ANTH 6413 - Analytical Methods

• Instructor: W. Andrew Barr
• Office Location: SEH 6810 (North Office Suite, 6th Floor)
• Office Hours: Wednesday 1PM - 2PM, or by appt on Zoom
• Textbooks::
• Required: Gotelli and Ellison, 2nd ed.

Course Description

Are inferences self-evident from data? Can statistics be beautiful?

This course will take you from a stats newbie to a data wizard (or at least point you in the right direction down that path)! You will learn the basics underlying common statistical methods, and by the end, you will have confidence in your ability to choose the appropriate method and make meaningful inferences based on your data. Along the way, you will develop skills that will be applicable to a wide range of academic and non-academic career paths.

You will gain basic proficiency in the most widely used software tool for analyzing data, called R. Most importantly, you will learn where to turn for help when you get stuck. R is a bit puzzling at first, but it is like any other language you might learn (Spanish, Amharic, Kiswahili) and you will get better at it as you spend more time with it. This process is more fun when it is a group effort, so you will be working alongside your peers all semester to build your skills.

Use of chatGPT

Generative AI models like chatGPT can be a powerful tool for helping you write R code. It might be tempting to paste homework questions into chatGPT to get help in solving them. I would encourage you not to do this, as uncritically using these tools in this way won't help you learn. You will not be allowed to use chatGPT on the exams, so if you have not learned how to analyze data with R, you will not be able to pass the exams. If you use outside help in answering homework questions (including generative AI), you must cite these sources.

Statement about the world

As your instructor, I recognize that students face a variety of challenges, and that these challenges are not evenly distributed across individuals for a variety of reasons, including:

• exposure to systemic injustice
• financial situation
• housing situation
• childcare responsibilities
• mental and physical health status
• health status of family members

My goal is to be as flexible as I can be with each student so that everyone can meet the learning objectives for the course despite the difficulties we face.

You need a laptop

For this course, you need a functioning laptop that you can install software on, and that you can bring to class every session. If this will present any difficulties for you please let me know right away, and I will make sure you have access to one.

How to get help in R

JGIS

JGIS (Just Google It, Seriously) is the first principle of using R. There are hundreds of thousands of active R users out there. Getting a weird error message? Try copying and pasting it into google. Chances are that hundreds or thousands of other people have had the same error and you will find some help.

Stackoverflow

Can't figure out your problem on the googler? Reach out to the R user community on Stack Overflow. Getting help from the community is an art. Remember, these are normal people who are helping you for free. If you say "omg....why am I getting this error"....you may only hear crickets. If you instead distill the problem down to its simplest form, ideally with a self-contained example, you are likely to have your problem solved within hours. However, it takes some effort to formulate your question clearly, and often you figure out what went wrong in the process.

To Do Before First Class Meeting

In this course you will be learning the free and open-source software called R, using a helper program called R Studio. To make sure we can get off the ground running, please install the following software before the first day of class

1. Download and Install R version 4.5.1 or higher
• Go to the CRAN website (CRAN is the organization responsible for distributing R)
• Download the appropriate version for your operating system and install as you would any other software
• Windows users may have to select "Base" after clicking on the download link. You only need to download the base packages.
2. Download and Install the free R Studio Desktop Version 2025.05.1 or later
• Go to the RStudio download page
• Download the appropriate version for your operating system and install as you would any other software
3. Install the "learnr" package. Within RStudio simply click on the Tools menu at the top, click "Install Packages", then search for "learnr" and click install.

Important Point about Specific Versions

Even if you already have R and R Studio downloaded please check that you have these current versions!! If you have an older version of R or Rstudio, simply install the newest version on your computer!