Biology students’ understanding of statistics is incomplete due to poor integration of these two disciplines. In some cases, students fail to learn statistics at the undergraduate level due to poor student interest and cursory teaching of concepts, highlighting a need for new and unique approaches to the teaching of statistics in the undergraduate biology curriculum. The most effective method of teaching statistics is to provide opportunities for students to apply concepts, not just learn facts. Opportunities to learn statistics also need to be prevalent throughout a student’s education to reinforce learning. The purpose of developing and implementing curriculum that integrates a topic in biology with an emphasis on statistical analysis was to improve students’ quantitative thinking skills. Our lesson focuses on the change in the richness of native species for a specified area with the aid of iNaturalist and the capacity for analysis afforded by Google Sheets. We emphasized the skills of data entry, storage, organization, curation and analysis. Students then had to report their findings, as well as discuss biases and other confounding factors. Pre- and post-lesson assessment revealed students’ quantitative thinking skills, as measured by a paired-samples t test, improved. At the end of the lesson, students had an increased understanding of basic statistical concepts, such as bias in research and making data-based claims, within the framework of biology.

Primary Image: Website screenshot of an iNaturalist observation (Clasping Milkweed – Asclepias amplexicalis). This image is an example of a data entry on iNaturalist. The data students export from iNaturalist is made up of hundreds, or even thousands, of observations like this one. This image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 4.0 International license. Source: Observation by cassi saari, 2014.

ABC de Saül - Inventaire participatif iNaturalist. L’ABC s’est inscrit dans une démarche participative à travers l’utilisation de l’application pour smartphone iNaturalist et l’ouverture d’un projet « les champignons de Guyane » à partir de mars 2021 à Saül et en Guyane. Outre une séance de formation des habitants et l'implication de 53 observateurs, l'identification a mobilisé 69 identificateurs. Les données proviennent de INaturalist (export octobre 2021).