By Bethany White & Jastaranpreet Singh (University of Toronto)
Abstract
The misuse of statistics in life sciences research is alarming, highlighting the need for improved statistics training (Weissgerber et. al, 2016). With this goal in mind, a large (150+ students/section) introductory undergraduate course was introduced at University of Toronto several years ago. This course has been co-taught by a Statistician and an Immunologist, so integrates statistics instruction with research design. Course activities and assessments align with the needs of participating life sciences programs and with GAISE (2016). By integrating real data and a research project, students experience an authentic taste of statistical issues that arise during the scientific inquiry process. In 2019, a pre-post survey study was conducted to explore changes in student perceptions about statistics and their abilities to engage with it in life sciences research (n=126). In this poster, we will describe our course, share results from our study, and consider how these can inform future course offerings.
References:
GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee, “Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education College Report 2016,” http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise.
Weissgerber TL, Garovic VD, Milin-Lazovic JS, Winham SJ, Obradovic Z, Trzeciakowski JP, Milic, NM. (2016) “Reinventing Biostatistics Education for Basic Scientists”. PLoS Biol 14(4): e1002430. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002430.