes, and some stats tables. You can get the paper from the maths department office (Sentralybygg II, 7th floor). You can write or print your notes on the paper. You will not have to look up p-values in the stats tables, though. That's what computers are for.

- The exam will be written in English, but you can answer in English or Norwegian. Bad English is also OK: this isn't a language course, so as long as the examiner can understand what you have written, it's fine.

- The exam will have the same structure as the exams from the last couple of years.

- You will not have to do any R programming, but you should be able to understand R output.

I have also booked a room for revision sessions:

Tuesday 16th May, 13-15: R4

Friday 19th May, 12-14: R4

Either email me beforehand with topics you want to discuss, or turn up with your questions. It should be possible to arrange a session at another time, if these are not convenient.

The exam is on Monday 22nd May at 15:00.

Starts Wednesday 11th January at 14:15.

• Wednesday 08:15 - 10:00 in R2 (exercise session)
• Wednesday 14:15 - 16:00 in R2
• Friday 12:15 - 14:00 in R2

All materials will be found at this web link - just click on the correct folder for the lecture week https://www.math.ntnu.no/emner/ST2304/2023v/ (Note: this is not set up yet)

None of these books is perfect for this course, or is necessary to buy. If you want only one, Hector is probably best unless you are happy to read something a bit more technical (= has lots more equations), in which case Dunn & Smyth is good.

New Statistics with R - Hector: a useful practical book, it covers the material well, but not deeply.

The Analysis of Biological Data - Whitlock & Schluter - covers a lot of the more basic ideas in detail.

Generalized Linear Models With Examples in R - Dunn & Smyth This is mathematically a bit more advanced, but is fine if you are comfortable reading equations.

Exams and solutions from previous years are here

Exam FAQ:

- The exam is written in English, but can be answered in Norwegian. This isn't a language exam, so do what is comfortable. You can even change language between questions. And don't worry about "bad" English: if I can understand what you wrote, it's fine. - The exam will be like the ones in the last couple of years. - There will be no need to do any R programming in the exam.

(these are 2022 links at the moment)

• Intro Lecture slides
• R Lecture
• R Module
• Additional help: dealing with errors and warnings

Taskcard link (this will be explained)

There are a couple of questions we would like you to answer, to help the course run better. First, we would like to know if you want virtual sessions, and if so when. There are a couple of multipl-choice questions here: Do you want virtual sessions?

Then, we also want to get an idea about how much R you all know. This is the statistics package we will use in the course. You don't need to have seen it before, and there won't be any complex coding in the course. So… How much do you know about R?

We will repeat these on Wednesday during the afternoon lecture.

Starting this week you just go through the modules, so everything is pre-written and pre-recorded.

• Module (includes all material for this week)

Videos (these are linked to in the module)

• Introduction (and data collection)
• What is a Likelihood?
• Binomial Likelihood
• Summary

• Additional help about how to use directories and folders

This week we start exercises, wth Exercise 1. These should be done in groups, and handed in on Blackboard.

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 1

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 2

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 3 (hand in by end of February 17th)

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 4 (hand in by end of February 24th)

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 5 (hand in by end of March 3rd)

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 6 (hand in by end of March 10th)

• Module (includes all learning material for this week)
• Exercise 7 (hand in by end of March 17th)

This week's module is split into 3 parts, because it was getting a bit long.

• Module, Part A
• Module, Part B
• Module, Part C
• Exercise 8 (hand in by end of March 24th)

In addition we have a couple of scripts that might help you when running the problems in R:

• Confirmatory Script
• Exploratory Script

• Module
• Exercise 9 (hand in by end of March 31th)

Because it is Easter next week, this will be a bit different. We want you to look at the whole process of data analysis, i.e. use all the parts you have been learning over the last few weeks to answer some biolgical questions.

We only expect you to answer one of these, but we will be happy if you try both. There are two ways to answer them: some exam-style questions (for those of you looking ahead), and a more free-form "try to do the analysis on your own". For those of you taking the continuation exam, note that this will probably be an oral exam, so we will ask you to do an analysis like this, and discuss in in the exam.

The deadline for handing in is the end of April 14th, i.e. you get an extra week, during which you can do something more fun.

• Introduction
• Cow Questions
• Iris Questions

(Week 14: Easter)

• Binomial Module
• Binomial Exercise (hand in by end of April 21th)

• Poisson Module
• Poisson Exercise (hand in by end of April 28th)