FW 4130 - Biometrics. Processing and analysis of natural resources data. Topics include computing environments, data summary methods, selection, execution and interpretation of the appropriate statistical tests. Course meets the 1st half of spring semester. Credits: 2.0 Lec-Rec-Lab: (3-0-3). Restrictions: May not be enrolled in one of the following Class(es): Freshman Pre-requisite(s): MA 2720 or MA 2710 or MA 3710.

Instructor: Robert Froese, PhD, RPF (froese@mtu.edu)

Teaching Assistants: Erin Largent (enlargen@mtu.edu) and Tim Gebuhr (tjgebuhr@mtu.edu)

Course Syllabus: You can download the Spring 2007 syllabus here.

Textbooks: there are two required texts:

• Dytham, C. 2004. Choosing and using statistics (2^nd edition).  Blackwell, Malden MA.
• Avery, T.E. and H.E. Burkhart.  2002.  Forest Measurements (5^th ed).  McGrawHill, Madison WI.  456 pp.

Note: Dytham provides worked examples in three software packages: SPSS, Minitab and Excel. This is a plus, because you may encounter these or other packages in your careers.  It does mean that often there are pages of Dytham that you'll skip over, unless you're interested.  In this class, we perform analyses in Excel.  Make sure you read those sections carefully.

This book is not required, but it is great introduction to data analysis in Microsoft Excel:

Middleton, M.R. 2004. Data Analysis using Microsoft Excel (3^rd ed). Brooks/Cole/Thompson, Belmont CA.  280 pp.

Grading: There are NO formal exams in this course. Your course grade is made up of six assignments, equally weighted and worth 40% of your course grade, and three 30-minute quizes, worth 20% each.

Assignments and Readings: We have one homework assignment each week, for weeks 1-6. Readings will be assigned periodically from the required texts.  Please see the sidebar at right for details.