New Zealand teachers if you have not yet used Tinker plots here is your chance! Used in conjunction with Ruth Kaniuk’s resources this will enhance the way you teach probability concepts. Use the author advanced search function on C@S to find all of Ruth’s resources.

Today we are releasing Version 2.2 of TinkerPlots.  This is a special, free version, which will expire in a year  — August 31, 2015.

To start the downloading process

Go to the TinkerPlots home page and click on the Download TinkerPlots link in the right hand panel. You’ll fill out a form. Shortly after submitting it, you’ll get an email with a link for downloading.

Help others find the TinkerPlots Download page

If you have a website, blog, or use a social media site, please help us get the word out so others can find the new TinkerPlots Download page. You could mention that you are using TinkerPlots 2.2 and link to www.srri.umass.edu/tinkerplots.

Why is this an expiring version?

As we explained in this correspondence, until January of 2014, TinkerPlots was published and sold by Key Curriculum, a division of McGraw Hill Education. Their decision to cease publication caught us off guard, and we have yet to come up with an alternative publishing plan. We created this special expiring version to meet the needs of users until we can get a new publishing plan in place.

What will happen after version 2.2 expires?

By August 2015, we will either have a new publisher lined up, or we will create another free version.  What is holding us up right now is our negotiations with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who currently owns TinkerPlots.  Once they have decided about their future involvement with TinkerPlots, we can complete our discussions with various publishing partners.

If I have versions 2.0 or 2.1 should I delete them?

No, you should keep them. You already paid for these, and they are not substantively different from version 2.2. If and when a new version of TinkerPlots is ready for sale, you may not want to pay for it.  So keep your early version that you’ve already paid for.
Cliff and Craig

Michelle Dalrymple of Cashmere High School and Royal Society teacher fellow, has edited and put into a user friendly format 2 large data sets from Statistics New Zealand and one from C@S.

These are now available in the data viewer on C@S and iNZight to sample from.

Birth SURF 2006

Data summary

• 10,000 observations (synthesized newborn children)
• 29 variables – 20 categorical and nine numeric variables

NZ Income Survey SURF 2011

Data summary

• 29447 observations (synthesized people)
• Eight variables – five categorical, 1 grouped numeric (age bands) and two numeric variables

NOTE: These are large data sets suitable for exploratory use with Achievement Standards
91035 (1.10), 91036 (1.11), 91264 (2.9), 91581 (3.9) and 91582 (3.10)

Census at School Data Sets (UK, NZ, OZ, CA)

Comparison for these 4 countries is now possible.

The statistics forum at NZAMT13 (Wellington, October 2013) enabled a large number  (about 40) of NZ’s most concerned and committed teachers of the statistics in Mathematics and Statistics to state their concerns. We hope that this document summarises their concerns, and is useful in guiding decisions about resource provision of all kinds.

The timing is notable: the NZ mathematics education community is approaching the end of  year one for the new curriculum-aligned level 3 achievement standards. Teachers had recently planned for this and delivered on it. The issues are fresh and ongoing.

The participants formed a group who could speak with authority: as well as the 40 leading teachers, the group included 6 members of the NZ Statistics Association’s education committee, and the conference’s 2 visiting statistical plenary speakers.  The forum was called by members of the education committee, chaired by Nicola Ward-Petty, and recorded by Marion Steel. Marion drafted this document, and Mike Camden edited it.

Marion Steel, Mike Camden (m.camden@clear.net.nz), for the NZ Statistical Association Education Committee,  June 2014.

NZAMT13 forum statistics education resources