CensusAtSchool NZ is undergoing a major facelift/restructure.
The new website has been redesigned to put teacher needs in the new curricular and assessment environment at the heart of what the site delivers. We aim to be a current, comprehensive, resource bank for the Teaching of Statistics in NZ.
The new website is temporarily situated at https://new.censusatschool.org.nz and coexists with the old website http://www.censusastchool.org.nz until the end of the school year. Over the summer break, once the current census is closed, everything is planned to be transferred over to the new website. Once that’s completed, we’ll just have the new website at www.censusatschool.org.nz.
CensusAtSchool began as website in which students could participate in an online survey and contribute to an international database. Real data can then be analysed and used by schools. Teachers are able to receive their class data and there are a variety of classroom resources available on CensusAtSchool to direct their teaching of statistics.
Statistics has changed significantly in New Zealand over the last few years. As statistical practice has become computer based, there is much less need to be able to calculate statistics manually. Rather, students are being encouraged to consider the context, reason and origin of the data. The focus of assessment has also changed, with NCEA Level 2 being reorganised this year and new Achievement Standards for NCEA Level 3 drafted for next year. We found that teachers all over New Zealand use CensusAtSchool at times so that it is a good place to host and index Statistics resources and professional development.
CensusAtSchool’s website has been completely reorganised, updated and expanded to be a comprehensive and practical resource for teachers.
Everything is now grouped by the curriculum level and achievement standards. For each curriculum level and achievement standard relating to the teaching of statistics, teachers will find: details of the standard, detailed FAQ, vetted activities, resources and links to further their knowledge.
Everything is also now easily printable for teachers to have at their fingertips, along with the ability for them to provide feedback by rating and commenting on resources.
There is now a place to ask a statistics question called FAQ. Teachers can email a question to censusatschoolnz@gmail.com which will be answered carefully by one of a number of ‘experts’ and posted online.
Links to a large number of websites such as NZQA, TKI, Stats NZ, and Stats Chat, means teachers can always find relevant current material, competitions, road shows and articles.
We encourage teachers to contribute resources to the CensusAtSchool website so if you come across something good that we have missed or have any feedback on the new site please email us: censusatschoolnz@gmail.com.
We hope you enjoy using the new website,
Regards
The CensusAtSchool team.
