Applied Statistics for Life Sciences

Archived

June 13, 2026

In science, statistical techniques provide a means of weighing quantitative evidence derived from observation and experimentation while accounting for uncertainty. This class aims to provide a hands-on introduction to common statistical methods used almost universally across the life sciences and a primer on statistical concepts. Examples emphasize applications with relevance to students’ majors, and students learn to perform simple analyses in R.

Read the [course syllabus] for more information.

Instructor: Trevor Ruiz (he/him) [email]

Class meetings: TR 4:10pm – 6:00pm in 192-0242

Office hours: TR 3:10pm – 4:00pm in 25-236

Final exam: 1:10pm – 4:00pm Monday, June 8 in 38-121

Week 1

Tuesday is a university holiday; no class meeting on Thursday

  • [reading] V&H preface and 1.1-1.2; course syllabus

Week 2

Tuesday: study design and data semantics [slides]

Thursday: descriptive statistics [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 1.4-1.5

Week 3

Tuesday: point estimation and sampling variation [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 4.1
  • [lab 2] descriptive statistics and point estimation [solutions]

Thursday: confidence intervals [slides]

Week 4

Tuesday: inference for one mean [slides]

Thursday: inference comparing two means [slides]

Week 5

Tuesday: statistical power in two-sample inference

Thursday: inference comparing many means (ANOVA) [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 5.5
  • [hw2] due on Thursday 5/7 11:59pm PDT [solutions]

Week 6

Tuesday: post-hoc comparisons in ANOVA

Thursday: in-class midterm

Week 7

Tuesday: nonparametric methods [slides]

  • [reference] van Belle 8.4-8.5 (see syllabus; PDF available via Kennedy Library)
  • [lab 7] nonparametric methods [solutions]

Thursday: simple linear regression [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 6.1-6.3
  • [lab8] estimation and inference in regression [solutions]
  • [hw3] due Thursday 5/21 11:59pm PDT [solutions]

Week 8

Tuesday: inference for binomial proportions [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 8.1
  • [lab9] inference for binomial proportions [solutions]

Thursday: inference for multinomial proportions [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 8.4
  • [lab10] inference for mulinomial proportions [solutions]

Week 9

Tuesday: two-sample inference for categorical data [slides]

  • [reading] V&H 8.2-8.3
  • [hw4] due Tuesday 6/2 11:59pm PDT [solutions]

Thursday: relative risk and odds ratios

  • [reading] V&H 8.5
  • [lab11] inference of association for categorical data [solutions]

Week 10

Tuesday: course recap [slides]

Thursday: practice final [solutions]

Miscellany

Resources: