Abstract: Biostatistics, as an indispensable tool in modern agricultural scientific and production, is a compulsory basic course for undergraduates in the field of life sciences. In biostatistics, sampling distribution serves as the basis of statistical inference theory and plays a linking role in probability theory and inference statistics. However, the abstraction and complexity of the theory causes the difficulty for beginners′ understanding which may further lead to a poor teaching effect. Therefore, it is imperative to apply MATLAB software in the teaching process to enhance students′ learning interest and understanding ability via real-time simulation and display in classroom teaching, and thus improve the teaching effect. In this study, the MATLAB software is introduced to design and compile the simulation of several common sampling distributions, i.e., the u distribution, the t distribution and the χ2 distribution from a normal distribution population. The simulation results that intuitively describe the sampling distribution deepen students′ understanding and mastery of the relationship between the population parameters and sample statistics, and sampling distribution which provides an auxiliary tool for the theoretical teaching process of biostatistics.

Key words: biostatistics, MATLAB, sampling distribution, assistant teaching