Statistics in Forest Engineering Degree Programs: What Should be Taught and Who Should Teach It

Planning the subject of statistics in Forest Engineering degree programs initially requires asking why it should be taught, who should teach it, and what should be taught. This article aims to answer these questions. To achieve these objectives, the method of natural discussion groups and the SMART preference method were used to rank the main contents of the statistics course by importance. The members of these discussion groups were professors from UPM and the National University of Santiago del Estero in Argentina. The results reached the experts' consensus on the subject: statistics are needed in the training of forestry engineers, and that the main contents should be descriptive statistics, sampling techniques, estimation, hypothesis testing, and linear models. It was also determined that the course should be taught by forestry engineers to demonstrate and involve students in real, practical cases that solve engineering problems, which facilitates student learning. In conclusion, knowledge of statis-tics is vital for forest engineers to make decisions in natural resources and industry manage-ment. Most Forest Engineering degree programs include statistics courses, although some of the content of the courses may vary. Future research to determine the opinions of students, alumni, and teachers through surveys would help improve the design of these courses.