Today is World Statistics Day!
Watch students at Kapiti College show how they use the inquiry cycle to make conclusions from data.
Today organisations, teachers and students from all over the world will be celebrating the role that data plays in our lives now and in the future.
Statistics New Zealand have launched a Level 3 time series resource to showcase how they analyze data, this presentation was well received at NZAMT 2015.
Other World Statistics Day classroom activities include a movie showing students how they can contribute to a data-driven future, and a poster explaining how statistics around the world are use to make decisions. These could be a great way to generate discussion about how we use statistics in the world outside school.
Also Anna Martin has produced a very addictive game to celebrate World Statistics day, what does your data look like?
From January 2016, Statistics New Zealand’s Schools Corner will no longer be available.
From February 2016, relevant resources will be relocated to here CensusAtSchool and the nzmaths website.
Here at the Friday Institute at NC State, I am offering a Massive Open Online Course for Educators (MOOC-ED) that is focused on “Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations”. The course is designed to target pedagogy and content for teachers (preservice, practicing, college-level teaching assistants, and teacher educators) in middle school, high school, and AP/ intro college levels. There will be many choices and options in the course for teachers to focus their learning around content that they teach. You can see a more detailed description of the course here:
The second run of the course will launch September 28th and has 6 weeks of material. Registration is open and FREE! There is an opportunity for to earn Certificate of Completion for either 20 hrs (for completing activities and engaging in discussions) or 25 hrs (also includes a project). It may be a great opportunity for teachers to work in teams to complete the course together.
Preservice teachers could complete activities in the course as part of assignments in an on-campus course or take it in addition to their on-campus courses to enhance their preparation to teach statistics.
If you teach a course or include units in your methods courses focused on teaching statistics, you may also want to engage with us in the MOOC-Ed to gain additional resources and ideas for your own courses.
In the course, participants will see many video-based examples of students and teachers engaging in statistics tasks, hear from a panel of experts on teaching statistics (Chris Franklin, Susan Friel, Webster West), learn about statistical habits of mind, be introduced to a framework for developing students’ statistical sophistication (adapted from GAISE), examine tasks, and engage with real data sets using dynamic tools such as TuvaLabs and Codap with the option of using StatCrunch or JMP (both have donated free licenses), or inexpensive tools like TinkerPlots, Fathom, or any other tool they are familiar with. Now doesn’t that all sound fun? Especially if you also have the option of engaging in discussions with teachers and teacher educators from all around the world?
I would appreciate it if you could spread the word about this course to your pre-service and local teacher contacts. I have attached a flyer that can be distributed. SmallFlyerforTSDIMOOC-EdFall2015
I am excited to offer this professional development for teachers and teacher educators on a wide scale and hope that it can be used to enhance the teacher education efforts in universities and local school districts!
If you have any questions let me know!
Are your students ready for an on-line statistical modeling challenge for maths week!? Expose your students to future careers that will be found at the intersection of data, visual arts and modelling.
Anna Martin has created a word difficulty ranking generator, students can gather data to try and model and predict a ‘readability score’. Statistics teachers if you would like to find out more background about the challenge visit Anna’s website.
How will the challenge run?
Monday to Tuesday
Students test their own words through the on-line text analyser, record data from these tests, and try to develop a way to predict the readability score. They should make some notes/diagrams for their model and use these to predict readability scores for the first set of reserved words.
Wednesday to Thursday
Students have access to check the first set of reserved words. They enter the readability score they would predict for each reserved word, and see how this compares to the actual readability score. This should help them refine their prediction model.
Friday
Students have access to check the second set of reserved words. They enter the readability score they would predict for each reserved word, and see how this compares to the actual readability score. They should only do this once (i.e. this should be their final evaluation of the model).
Keen to give it a go?
