Bachelor Statistics Lecture

From Sustainability Methods

Overview of the lecture structure

Day 1 - Why statistics matters


Statistics as a part of science
A very short history of statistics
Key concepts of statistics
The Power of Statistics

Day 2 - Data formats and descriptive stats

Continuous data

Data constructs and indices

Descriptive statistics

Day 3 - Distribution


Normal distribution
Other distributions
Probabilities

Day 4 - Simple tests


Hypothesis testing
Confidence and Uncertainty
Ranks and other messy problems

Day 5 - Correlation


Significance again, residuals and sum of squares
Reliability and validity
Linear trends and transformations

Reading correlation plots

Day 6 - Regression


Causality
Assumptions & Diagnostics

Interpolation and extrapolation
XX

Day 7 - Design 1 - Simple Anova OR the lab experiment


The laboratory experiment

Designing experiments for testing a hypothesis
How to design a study
Explained and unexplained variance

Day 8 - Design 2 - Field experiments


Interaction effects
Replicates
Random factors

Day 9 - Case studies and natural experiments


Number of samples vs. number of variables
Transferability of single cases
Meta-Analysis

The map is not the territory

Day 10 - Bias


Bias associated to sampling
Bias within analysis
Bias related to interpretation of data and analysis

Day 11 - Limits of statistics


Mixed methods
Statistics and disciplines
A qualitative methods view on statistics

Day 12 - A word on ethics


Confusion through statistics
Statistics serving immoral goals
How statistics can fuel ignorance

Day 13 - The Big recap


What did we learn?
Why does it matter?
How to go on?