Introduction to R for Ecologists - NAU
Dates
September 2023 - January 2024
Thursdays from 9:30-11:00 AM
Instructors: Ana Miller-ter Kuile
Helpers: TBD
General Information
Who: This course is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students and researchers who work with ecological data.
Where: This course will take place during meeting hours for the NAU RaMP training program.
When: This workshop will take place in roughly two sessions per month starting at the end of September 2023 and ending in January 2024.
Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system. In addition, please install the specific software packages listed below.
Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all learners. Please email the instructor prior to the workshop if you require any accomodations or if there is anything we can do to help make the workshop accessible to you.
Contact: You can email ana.miller-ter-kuile@nau.edu for more information.
Code of conduct
We will be abiding by a code of conduct for this workshop based on the code of R-Ladies.
Please respect fellow learners, instructors, and helpers.
Surveys
Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop. It is okay if you know nothing about R as you answer these - introducing you to R is the point of this workshop series!
Workshop Recordings
Here is a link to the folder with past workshop recordings
Schedule
Workshop 1: Why R?
In this workshop, we will walk through an overview of R and why it is so useful for ecologists. During this workshop, the instructors will ensure that everyone has successfully downloaded R and RStudio and completed the setup tasks outlined below.
Workshop 2: Getting Started in R and RStudio
In this workshop, we will get oriented to R and RStudio and how they work together. We will also talk about file and folder organization that will generally be helful for project management, but make it much easier to work with R programming on your computer. We will also quickly review why ecologists use R for data analysis.
Workshop 3: Data Visualization with ggplot2
In this workshop, we will learn how to visualize data in R and RStudio using a package called ggplot2
Workshop 4: Exploring and Understanding Data
In this workshop, we will dive a bit deeper into R and learn how R stores data and how different ways that R stores data can help ecologists working with R.
Workshop 5: Working with Data
In this workshop, we will learn how to import data into R and make these data easier to use for analysis and visualization.
Workshop 6: Working with Data, Part 2
In this workshop session, participants will be working to import their own datasets into R. We will process and visualize data together during the session and instructors will be available to troubleshoot issues with data in R.
Workshop 7: Introduction to Statistics in R
In this workshop, we will learn about how to run statistical tests in R. These will match statistical tests participants will already know how to do in the program JMP from earlier in the RaMP training.
Workshop 8: Wrap up
In this workshop, we will wrap up with any final questions that participants have about using R.
Setup
Before the workshop, please make sure you have completed the following setup steps:
Download/Update R and RStudio
You will need a current version of R and RStudio for this workshop. You can find instructions for installing or updating these programs here.
You are only required to follow the instructions under the Install R and RStudio or Update R and RStudio sections. We will go over the remainder together during workshop #1.
Bring your own dataset(s) to Workshop #6
Please bring one or more datasets you hope to incoroprate into your own research for Workshop #6. We will be using the tools we’ve learned in importing and cleaning data in R as well as visualizing data in R with datasets you have collected during your RaMP training. Instructors will be available to answer questions and help troubleshoot solutions. We will be working together to try common data import and cleaning steps. This is a great time to troubleshoot errors too because it’s likely that more than one person will see the same error and the instructors will be available to walk through these issues.
Learn More
This is a compilation of R-based resources including community support, using R, data analyses, and visualization!
Allison Horst’s Courses and Workshops on data management, analysis, and visualization
R 4 Data Science (Hadley Wickham/Garret Grolemund)
CU Boulder EarthLab Course Notes
More fun with FUNctions! by An Bui
Tidy Tuesday Workshop series by Heili Lowman
Other R-based Tools
R can do more than you think! If you want to make publication-ready documents or interactive data-driven websites, you can do these things in R!
Happy Git with R for collaborating with others and future you
RMarkdown the Definitive Guide
Ecological Statistics in R
Allison Horst’s Courses and Workshops on data management, analysis, and visualization