VETE0432-4 : Mathematics and statistical bases

Study Programmes 2015-2016

VETE0432-4

Mathematics and statistical bases

Duration :

42h Th, 10h Pr, 16h Mon. WS

Number of credits :

Bachelor in veterinary medicine		6

Lecturer :

Frédéric Farnir

Language(s) of instruction :

French language

Organisation and examination :

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Course contents :

The course integrates some computer basics (use of a spreadsheet and of a statistical software), a mathematics refresher (basic functions, trigonometry, derivatives and simple integrals) and an introduction to biostatistics. The latter includes an introduction to random variables and probabilities. Then the course turns to descriptive statistics and to probability distributions, before starting a general description of hypotheses testing (illustrated on frequencies comparisons tests).

Learning outcomes of the course :

The main objectives of the course are:

to make the students familiar to the use of computers softwares.
to refresh the basics in mathematics and calculus.
to explain the statistical reasoning.
to introduce the notion of statistical hypothesis testing, and to provide numerous examples in biology.
to list a series of useful techniques, especially the ones mainly used in experiments likely to be made by veterinarians.
to allow the students to use the theory on practical examples extracted from the veterinary life.
to open the view of the students for the situations not covered in the course.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills :

Basics in mathematics

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :

10 hours of math exercises (5*2 hours)
6 hours of biostatistics exercises (3*2 hours)
10 hours of computer sessions on biostatistics (5*2 hours) using excel and R

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :

2 hours lectures are given every week (except in the first weeks where more lectures might take place). The course will be given all year long.
Practical sessions will be planned on a 2 hours by session basis. The schedule will be distributed to the students.

Recommended or required readings :

Biostatistics book sold at the Editions of ULg

Math exercises book sold at the Editions de l'ULg

Slides of the lectures available on the web site

Assessment methods and criteria :

The final grade will be a mean over:

an evaluation taking place at the end of the math practical sessions
an evaluation of the biostatistics skills
an evaluation of the practical sessions know-how.

Except for the evaluation at the end of the math practical sessions, all evaluations will take place in the January exams session (and in the June and/or September sessions, if needed). The evaluations are classical multiple choices exercises, either on paper (math) or on a computer (statistics), or exercises to be solved using computer software statistics practical sessions).
The final mark wil be computed as follows:

if at least one of the 3 marks (math, stats, practical) is below 8/20, the final mark will be the minimal mark in the 3,
if the 3 marks are above or equal to 8/20, the final mark will be the weighted average of the 3 marks, with weights equal to 0.25, 0.50 and 0.25 for math, stats and practicals, respectively.

If the global result is below 10/20 after the January and/or the June session, partial notes can be kept provided they are above or equal to 10/20. If the credits have not been obtained after the September session, partial results may only be kept for the nex year if they are above 12/20.

Work placement(s) :

Organizational remarks :

For the theoretical sessions, all students are expected to attend the courses.
For the supervised work, students are split into 2 groups, and the same session is repeated for each group (so, 2 times).
For the practical sessions, students are split into 6 groups, and the same session is repeated for each group (so, 6 times).
The group allocation is managed by the faculty administration staff, and will be communicated to the students in due time.

Contacts :

Prof. F. Farnir E-mail : F.Farnir@ulg.ac.be

Tél : 04/366 41 28, Fax : 04/366 41 22
Secretary : 04/366 41 50, Fax : 04/366 41 22

Items online :

Course website (under construction)
This site contains all materail supporting the course (slides, exercises, corrected exams, ...) along with other tools such as an interactive multiple choice generator.