In article <fortnum-0603952040330001 at fortnum.wat.hookup.net> Rich
Fortnum, fortnum at hookup.net writes:
> About needing texts to encourage microbiology students to use maths
more in their work. I assume you're talking about statistics - if so,
there is an excellent book which stresses the importance of a good
experimental design in relation to stats analyses, and it is called "The
Numbers Game" by (I think) J Snodgrass. It is actually written for psych
students but the principles apply equally well, being that if you know
what you want to achieve in your research ahead of actually doing the
expts, you should be able to design expts that minimise outside variation
and thus make application of the required tests easier and more reliable,
accurate etc. This involves being scrupulous in designing expts to make
sure that the only variables are the ones being tested, and also knowing
the requirements and limitations of the stats tests you want to use.
Hope this is useful
Camilla Maltas
nmaltasc at cc.curtin.edu.au
