How can statistical models answer ecology’s big questions?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 biology, maths and statistics.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Guillaume Blanchet, a quantitative ecologist at the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada. He is developing statistical models to uncover the complex relationships organisms have with each other and their environment.

• This resource also contains an interview with Guillaume and offers an insight into careers in quantitative ecology. If your students have questions for Guillaume, they can send them to him online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Guillaume will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Guillaume’s research and challenges them to conduct their own ecological survey to analyse what species live in their area.

• The article and activity sheet are also available in French through the weblink below.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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