This course is designed to flow into learning the computer language R. There are other great computer languages like Python or Perl, but we chose R because it has a statistical structure and plotting capability that we hope will be immediately useful to a life scientist.
- R is used widely in a number of disciplines, like ecology, and provides a solid platform for beginner scientific programmers. Many graphing and statistical operations are built right into the language.
- It is a broadly useful and powerful language. This means that you should be able to do almost anything you want to do using R, and it should be relatively easy to accomplish.
- It’s free. Funding rates for scientific research are extremely low at the moment and this means that expensive software licenses are often untenable, especially for students conducting their own research. This also allows students in the class to program without dealing with licensing hassles, and guarantees that anyone can take advantage of the online resources that are being developed.
- It runs on all major operating systems.
- At Oklahoma State, It provides a useful introduction to Dr. Charles Chen’s (and others) OMICS curricula.
- It is used by many scientific programmers and taught in many research science departments. This makes collaborating with experts on large or complex projects much easier.
- Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry ‘lecture’ materials are available in R, which provides a resource for students to learn more advanced topics on their own and presents these topics in slightly different ‘perspectives’ for different types of learners. It’s also easy to contribute material back to Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry.
- R is the most common statistics platform in Ecology.