From mid-August to the end of September 25,048 students from 505 schools – almost one in five schools in New Zealand – took part in the survey. Here are some summary tables…
Today six new activities, suitable to be used immediately in class, have been released on the CensusAtSchool New Zealand website.
These activities, some developed by internationally renowned statistics education researcher Maxine Pfannkuch, have already been trialled in classrooms.
They are:
All resources clearly follow the Statistical Investigation cycle which is part of the new Mathematics and Statistics curriculum and illustrated on the Data Detective Poster.
More than 10,000 Year 5-13 students from all over New Zealand have taken part so far in this year’s educational and fun CensusAtSchool online survey.
The project gives students access to a rich and comprehensive snapshot of their generation which they can explore and make exciting discoveries about in the classroom. CensusAtSchool has previously been run in 2003 and 2005 and this latest snapshot will also enable children to compare themselves with data from the last two surveys.
A sneak peek at a few of the results so far show that 48% of students taking part have a Bebo page and 46% have a TV in their bedroom.
The Top 10 favourite websites so far for boys taking part are:
1. Bebo
2. YouTube
3. Google
4. Miniclip
5. RuneScape
6. TradeMe
7. AddictingGames
8. WWE
9. PokemonCrater
10. ClubPenguin
The Top 10 favourite websites so far for girls taking part are:
1. Bebo
2. Google
3. YouTube
4. Miniclip
5. Stardoll
6. Neopets
7. ClubPenguin
8. Disney
9. TradeMe
10. MSN
CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people, and is also conducted in the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. CensusAtSchool started in Maths Week and runs from 13 August until 30 September. The project is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Statistics New Zealand and the Department of Statistics of the University of Auckland. Over 1,700 teachers have registered their classes to take part.
Further results and classroom resources are made available through this website.
Over 1,000 students took part in the first day of CensusAtSchool today!
A quick peek at some of the results so far show that 52% of students taking part have a Bebo page and 41% have a TV in their bedroom.
The Top 3 favourite websites so far are:
Boys: Bebo, YouTube and Miniclip
Girls: Bebo, Google and Stardoll
The average length of hair so far is approximately:
30cm for girls
7cm for boys
What do Kiwi children think is the best thing about living in New Zealand? What would they do to make it a better place to live? What do they do online? How much are they spending on their cell phones? What do they eat for breakfast? What time do they go to bed? These questions and more are posed in the popular CensusAtSchool, and the results promise a unique insight into what New Zealand’s 10 to 18 year olds are thinking, feeling and doing.
Starting 13 August, tens of thousands of children from all around New Zealand will stand up and be counted in CensusAtSchool – their own on-line children’s census sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Statistics New Zealand and the Department of Statistics of the University of Auckland.
“CensusAtSchool is about children for children,” says Malcolm Hyland of the Ministry of Education. “It is a launching pad for emerging educational efforts aimed at turning generations of students into data detectives – equipped with the tools and inclinations that will enable them to continue to make exciting and useful discoveries about their world throughout their lives and careers.”
Project spokesperson and co-director Rachel Cunliffe of the University of Auckland says: “This will be the most comprehensive snapshot to date of how New Zealand students are living their lives. The CensusAtSchool database will enable children to learn about data collection, information technology and how to make sense of data in a playground where they will continually make exciting discoveries about themselves.”
CensusAtSchool has previously been run in 2003 and 2005 and this latest snapshot will enable children to compare themselves with data from the last two surveys.
CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people, and is also conducted in the UK, Australia, Canada and South Africa. CensusAtSchool starts in Maths Week and runs from 13 August until 30 September.
More than 1,150 teachers have already registers their classes to take part with more signing up daily.
CensusAtSchool is running again this year, launching in Maths Week (13-17 August 2007).
Please register your classes and we’ll let you know more information closer to the time.
In the meantime, we’d love to know if you have any fun or interesting ideas for questions in this year’s survey. In particular any ideas for continuous variables would be appreciated.
Please add your ideas as soon as possible and preferably over the next week!
Meet Jessica, Jessica is fictional, but according to the most frequent responses from the 2005 CensusAtSchool survey Jessica starts the day with toast and a glass of milk for breakfast. She lives in Auckland and shares the house with three other people. Surprisingly, it takes Jessica less than 10 minutes to get to school by car. Jessica knows what she wants for Christmas, even more than money or an Ipod, she wants to upgrade her cell phone. She is 13 years old and currently in Year 9 at school. She brings her lunch from home and plays netball. There is much more of interest about Jessica, but telling you now would spoil all the surprises.
About CensusAtSchool:
CensusAtSchool is an online survey for Year 5 to Year 10 students that provides real, relevant data to enhance statistical enquiry across the curriculum. CensusAtSchool NZ is hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in association with Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. It is a non-profit, educationally motivated project.
Schools take part voluntarily, with students completing the survey during lesson time, and then submitting their data to contribute to an international database, which includes information on children from Australia, England, Canada and South Africa. Some questions are in common with the other countries, to provide comparisons between countries, while the remainder of the questions are tailored to reflect the interests of New Zealand children. Data and classroom resources are now available for schools. More resources are currently being developed by a team of maths teachers.
A selection of CensusAtSchool survey results:
Respondents
33,000 students took the opportunity to stand up and be counted in this years online survey, an increase of more than 15,000 from CensusAtSchool 2003. Over 2,000 teachers registered their classes nationwide.
