CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa launches today its twelfth biennial survey, giving students across Aotearoa the opportunity to explore real-world data about themselves. This large-scale national survey offers a fascinating snapshot of young people’s lives, experiences, and opinions.

Over the coming months, tens of thousands of students from Years 3–13 will take part, answering questions about everything from their screen time and tech use to their favourite foods, pets, sleep habits, gaming behaviour, and even what word they think is currently trending.

Supervised by teachers, students complete the survey anonymously online in English or te reo Māori. Alongside answering questions, they engage in hands-on activities such as measuring their height, foot length, wrist and thumb circumference, and testing their reaction speed and balance by timing how long they can stand on one leg with their eyes closed.

CensusAtSchool is a non-profit educational project, designed to make statistics engaging and relevant for tamariki and rangatahi. It is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.

Rachel Cunliffe, co-director of CensusAtSchool, says:
“CensusAtSchool is such a brilliant way to bring statistics to life in the classroom! We’re putting real, relevant data into students’ hands so they can explore what life is like for their generation—while also growing their data science superpower skills.”

Pip Arnold, Statistics Educator and CensusAtSchool Resource Coordinator, says:
“CensusAtSchool gives students a unique opportunity to engage as both participants and data detectives. Since the first New Zealand survey in 2003, participation has grown significantly, and we’ve continually developed resources to support students and teachers. These resources help students collect quality data, understand the process of designing  questionnaires, and explore CensusAtSchool data in ways that align with current curriculum needs.”

The 2025 edition of CensusAtSchool is expected to be the biggest yet, with over 50,000 students anticipated to participate. As of launch day, 863 teachers from 490 schools have already registered.

Check out the questionnaire, explore the live dashboard, and see which schools are participating at: www.censusatschool.org.nz

CensusAtSchool Co-director Rachel Cunliffe was interviewed by Lisa Owen on RNZ’s Checkpoint this afternoon.

Listen:

And, read their follow-up article:
More than 200 schools register for census on New Zealand’s children

The new questionnaire launches in just 13 days on February 25, so now’s the time to sign up.

Quick & Easy Registration

Register now

🔎 See What’s New

👉 Preview the full questionnaire

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Know a colleague who should be involved? Encourage them to subscribe to our newsletter.

We can’t wait to have you and your students on board for another exciting year of hands-on learning with real data!

Thanks to Jason Koh of Diocesan School for Girls for sharing these photos of his class taking part in CensusAtSchool! 

Kia ora tātou,

Pip Arnold has put together a set of data cards for the 2024 New Zealand Olympic Team – 32 athletes who are competing at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in the rowing and canoe-kayak events.

See information about using data cards for ideas on what to do with the data cards. Other ideas include:

• Make a set of data cards for another sport or group of sports.
• Make a set of data cards for a venue
• Add variables to the existing set of data cards, e.g., the Olympian number, where they are based, did they compete in the Youth Olympics, what year was their Olympic debut

All the data that is in the data cards is also in the CODAP document listed in the resources.

If you use these with your classes, please let us know!

Recent CensusAtSchool Resources

• Discussing the Data: Health Attitudes to Being Online and Alcohol Use
• Year 3: Survey Your Environment 
• Year 3: Leave Your Lunchbox Litter
• Year 5: Scooter or Skateboard
• Year 5: What do Year 5 Students Do At Lunchtime?

Elsewhere… 

Maths Week is coming up August 12-16. Maths Week provides free maths and stats resources for teachers and students. Register now

Nga mihi nui

Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris

Kia ora tātou,

Welcome back! During the break, we have significantly updated our Resources section to make it easier for you to find the materials you need to teach statistics. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Discussing the Data: Health Attitudes to Being Online and Alcohol Use

A new teaching resource to help students analyse and explore the CensusAtSchool data has now been published!

CensusAtSchool collaborated with Tūturu to create a health and mathematics resource that supports teachers as they guide students through an inquiry approach to wellbeing issues.

The resource “Discussing the Data: Health Attitudes to Being Online and Alcohol Use,” includes activities for years 9-11 students and is based on CensusAtSchool data. It provides real-life learning contexts that are engaging and relevant to young people, and includes both general wellbeing data, and tailored survey questions about being online and alcohol use.

The resource was funded by the Ministry of Education and has been in development over the past two years. Contributors included experts at NZ Drug Foundation, NZHEA, Otago University, University of Canterbury, Classifications Office, Netsafe, and Alcohol Healthwatch. The resource was trialled by teachers in a number of schools across the country earlier this year.

In addition to the teaching resource, four videos were developed to help students understand the issues reflected in the CensusAtSchool data and prompt classroom discussions. A recorded webinar hosted by the Auckland Maths Association in June guided maths teachers through relevant activities, and examples of the resource in practice.

Explore the resource

More New CensusAtSchool Resources

• Year 3: Survey Your Environment 
• Year 3: Leave Your Lunchbox Litter
• Year 5: Scooter or Skateboard
• Year 5: What do Year 5 Students Do At Lunchtime?

Elsewhere…

Maths Week is coming up August 12-16. Maths Week provides free maths and stats resources for teachers and students. Register now

Nga mihi nui

Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris

Kia ora tātou,

We’re excited to share our new data cards for CensusAtSchool! You can find these in the data section of our site.

Data Cards using the CensusAtSchool 2023 Database

We have created different data cards for students in Years 1-3, Years 4-6, and Years 7-8. Explore them now!

What are Data Cards?

Data cards are one way of storing data about a person. Each data card represents one person.

Create Data Cards Using Your CensusAtSchool Class Data

Use this Google Sheet we have created.

