Student Projects in Environmental Science

by Harrad, Stuart; Batty, Lesley; Diamond, Miriam; Arhonditsis, George

• ISBN13: 9780470845646
• ISBN10: 0470845643
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-06-09
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Research projects are among the core components of many undergraduate and Masters degrees within environmental science and physical geography, and students increasingly undertake courses in quantitative research methodology before starting on their own assignment. This one-stop-shop text guides students through their research project from the initial stages of choosing a suitable topic, of conducting the relevant experiments and interpreting the data, through to effective presentation of the results.Takes a case-study approach to illustrate the range of environmental science topics, with cases supplied by specialists in the field.Practical worked examples and self-assessment tasks illustrate key statistical and mathematical points so as to keep heavy theory to a minimumCovers software such as Excel, SPSS and mathematical modelling, and includes statistical tables

Author Biography

Stuart Harrad and Lesley Batty Division of Environmental Health and Risk Management, School of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK George Arhonditsis and Miriam Diamond Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Canada

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgement	p. ix
General strategies for completing your research project successfully	p. 1
Introduction - why is this book necessary?	p. 1
What on earth am I going to do for my research project?	p. 2
Fundamentals of scientific research, the generation and testing of hypotheses (see also chapter 4)	p. 4
What constitutes research? Distinguishing between monitoring and research	p. 5
Project planning	p. 6
Conducting your project safely	p. 10
How to conduct a literature review (see also chapter 7)	p. 10
How to be a research student	p. 13
How to manage your supervisor	p. 15
Summary	p. 17
Gathering your data	p. 19
Different types of data	p. 19
Designing an experimental research project	p. 21
How reliable are your data?	p. 28
How to summarise your data	p. 31
Descriptive statistics	p. 31
Probabilities and data distributions	p. 36
Choosing the appropriate statistical test	p. 39
Testing hypotheses	p. 43
Coincidence or causality?	p. 43
Relationships and differences	p. 48
Testing for differences	p. 51
Spotting relationships	p. 67
Linear regression - to what extent does one factor influence another?	p. 67
Multiple linear regression - to what extent is a given variable influenced by a range of other variables?	p. 81
Non-linear regression	p. 84
Pattern recognition	p. 88
Making sense of past, present and future systems - mathematical modeling	p. 97
What is a model?	p. 97
Functions of models	p. 99
Which type of model should I use?	p. 101
How do I build a model?	p. 111
Steps in developing a model	p. 118
Illustrative case study	p. 128
Presenting your work	p. 145
Getting started - strategies for successful writing	p. 145
How to write your dissertation	p. 145
How to represent graphically your data	p. 149
How to cite references	p. 153
How to defend your work in an oral exam	p. 156
How to make effective oral presentations	p. 158
Summary	p. 160
Index	p. 161
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