Voltolini wrote:
> >> Hi, I am Biologist preparing a class on experiments in ecology including
> a short and simple text about how to use and to choose the most commom
> statistical tests (chi-square, t tests, ANOVA, correlation and regression).
>
> I am planning to include the idea that testing the assumptions for
> parametric tests (normality and homocedasticity) is very important
> to decide between a parametric (e.g., ANOVA) or the non parametric
> test (e. g. Kruskal-Wallis).
Since this is a class on experiments in ecology, how about
having the students do an experiment? Would a Monte Carlo
simulation of robustness to certain assumptions be too much to
ask of them? (If so, is there a way you could do some of it to
make the rest easier for them?) It need not be publishable --
just enough to give them some feeling for the problems involved,
rather than considering the assumptions unimportant except
academically.
I'll never forget my first ecology lab, in which we marked beans
with nail polish and recaptured them from a jar. The variablity
in ensuing population estimates was an eye-opener, and it
simpact could not have been achieved by a lecture on the
importance of assumptions.
--
Mike Prager
NOAA, Beaufort, NC
* Opinions expressed are personal and not represented otherwise.
* Any use of tradenames does not constitute a NOAA endorsement.
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