Maths skills

State when it would be appropriate to use a student t-test analysis, and give a couple of examples

-When looking for a difference between 2 sets of data

-for example, when looking for a significant difference between the number of plantae in unmown grass compared to mown grass

-for example, seeing if the diversity of plants is different between a sunny area and a shaded area

State how you would correctly write a hypothesis for the student t-test

There will be no significant difference between ...... in ..... compared to .....

State how you would select the correct critical value to compare to in an unpaired student t-test

n1 + n2 - 2

-n1 is number of measurements in first sample, n2 is number in second

State how you would write a conclusion to a student t-test if the result was significant

The value of t is ..., which is higher than the critical value of ... at 5%. Therefore, reject the null hypothesis and there is a significant difference.

State how you would write a conclusion to a student t-test if the result was insignificant

The value of t is ..., which is lower than the critical value of ... at 5%. Therefore, accept the null hypothesis and there is no significant difference.

State when it would be appropriate to use a Spearman's rank correlation analysis, and give examples

When you have continuous data, and are investigating an association between two measurements

-For example, if there is a correlation/association between light intensity and height of plants

-For example, if there is a correlation between distance from the shore and number of plant species

State how you would correctly write a hypothesis for the Spearman's rank correlation

There will be no/a significant correlation between ___ and ___

State how you would select the correct critical value to compare to in Spearman's rank correlation

select the critical value where n equals the amount of measurements taken

State how you would write a conclusion to a Spearman's rank correlation if the result was significant

The value of R is ..., which is higher than the critical value of ... at 5%. Therefore, reject the null hypothesis and there is a significant correlation.

State how you would write a conclusion to a Spearman's rank correlation if the result was insignificant

The value of R is ..., which is lower than the critical value of ... at 5%. Therefore accept the null hypothesis and there is no significant correlation.

Explain what is meant by no significant difference at the 0.05 probability level for the rate of breakdown of protein (3)

-there is more than a 5% likelihood/less than 95% likelihood

-therefore, X is the same for both groups etc

-the calculated value is less than the critical value at p=0.05