Reference no: EM133665058

Discuss your approach, statistical test or solutions with other people, including current or former students

Learning Outcomes:

- Select an appropriate biostatistical methodology to analyse health, biology, and/or environmental data.
- Perform commonly used hypothesis tests as appropriate.
- Conduct statistical analyses using a specialised software package.

- Report statistical findings in a scientific manner, consistent with the study context.

- Global feedback to the entire class. This will cover common issues and areas for improvement. It will be disseminated via a Canvas Announcement.
- Individual feedback: mark-up of the rubric. This will be accompanied by a few (5-10) examples noted directly on your assignment.
- Individual feedback: a comment from your marker that will identify the 1-2 most important items to focus on for improvement in Assignment 2.

Assignment exemplars (use for the Module 3 Weekly Proficiency Task)

Purpose
This assignment will provide you the opportunity to develop your skills in comparing population means. The assignment covers content up to and including Module 5.

Description
Data Science or Bioinformatics Students must use R for their assignments.
You will perform statistical analysis for all three of the questions. This will include selecting the most appropriate hypothesis, performing descriptive statistics, stating and checking assumptions, performing appropriate estimations, and performing hypothesis testing (including relevant post hoc analyses, as appropriate). You are not required to provide contextual background information for the questions; your assignment should focus only on the statistical analyses and reporting against the study question.

References to journal articles related to the study context should not be used.
The data generated for you has been created without consideration of the literature, and may not reflect studies on similar areas in the real world.
You are expected to present your analyses in a scientific manner.
This means that figures and tables should be formatted appropriately (with captions/titles and axis labels), and written text should guide your reader through your analyses, justifications, and interpretations.
Note on assumptions: if your assumptions are violated, you should proceed with the most appropriate hypothesis test associated with Modules 1 - 5 of the unit.
If this happens, you are required to report on the potential consequences of the violation and how you would overcome the violation(s) in future practice.

Question 1
Many areas of science are benefitting from consideration of the knowledge passed on from generation to generation, often known as ‘traditional knowledge'. Researchers were interested in understanding the attitude's of postgraduate students in relation to the potential for traditional knowledge to be used in their career after they graduated. Researchers surveyed 30 university students at the start of their course and after one year of working in a job related to their course using scale from 0 to 4, where 0 = strongly disagreed with the statement that ‘traditional knowledge could be useful in their discipline' and 4 = strongly agreed with the statement. Determine if students attitude towards with regards to the use of traditional knowledge in their professional practice increased after they commenced working, compared to when they first started, using statistical analysis to support your conclusions with regards to the research question. Use the data in Q1 worksheet with an alpha = 0.05.

Question 2
A researcher is studying the effect of a three different, commercially available, fertilisers on the growth of tomato plants. Researchers randomly assigned 9 of the same type of tomato plants, which were all the same height at the start of the test, to each of the three groups which they labelled Fertilizer 1, Fertilizer 2, and Fertilizer 3. After 8 weeks, the heights of the plants were recorded. The researchers wanted to determine if there are any differences in the mean plant heights between the different fertilizers. Analyse the data and make a conclusion based on your analysis. Use level of significance of 0.05 for this analysis, with the data provided in the Q2 worksheet in your Excel file.

Question 3
In efforts to reduce the time taken for food and organic wastes (FOGO) to be converted to mulch which could then be used for the revegetation of native plants and horticultural products. Commercial mulch producers investigated if the temperature of the mulch during processing influences the time it takes for the mulch to be free from pathogens (pasteurised). The commercial producers set up a trial, in which on large batch of FOGO was split into 60 individual piles, each 1m3 in size. Thirty piles were covered in plastic so that the core of the mulch piles achieved 65°C, whilst the 30 uncovered samples only reached 55°C. Data were collected on the time the mulch took to be free from pathogens (in days). Use statistical analysis to evaluate whether the covering of the mulch with plastic, resulting in higher temperatures, has an effect on the time taken for pasteurisation to occur. The data for this question can be found in the Q3 worksheet of the data file. Use alpha = 0.05.

Data files
A unique data file is assigned to each student. You must use your unique data file to complete your assignment. Please click the link below to find your data file (you will be asked to log in with your ECU credentials).

Your Excel data file is named with the start of your email address (i.e Kat's file would be komara) .
If your data file is missing, please email your unit coordinator immediately.

Assignment Preparation Instructions

Step 1: Get started. Visit the Academic Skills ECU How to Write Assignments page to guide you in the process. Make sure to also visit the Finding Resources and Paraphrasing pages to ensure you understand academic integrity expectations.

Step 2: Get organised. Review the marking rubric, identify appropriate resources to reference, and download your unique data file.

Step 3: Read the questions and decide which statistical test is most appropriate to use. Plan and perform your statistical analysis (use the Description section above to guide you).

Step 4: Check your progress regularly. Use the rubric to check your assignment. Submit draft versions of the assignment and review the similarity report. Edit the assignment as necessary.