Studying at York
Data Analysis & Programming in the Biosciences - BIO00052M
Module summary
In the first half of the semester, students will be introduced to R and RStudio, create and plot data using examples relevant to their interests in the biosciences, and learn how to use the help pages and packages developed by other people. An introductory course on statistics will support students to choose and use relevant techniques such as t-tests, ANOVA and regression to analyse biological data. In the second half of the semester, students will learn to tidy their data and document reproducible analyses. For the assessment, students will be provided with a messy data set with which to address key questions, and will submit a reproducible analysis in markdown format.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
In this module, students will learn fundamental statistics relevant to many research questions in the biosciences, and develop confidence and good habits in data management and reproducible analyses using the R programming language.
Module learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module will be able to:
Explain the purpose of data analysis and the rationale for scripting analysis in the biosciences
Recognise when statistics such as t-tests, one-way ANOVA, correlation and regression can be applied, and use R to perform these analyses on data in a variety of formats
Summarise data in single or multiple groups, recognise tidy data formats, and carry out some typical data tidying tasks
Use markdown to produce reproducible analyses, figures and reports
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Marks for all summative assessments will be made available to you and your supervisor via e:vision. Feedback will be either individual or cohort-level, depending on the assessment format. You should take the opportunity to discuss your marks and feedback with your supervisor.
For coursework summative assessments (eg. reports, essays, presentations) you will receive individual feedback on your work. This will usually be in the form of a feedback sheet that will include suggestions for further improvement.
During the teaching of the module you will receive formative feedback that may be at a whole class or individual level. Such feedback may include: model answers, individual spoken comments during workshops, peer feedback and individual written comments on formative work.
Indicative reading
These are available through the VLE module site.