This summer, PhD students Jimena and Jessi had the opportunity to teach an R workshop for Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI) researchers. The workshop was a collaboration between the Wagner Lab and TAFIRI Kigoma, and was taught in Kigoma, Tanzania. We had 21 researchers attend the workshop, from TAFIRI stations all over the country, including TAFIRI Mwanza, TAFIRI Dar es Salaam, and TAFIRI Sota. We were also joined by guest instructor Masumbuko Semba, PhD student at the University of Dar es Salaam. Most participants had little to no previous exposure to R, but all were eager to learn.

We spent a busy three days covering the basics of R, from setting a working directory to importing and exporting data, to finally plotting and running statistics on those data. As instructors, it was an incredible experience to share our own knowledge of this powerful statistical software in an effort to provide these researchers with a tool to bring their research to the next level. Participants came early and stayed late, often continuing to work through coffee and lunch breaks in a desire to make as much progress and learn as much as possible from the short workshop.

Though each participant went through struggles and frustrations along the way, every single person had a smile on their face as they shared their pride in their accomplishments during presentations on the last afternoon. They encouraged each other to “practice often” so that they don’t forget the things they learned, and there was resounding agreement to one student’s closing remarks that he wished for a week of such learning, rather than our short three days together.

Thank you, Jimena, Jessi, and Semba for teaching this fantastic workshop! The workshop was co-funded by TAFIRI and the Wagner lab’s current NSF DEB grant focusing on the study of cichlid genomics and diversification. Jimena and Jessica were additionally funded by grants from the University of Wyoming Center for Global Studies (JGB), Program in Ecology (JGB), and NASA Space Grant Consortium (JAR).