Tables summarising participation follow:
| Age | No. of Respondents |
|---|---|
| 6 | 11 |
| 7 | 17 |
| 8 | 98 |
| 9 | 2379 |
| 10 | 4525 |
| 11 | 4928 |
| 12 | 5511 |
| 13 | 6744 |
| 14 | 6675 |
| 15 | 2201 |
| 16 | 81 |
| 17 | 35 |
| Region | No. of Respondents |
|---|---|
| Northland Region | 828 |
| Auckland Region | 13889 |
| Waikato Region | 3463 |
| Bay of Plenty Region | 1326 |
| Manawatu-Wanganui Region | 1682 |
| Taranaki Region | 501 |
| Gisborne Region | 294 |
| Hawkes Bay Region | 719 |
| Wellington Region | 4018 |
| Nelson-Marlborough Region | 734 |
| West Coast Region | 215 |
| Canterbury Region | 3027 |
| Otago Region | 1917 |
| Southland Region | 592 |
Technology
In the last two years cell phone ownership has increased dramatically more than doubling for 9 -10 year-olds. By age 14, a massive 84% of the children surveyed have their own cell phones
Phone ownership by age
| Age | 2003 | 2005 | Percent Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 10% | 22% | 120% |
| 10 | 13% | 29% | 123% |
| 11 | 23% | 44% | 91% |
| 12 | 33% | 59% | 79% |
| 13 | 51% | 76% | 49% |
| 14 | 59% | 84% | 42% |
RSI by 15?
70% of respondents who owned a cell phone sent text messages the previous day, with almost a quarter of them sending over 50. The median monthly expenditure was $20 with 1 in 5 spending over $50. Almost half the children have their own TV and just over a quarter have their own MP3 player. Levels of access to the internet however do not appear to have changed over the past 2 years.
Lifestyle
Students were asked about many aspects of their daily life, and many interesting facts came to light.
There are big changes in lunch time activity levels as children advance through the school system. At Year 5, 80% report their main lunchtime activity as running around and playing. This drops to around 60% at intermediate school age and plunges to a little over 20% in high school. By Year 10 the main “activity” is either sitting or standing around. Overall, 40% of students are driven to school by car while only 1 in 4 walked. A further quarter took public transport.
Despite widespread worries about dietary changes feeding an obesity epidemic some traditional patterns still seem to be maintained. For example, the vast majority of the children still bring their lunches from home 88% at Year 5 dropping to 69% by Year 10. Bought lunches increase from 9% at Year 5 to 20% by Year 10. Whereas only 1% of the Year 5 children have no lunch, by the second year of high school 7% did not have a lunch.
Parents wondering when to send their children to bed will not get much guidance from the practices of their peers. There is a wide range of bedtimes which change only slowly with age.
The most common bedtimes are:
8pm – 9pm for 9 and 10 year olds
9pm – 10pm for 11 and 12 year olds
10pm – 11pm for 13 -15 year olds
The 10 most popular Christmas present requests were:
Girls:
1. Cell phone
2. Ipod
3. Money
4. Clothes
5. Dog
6. Car
7. Laptop
8. Horse
9. MP3 player
10. Book
Boys:
1. Money
2. Cell phone
3. Motorbike or quad-bike
4. Car
5. Playstation portable
6. Computer
7. Ipod
8. Bike
9. Playstation 2 console
10. Computer game for PS2
Random samples from the data are available through the interactive sampler.
Data is now available for the Are you a masterpiece? resource.
Five fixed samples are available for the resource. Download the appropriate sample for the level you are teaching.
All are in CSV (Comma Separated Value) format which can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Fathom, or with other standard software.
| Level | English | Māori |
|---|---|---|
| 3 – 4 | Sample A Sample B |
Sample A Sample B |
| 4 – 5 | Sample A Sample B |
Sample A Sample B |
| 5 – 7 | Sample | Sample |
An interactive sampler has been available since September.
An Excel spreadsheet covering age, gender, time taken to travel to school, and mode of transport can be downloaded (5MB).
On the morning of Tuesday 16 August, actor Shane Cortese, best known for his performances on Dancing with the Stars and Shortland Street, took part in the televised launch of CensusAtSchool NZ.
Students at St Mary’s School in Northcote were excited to meet Shane Cortese and hear what he had to say.
Shane Cortese talking with students
Shane Cortese sitting with students
Rachel Cunliffe talking live on Breakfast
Class photo, with Shane Cortese and Rachel Cunliffe
Shane with part of the CensusAtSchool NZ team
Left to right: Jason Florence, resource writer; Rachel Cunliffe, co-director of CensusAtSchool; Bronwyn Weston, resource writer; Shane Cortese
Background: Principal of St Mary’s School Northcote and Teacher Bronya Scott
All photos by Godfrey Boehnke, The University of Auckland.
With the next population census only six months away, more than 950 New Zealand schools are taking the lead with their own census project.
CensusAtSchool New Zealand is a joint undertaking by Statistics New Zealand, the University of Auckland and the Ministry of Education. The month-long project, which kicks off at the start of Maths Week on 15 August, will involve more than 1,500 teachers around New Zealand working with students in Years 5 to 10.
Now in its third year, CensusAtSchool is part of an international initiative involving students from Canada, Australia, South Africa and Great Britain in collecting data that is relevant to their lives.
The data collected by New Zealand students will be added to an international database, providing opportunities for students to compare themselves with other students in New Zealand and in participating countries overseas. By using real information about themselves, students are more likely to engage with statistics enthusiastically. They will also be primed for the 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings.
Government Statistician Brian Pink said, “This is a great undertaking by New Zealand students, and we are delighted to support a project that generates enthusiasm and learning about the value of good statistics in the lead-up to our national census in March 2006.” .Auckland schools are currently the leading participants in the project, with more than 40 percent of all schools in the Auckland region enrolled.
The New Zealand project organisers are looking to extend the project for a further year by developing teaching resources based on the data the students have collected. For more information or to enrol in CensusAtSchool, visit www.stats.govt.nz.
Brian Pink
Government Statistician