Here’s the place to send students: http://mathstatic.co.nz/predictive-text-challenge
Dear Educator,
The census is the official count of people and dwellings in New Zealand. At Statistics NZ we are committed to working with community groups and service providers like you, to make sure everyone can take part in the census and benefit from the information we produce. Students’ families will be involved in completing the next Census, your role in educating students about what, how and why statistics are collected, and the integral part they play in decision making cannot be overlooked.
The enclosed infographic poster about education and training in New Zealand is one of our latest census releases. The infographic shows some of the key facts about education and training from the 2013 Census – including information about people with qualifications; highest qualification; post-school qualification field of study; and study participation.
You can find more information on this topic in the summary report 2013 Census QuickStats about education and training, available on our website.
The education and training infographic is just one way we are displaying the data we collect, to inform and broaden our audience base and tell New Zealand’s statistical stories.
Other products on our website that may be of interest include:
Census information helps determine how billions of dollars are spent in the community. It is needed for planning vital public services such as education, health, housing, and transport. Census data also provides information for community service funding. Businesses, councils, community groups, and iwi also use census information to plan for the future.
We are making big changes to the 2018 Census, to modernise how and what we collect. For example, in 2018, we are expecting most people in New Zealand to provide their information online. We will be asking for your help in the lead-up to the 2018 Census, as you play an important part in helping us reach a range of audiences.
We hope you take the time to have a look at our products and look forward to working with you in the future to promote the importance of the census.
For further information on the census, including resources in different languages, visit http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census
Ngā mihi
Denise McGregor
Census Manager
Articles and updates on all aspects of Mathematics and Statistics for teaching and learning.
Professional reading for middle managers and teachers.
Updates to Statistics standards on page 4:
Experiments: AS91265 AS91538
Bivariate data: AS90136 and AS91581
Be part of giant graphs and visual data representations, stretching across the fields of Wellington’s Macalister park. Artist Siv B Fjærestad is working with public art producers Letting Space, in partnership with Wellington City Council to create a data inspired artwork on the fields of Macalister and Liardet Street Parks, Berhampore: a dynamic backdrop for activity.
Now all they need is you! Opening Public Picnic Sunday 19 April 2015 12-3pm for a programme of family events and a community picnic.
Over 2013 Fjærestad and volunteers surveyed the local community to inform the painting’s design and use. Fjærestad states “The painting design contains representations of statistical data and ideas for the park collected from the community, visual references to current activity and also to the landscape and its history. The park is perceived, used and interpreted differently at different times of the day and week. This work involves contributions from local communities, sporting groups and businesses, and extends what we consider both painting and public art to comprise. It asks questions about how we use our city public commons.” The paintings are for the public to look at and play on, encouraging leadership from the community to value the park as a public good.
Projected Fields has been funded by Wellington City Council’s Public Art Fund.
NZCER has just released a book titled Mathematics and Statistics in the Middle Years: Evidence and Practice, edited by Robin Averill.
There are two chapters that draw specifically on Statistics Education (Arnold & Pfannkuch, and Sharma et al.) Other chapters have pedagogical ideas which are useful for teachers of Statistics. Most chapters have been partnerships between academics and teachers, and all are grounded in practice and research.
Years 7-10 are the main focus area but many of the ideas are transferable above and below these years.
These readings could be useful to new teachers, who would benefit from an overview of how Statistics education in New Zealand has developed in the past decade.
Kia ora koutou,
As many of you will know, the CAS/TataurangaKiTeKura questionnaire is available in te reo Māori so children in bilingual and immersion units can make the most of it.
What you may not know is that we are working on adapting and translating our existing English-language resources for the reo-Māori classroom to ensure that we are as relevant as possible to as many classrooms as possible. We have already completed several and you will find them if you use “te reo Māori” as a search phrase.
We have also produced a bilingual leaflet – in English on one side and Māori on the other – about the benefits of CAS, and it will be given out at meetings of kaiako pāngarau (maths teachers) at various hui over the next few months. The leaflet is here – feel free to make use of it. Tēnā rawa atu koutou!
