The nation’s school children are set to take their own census in Maths Week.

Identifying their most sought after Christmas present and revealing how much time and money is spent on texting and cell phone calls are among the range of questions school students will answer when they participate in their own census as part of Maths Week.

CensusAtSchool NZ is an online survey designed to enhance statistical literacy among eight to 15-year-olds while providing real and meaningful data for classroom activities that link into the Ministry of Education’s Numeracy Projects and can be used across the National Curriculum.

Students complete a 15-minute survey of questions relevant to their everyday lives and some that are common to their peers in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Canada, which will allow for comparisons between countries.

Ministry senior adviser mathematics, Malcolm Hyland, says the survey provides links to a range of curriculum areas. He says it is hoped that resources developed to support the database will encourage an integrated approach that brings together topics from several learning areas such as literacy, mathematics, health, social studies, and physical education.
The Ministry and Statistics New Zealand jointly fund the project, which began in the United Kingdom in 2000 but was modelled on a 1990 trial project in New Zealand conducted by Dr Sharleen Forbes of Statistics New Zealand.

Sharleen’s paper-based children’s census involved 60,000 New Zealand primary school children who were asked about themselves, their home and school life. The Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education (Nottingham Trent University) then developed a similar census for British schools in the lead up to the 2001 Census.

New Zealand joined CensusAtSchool in 2003 after the University of Auckland, supported by the Royal Society through a New Zealand Mathematics and Technology Teacher Fellowship, set up the project.

The University of Auckland has been contracted to organise this year’s CensusAtSchool and the project’s co-director, Rachel Cunliffe, says interest is high with more schools already registered than for CensusAtSchool 2003.

Rachel says once the census is complete, New Zealand schools will be provided with summary and sample data to use as classroom resources.

She encourages schools to take advantage of the benefits offered by the project and says teachers will receive an information pack when they register before the 15 September closing date.

“All of the activities generated from the survey are fun and relevant to young people’s lives which enhances student engagement in their learning. A lot of teachers are still downloading the data and the activities generated from the 2003 CensusAtSchool survey.”

She says the survey’s questions include ones that aim to establish what information and communication technologies students own and what students have for breakfast. They survey will also allow New Zealand students to compare their day to that of students living in Australia, South Africa, Canada, or the United Kingdom.

Rachel says CensusAtSchool provides good preparation for the 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings which will be offered online for the first time.

“Often it is the children in a family who will fill out an online form, and filling out a census, whether it is online or in paper form, is increasingly more likely in families where English is the second language.”

She says the CensusAtSchool survey is confidential and there is a te reo Maori option.
Lesley Hooper at Statistics New Zealand says CensusAtSchool is an excellent project for increasing awareness of what a national census is and what it is for.

She says the project also provides an excellent opportunity for Statistics New Zealand to work with the Ministry and University of Auckland to ensuring valuable resource material comes out of the survey for teachers to use in the classroom.

“Statistics New Zealand’s role is to ensure we have official statistics that everyone can access and use, therefore one of our objectives is to make sure New Zealand has a certain level of statistical literacy and by working with the statistical educators we can ensure that some of this learning will happen in schools.

“The good thing is the census is about students collecting data about themselves that they can use. They are often given data that is not really relevant to them which makes it hard for them to engage in learning. Having data that is embedded in real situations will get them enthused and wanting to learn.”

She says CensusAtSchool 2005 will prepare students well for the 2006 Census of Population and Dwellings and beyond.

“It’s a great way to introduce students to the 2006 census because it gets them thinking about the importance of collecting and using data. CensusAtSchool models what we will be doing next March when people will fill out their census forms.”

* Visit www.censusatschool.org.nz for more information or to register your school. Schools can take part any time from 15 August to 15 September.
* Rachel Cunliffe can be contacted at r.cunliffe@auckland.ac.nz

Source: Education Gazette

• Do boys react faster than girls?
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• What percentage of NZ children can have an everyday conversation in Maori?
• How many NZ children were born in another country?

The results of a children’s census of 18,000 school children, released this week by the CensusAtSchool project team at The University of Auckland, will help build a unique picture of the lives of New Zealand children.

Megan Jowsey, CensusAtSchool New Zealand Coordinator, says the web-based initiative joins partner projects in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia and will allow New Zealand school children to answer questions about themselves and their international
counterparts.

The project, supported by Statistics NZ, the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Statistics at The University of Auckland, aims to enhance statistical enquiry in the classroom by providing a rich database for students to investigate.

“By taking part in the survey and then ‘playing detective’ with the data, just like statisticians do, students will discover interesting patterns and comparisons, that will bring their maths lessons alive.

