Course

Visualizing and Analyzing Environmental Data with R


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Course Title: Visualizing and Analyzing Environmental Data with R
Course ID: RSTAT-400
Status: OPEN
Date(s): September 30, 2025: 8:30am - 2:30pm
October 2, 2025: 8:30am - 12:30pm
October 7, 2025: 8:30am - 2:30pm
Location: Live Remote Attendance-- USA

Time Zone TBD, WA
Instructor: Apryle Craig
Tuition: $795 / $745*
$745 / $695* (Before August 30, 2025)

*Registered attendees will receive a PDF copy of course materials prior to the class. A hard copy may be requested for United States addresses.

 

Description:

**Note - For every course we have implemented live stream remote attendance .  You will need a computer and an internet connection.  

This course is designed for participants who wish to gain beginning to intermediate skills in using R for manipulating, visualizing and analyzing their environmental or ecological data.  R is a comprehensive statistical programming language that is cooperatively developed on the Internet as an open source project. This freely available statistical package R is a powerful tool and is projected to become the most widely used statistical software.

This class uses datasets complete with errors you get practice taking real field data into R, through hands-on using instructor-led examples. It is applicable to anyone that conducts environmental monitoring or uses environmental or ecological data for research, management, or policy-making and is recommended for anyone needing to become proficient with R basics.  Being proficient in R will help participants be competitive in their chosen fields.

"Provided a solid foundation yet linkages to allow one to delve deeper into more advanced topics." C. Lynch, October 2013

"Very good introduction to R, gained familiarity with data types and data manipulation." B. McGuire, October, 2013

"Provided a lot of information covering how to do many things in R.  the book will serve as a good tool using R in the future." P. Kusnierz, October, 2013

"There were excellent course materials.  I will be using the manual as a reference for along time to come." T. Kantz,  September, 2013

"Hands-on learning; great instructor who knows the subject and the data; excellent camaraderie among the students." T. Kahler, September, 2013

 

After completing this course attendees will be able to:

  • Understand the uses of R for working with environmental or ecological data
  • Installing R and R libraries
  • Import and export data from Excel
  • Sorting, merging, and aggregating, subsetting, and converting data
  • Query and display data and generate basic data summaries
  • Create a variety of high quality data visualization graphics
  • Perform common statistical tests including t-tests, ANOVA, and  linear models
  • Develop basic scripts to automate and document procedures and analyses

Please note that attendees will need to have a laptop to class with the R software program. Instructions on how to download the program will be emailed out prior to the class. Installations must be completed prior to class - please contact us if you are having problems.

*Reduced tuition is available for Native American tribes, government employees, nonprofits, students and AFS, NAEP, NEBC, TAEP members.

You may register online or by calling the Northwest Environmental Training Center at (425) 270-3274. Online registration is strongly encouraged.

Please wait to receive a course confirmation email, roughly one month prior to the class, before making any travel arrangements.

Intended Audience:

This course is beneficial for anyone desiring to become proficient in the basics of data manipulation, high quality plotting and graphing, and data summary and statistical analyses using R; researchers, students, data analysts, etc. 

Continuing Education Units: 1.30 CEUs

More Information

Course Topics

  • Installing R and R libraries
  • Reading and writing data (read(), write()) and viewing R data sets
  • Creating  new variables and recoding or renaming variables
  • Manipulating data (order(), merge(), aggregate(), t(), which())
  • Summarizing data (sapply(), summary(), table(), xtabs())
  • Visualizing data (par(), plot(),hist(), points(), line(), barplot(), pie(), boxplot())
  • Statistical analysis (cor(), t.test(), lm() and regression diagnostics)
  • R programming basics (program control and user defined functions)

About the Instructor

Apryle Craig

Apryle Craig

Apryle Craig earned a BS in BioEngineering from the University of Pittsburgh and Master's in Ecology at Colorado State University. Her master's research investigated the impacts of elk browsing and riparian willow restoration on bird communities in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. She brings extensive experience from Rocky Mountain National Park where she worked as a park intepretive ranger, communicating the park's natural resources to non-scientists. She then shifted to the Natural Resource branch where she oversaw vegetation monitoring, raptor monitoring, elk exclosures, and winter elk counts. To meet the national park's monitoring needs under an ever-constricting budget, Apryle hired seasonal field technicians and grew the park's citizen science programs. In these projects and in her graduate research, she used Excel and R to manage and analyze data. Apryle has held teaching positions at the University of Washington including Wildlife in the Modern World and Wildland Hydrology. She has led hands-on workshops at the University of Washington, Seattle, on camera trapping and GPS use. Apryle is currently completing her PhD in Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. Her PhD research is investigating relationships between recolonizing wolves, deer, and vegetation in northeastern Washington. 

What to Bring

A laptop with the R software program. A computer with an internet connection. Pen or pencil and paper to take notes if you wish. 

Billing Information

In order to guarantee a space in a course, the tuition must be paid in full TWO WEEKS before the first day of the course by either check or credit card. State and government agencies paying with a purchase order are allowed payment under the two-week time frame if a copy of the purchase order is received by NWETC.

If You Need to Cancel

Cancellations*

  • With 31 or more days notice, we will offer a 100% refund or credit towards a future course. The credit is good for one year and may be applied to any course.
  • With 30-8 days notice, we will offer a course credit towards a future course. The credit is good for one year and may be applied to any course.
  • With fewer than 8 days notice, there is no course credit available


*Please note that attendee replacement is welcome at any time

Disability Accommodations

Disability Accommodations:

To request disability accommodations, please contact us at info@nwetc.org or 425-270-3274 at least 30 days prior to the event.


Directions

  • From:

  • To:
  •   Live Remote Attendance-- USA Time Zone TBD, WA TBD

Accommodations

 



*Reduced tuition available to employees of Native American tribes, nonprofits, and government agencies; students; and NAEP members.

If you have any trouble registering please call (425) 270-3274 ext 103
Please wait to receive a course confirmation email, roughly one month prior to the class, before making any travel arrangements. Please review what to bring!

 

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