One of the earliest instances of using statistics in biology was for BIOL 120, where we used our results and created a box plot, which can be used to determine the 1st and 3rd quartile, median, minimum, and maximum of the data set. This is extremely useful for determining the spread of data and how consistent the points are, which can allow us to know the strength of the data.
Another use of statistics was for BIOL 251, where we had to write a paper about human demography based on data collected at a cemetary in Farmville. The ages were separated into intervals and statistics was used to make meaningful conclusions about life spans based on time period. This was a very math-heavy assignment and the use of statistics allowed me to determine if specific results were meaningful rather than just by chance. This was similarly used in another project for the same class, where trend lines were used to determine overall patterns in data.
I also used statistics in my upper level classes such as CHEM 350, where we had to run various statistical analysis tests for our data. This taught me how to implement statistics into very advanced data collected in the lab.
Statistics is a crucial part of data analysis and it is difficult to make meaningful conclusions without it. It has become prevalent to me just how important it is through the years, as I have also used it in my chemistry classes for analysis.