79446 - SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

This course is designed to a) provide the students with tools to apply the products of the research in the horticultural sector and b) to correctly plan a research experiment and analyze to data a By the end of the course, the students will be able to: 1) understand the importance of the scientific method and its multiple-step process; 2) plan and perform simple and practical-oriented experiments in the field of horticultural research; 3) perform correctly the statistical analysis of biological observations; 4) communicate correctly the results of the scientific work.

Contenuti

Introduction: Aims of the course, its structure and the evaluation procedure; type of errors; accuracy and precision in measurements; how to organize a dataset; descriptive statistic.

Counting methods and Probability: methods of counting like permutation and combination; probabilities; binomial distribution; Poisson;  normal distribution; standard normal distribution curve «z»;  t-distribution; how to set limits to sample  means.

Testing Hypothesis, part I: testing two samples (or a population and a sample);  hypothesis, how to formulate it; Type I and Type II errors; how to test if a treatment is different or similar, with a given level of probability, to an original (known) population; comparison between two samples; T student for independent samples and for paired samples.

Testing Hypothesis, part II: testing more than two samples by ANOVA; one way-ANOVA (single factor) and two ways (≥2 factors) ANOVA: main experimental designs for single factor or multi-factors; concept of variables, factors and levels;  fixed and random factors; data transformation to meet the requirements for ANOVA.

Correlation and Regression:   simple or multiple; linear or nonlinear; how to calculate the slope by  the least square method; how to assess if the linear relationship is statistically significant (F value) and if the regression coefficient “b” is different from 0;  coefficient of determination an regression coefficient; common misuses of the regression and correlation;  second order, power and exponential equations and their applications; introduction to the COVARIANCE (ANCOVA) procedure. 

Testi/Bibliografia

Copy of the material presented; tables.

Gomez, K.A. and Gomez, A.A. (1984) Statistical Procedures for Agricultural Research. 2nd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 680 p.

Metodi didattici

Frontal lessons; exercises; home assignments. 

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Written test with exercises. 

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

PowerPoint presentations; exercises during the class; use of software.    

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Massimo Tagliavini