Using Data Cards

Data cards allow for hands-on activities such as making data visualisations to analyse the data for an investigative question. Learn more

More New CensusAtSchool Resources

• Year 3: Pineapple on Pizza Explore classroom preferences around pineapple on pizza then explore secondary data using the 2023 CensusAtSchool Year 1-3 data cards.
• Year 5: Exploring our World: Teaching Plan This teaching plan uses the Dollar Street photos and videos as a data source for a statistical enquiry.

Elsewhere… 

• The New Zealand Garden Bird Survey is underway until July 7. A great data-gathering activity for your students. “Best homework eva!” Learn more
• Maths Week is coming up August 12-16. Maths Week provides free maths and stats resources for teachers and students. 250,000 students registered for Maths Week last year! Prizes are on offer if you submit an idea to promote Maths Week. Register now

Have a wonderful two-week break!

Nga mihi nui
Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris

Kia ora tātou,

Mānawatia a Matariki! We have a lot of brand-new resources using CensusAtSchool data to share.

New Junior Resources

Year 1: The Perfect Pizza Party

A statistical enquiry aimed at Year 1 ākonga, around designing pizza toppings for a pizza party. This lesson has strong literacy links to the letter p.

Year 1: Carry Your Bag

This lesson explores an everyday context using the PPDAC cycle to show ākonga that statistical ideas are everywhere and we can collect data to answer questions that are interesting to us.

Year 1: Cats or Dogs?

This lesson uses the PPDAC cycle to explore an investigative question that will appeal to Year 1 ākonga. Kaiako can take the lesson further by following the ideas provided to make this lesson into a series of lessons.

Year 2: Our Lost Teeth

A statistical enquiry aimed at Year 2 ākonga, around lost teeth. This includes follow-up suggestions for future discussions and data analysis over time.

Year 4: How Many Skips Can We Do in 30 Seconds?

Students are involved in all stages of the statistical enquiry cycle, from posing the investigative question, planning for and collecting data, to analysing and answering the investigative question.

New Senior Resources

Year 8: Fabulous Feet

Students are introduced to using scatter plots through the context of foot lengths. They use data from CensusAtSchool and interrogate this to see if they think the data is valid and reliable. Students then collect their own data and offer recommendations to the CensusAtSchool team to support improved validity and reliability of the data.

Nga mihi nui
Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris

Kia ora tātou,

Wow! Our latest survey has achieved record-breaking participation, with 45,794 students participating so far, providing real, relevant data for use in the classroom.

You have until the end of the year to get involved, so if you want your students to experience hands-on measurements and data entry which sparks conversations about managing variation and dealing with real student data, get registered and do it!

New Junior Classroom Resources

Year 1: Fabulous Feet

Explore practical ways to answer an investigative question about foot length and learn about PPDAC.

Year 4: How Many Skips Can We Do in 30 Seconds?

Students are involved in all stages of the statistical enquiry cycle, from posing the investigative question, planning for and collecting data, to analysing and answering the investigative question.

Data Explorer Cards

Introduction to PPDAC using Lego, birds, lost property, plastics, and more. Question prompts support learners to explore problems, plan, collect data, analyse and draw conclusions.

New Senior Curriculum Resources

Tūturu and CensusAtSchool – AMA Online June 2024 Webinar

A collaborative resource to help students explore data, what it means to them, their peers, and their well-being; and consider what health-promoting actions can be taken to help students navigate a digital world and a world where alcohol exists.

Embracing Creativity Through Explorations in Probability and Modelling – AMA Online June 2024 Talk by Dr. Anna Fergusson

Check out the “walking tree” the winner of this year’s Tree of the Year | Rakau o te tau survey.

Stay warm and have fun with your students being data detectives!

Nga mihi nui
Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris

Nau mai, hoki mai! Welcome back! 

We hope the summer break has left you refreshed and ready to explore data wherever you and your students live around the motu.

There are a lot of changes with the curriculum refresh, numeracy, and NCEA assessment. Below are events to keep up to speed with developments.

Upcoming events

NCEA Level 1 Workshops: February 14 onwards
These online weekly support workshops will be led by NCEA Implementation Facilitators and regional subject associations.

World Wildlife Day: March 3
“Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it.” – Sir David Attenborough
See the Department of Conservation’s motivational Meet the Locals videos.

Boosting Data Fluency project
Explore the wide range of curated datasets and dynamic data visualisations from WestEd and CODAP. Suitable for Year 7 classes and up.

CensusAtSchool Survey
Remember the CensusAtSchool biennial survey is open until the end of 2024! Make a plan for your class to take part.

Statistics Teachers’ Day Numeracy Resources
Julie Park and Tom Lin from Epsom Girls’ Grammar School presented a numeracy workshop for junior classes. See their resources.

University courses for high-achieving students
Have your students been involved in accelerated courses at school and/or passed Level 3 calculus credits in year 12? Is their ability in mathematics or statistics such that they would like an enrichment course while concurrently doing year 13 work?

There is a range of offerings from Universities around the motu, you do not have to be in the region to participate:

• University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha: Advancing in Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)
• University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau: Young Scholars course in Statistics
• University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau: Mathematical Acceleration and eXtension – MAX
• Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa | Massey University: Accelerate+ programme
• Waikato University | Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato: Unistart

Interested in learning R?

• R is downloaded for free from cran.r-project.org.
• rstudio.com has a helpful interface to execute code.
• Check out these helpful R tutorials for beginners.

Enjoy the rest of the summer at school!

Nga mihi nui
Rachel, Anne, Pip, and Chris