“This will also raise awareness of the importance to society of data collection, as occurs with the national Census,” Ms Jowsey says.

Professor Chris Wild, Head of the Department of Statistics at The University of Auckland, says children in the 21st century need to acquire the skills that will enable them to use information technology and data to learn about their world and make informed decisions.

“And there is no better way for them to start learning these skills than by asking and answering questions about their own lives and those of their peers, both here in New Zealand and around the world.”

Children from 400 self-selected schools throughout New Zealand, took part in the recent online survey which included questions on height, foot length, eye colour, country of birth, languages spoken, technology access, breakfast foods, favourite subjects at school, travel to school, physical activities, role models, dominant hand and an electronic reaction timer.

A student randomly chosen from the 18,000 taking part is most likely to be female, to have brown eyes, to be in Year 9 (age 13), to attend a school in the Auckland region, to live in a household of four people, to have her own cell phone, to have access to a computer and the
internet, to travel to school by car, and to have art as her favourite subject.

Twenty percent of children surveyed were not born in New Zealand, with their countries of origin ranging across a huge list topped by Australia, Korea, England, South Africa, China and India. Almost one-third of students said they could hold an everyday conversation in more
than one language.

Family members are the most popular role models chosen overall. When asked to think of someone they look up to, 42% of students chose ‘family member’. This response was highest for the younger children, and by Year 10 (14 year olds) ‘actor/celebrity/singer’ was the choice
of 21% and ‘sportsperson’ was chosen by another 21%.

Art is the favourite subject overall for those surveyed, with physical education/health a close second. Physical education is the favourite subject for one-third of boys at Year 9 and 10, while girls of the same age favour art and physical education equally. Mathematics is the second favourite subject for boys in the primary school Years 5 and 6, while girls at this age prefer art then dance/drama.

One question asked what the child had had for breakfast that morning, with, 10% of those surveyed replied ‘nothing’. The traditional toast and/or cereal breakfast foods remain the most common choices, with some interesting additions reflecting ethnic diversity.

The question on technology ownership showed that more than half of those surveyed owned a cell phone. At Years 9 and 10, the first two years at secondary school, 90% of students had access to a computer at home and 84% had internet use.

Rachel Cunliffe, who developed both the website and online survey, says that many overseas countries are now looking at on-line voting and census collection processes.

“With almost 350,000 hits on our website to date, and encouraging feedback, it augers well for future use of such technology.”

The project was made possible by the award of a New Zealand Science, Mathematics and Technology Teacher fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand to coordinator Ms Jowsey. She is the Head of Department of Maths at Birkenhead College, but has spent a year at the University.

“I have had a really stimulating year organising this project, working alongside the statistics experts here at the university. The feedback has been positive from throughout the country, and the uptake by teachers and students has been fantastic.

“We hope to run the project again in two years time to produce some longitudinal data. Meanwhile the data is now available to schools to download and investigate.”

See www.censusatschool.org.nz

For more information contact
Megan Jowsey
CensusAtSchool New Zealand Coordinator
Royal Society of New Zealand Teacher Fellow
Department of Statistics
The University of Auckland
Ph: (09) 373 7599 ext 88586
Mobile: 021 0437491

This month saw the nationwide launch of CensusAtSchool NZ, an online survey for children to do at school as part of their Maths lessons. The project is educationally motivated and joins an international initiative which is based in the UK but has also happened in South Africa, Queensland, South Australia and is planned for Canada.

The New Zealand project is hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland, coordinated by Megan Jowsey, HOD
Maths at Birkenhead College, who has a one year NZ Science, Maths and Technology teacher fellowship awarded by the Royal Society of NZ. The publicity and web design is the work of Rachel Cunliffe of the Department of Statistics, with webserver technical work by James McGrail. The project has been supported by academic staff within the Department of Statistics, while Statistics NZ and the Ministry of Education have provided advice and guidance.

The project aims to involve children in the collection of real data that is relevant to their lives, so that hopefully their Statistics lessons will be more meaningful and interesting. The data will form part of the multivariate international data base and provide opportunities for children to compare themselves with their peers from within NZ and the other countries involved. Teaching resources, results and samples of
raw data will be available to teachers and students once the census is complete.

In the first 4 weeks over 15,000 students from 350 schools have completed the survey and with one more week to go the projection is for over 20,000 children to be involved. The response from schools so far is very positive!! TVNZ have helped boost the participation rate with coverage on “Holmes”. You can visit the CensusAtSchool web page at http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/.

Megan Jowsey

Source: http://nzsa.rsnz.org/newsletter/News58.pdf