Environmental Data Analysis and Simulation

BEE 4850/5850, Spring 2027

Course Information

Instructor

TA

Meetings

  • MWF
  • 11:15-12:05
  • 401 Riley-Robb Hall

What This Course Is About

Statistics are not magic.

A t-test is not a black box that emits a p-value — it is a model of what your data would look like if nothing were going on, and you can build that model yourself. Once you can build that one, you can build the one that actually fits your problem, which is usually not the one in the textbook.

That is the whole course. Every method we meet gets run through the same four steps:

  1. Why that distribution and link?
  2. Simulate from the model you specified.
  3. Fit it to data.
  4. Test — did you get back what you put in?

Step 4 is where the learning happens, and it is the step most often skipped. We will not skip it.

Where To Start

  • The syllabus has the full course description, learning outcomes, and assessment structure.
  • The schedule has the class-by-class plan, with readings and deadlines.
  • The course policies pages have the detail behind the syllabus.
  • Setup instructions will get your software working.
TipTaking This For Graduate Credit?

BEE 5850 has two additional learning outcomes and differentiated requirements on three assessments. See BEE 4850 vs. BEE 5850 in the syllabus.