News

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

“BULLYING is now the number-one issue troubling school kids across Australia.

New analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Census at Schools survey shows a dramatic rise in both the level of concern Aussie kids have about bullying and the number of hours children are spending in front of a computer screen.

Experts warn this is no coincidence, with smartphones, tablets and social media sites, giving kids fewer opportunities to go home and escape playground bullies.

In 2006, when Australian schoolchildren were spending an average of just three hours a week on a computer, their primary concern was tackling pollution in the country’s waterways.

But with average weekly computer use soaring fourfold to 13 hours in 2013, primarily driven by the popularity of social media sites, kids across every state and territory now nominate bullying as the key issue affecting their daily lives.”

Read more »

We hope you had a refreshing, relaxing summer holiday. 2014 will be another busy year supporting teachers at CensusAtSchool.

Best wishes for a great start to the school year!

New resources

The Auckland Mathematics Association and the Department of Statistics hosted the annual Statistics Teachers Day at the end of 2013.

Teaching resources, videos and links are available here.

The quality of presentations and work on the new standards trialed in classrooms across the North Island, was superb. CensusAtSchool would like to thank all presenters who shared their time and work to make the event a success.

Thank you!

Thank you very much for feedback to our survey – the findings were unanimous that CensusAtSchool is a much needed resource for teaching Statistics and therefore funding looks set to continue this year!

Senior Survey

Your feedback asked for a “senior” survey which has a focus on issues of interest to years 11-13 students.

This is currently being discussed, so if you have any further ideas for questions or questionnaire design please email us.

Secondary school students from around the world are eligible to enter into the International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013) photo contest.  

Students are to send in a photo which they have taken themselves of something which effectively illustrates the impact of statistics, along with a title and description.

Entries must be received by November 1 and winners will be announced in the middle of December.

The grand prize is $800US, with a further three prizes of $350US, $200US and $150US per continent.

Learn more

How about getting a Stats project running with your classes in the build up to Christmas!

The International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013) is a worldwide celebration and recognition of the contributions of statistical science.

Through the combined energies of organizations worldwide, Statistics2013 will promote the importance of statistics to the broader scientific community, business and government data users, the media, policy makers, employers, students, and the general public.

The goals of Statistics2013 include:

• Increasing public awareness of the power and impact of Statistics on all aspects of society.
• Nurturing Statistics as a profession, especially among young people.
• Promoting creativity and development in the sciences of Probability and Statistics.

Learn more »

Stats2013AtSchool is a worldwide school project connected to CensusAtSchool. It includes a 12-question quiz on statistics that your students can take part in right now.

This might make for a great classroom activity before the end of the school year.

The team would also love teachers to contribute questions for future use in the quiz.  

We recently welcomed Anne Patel, who last taught at Waiheke High School, to the CensusAtSchool New Zealand team. Anne is continuing the great work that fellow teacher Tracey Meek started with the organising of classroom resources on our new CensusAtSchool website. Tracey was on the team for just over a year and we will miss her fantastic input.

“THE average Aussie student starts the day with cereal, travels by car to school and relaxes by spending time online; gaming if they are boys and social networking for girls.

A new Census at School snapshot from the Australian Bureau of Statistics also shows their favourite takeaway food is pizza or pasta (21.5 per cent), followed by hot chips (15.3 per cent).

They are more worried about stopping bullying than any other social issue, followed by having healthy habits, access to the internet and conserving water.

Environmental consciousness is high for the 21,617 students surveyed, with 86.9 per cent turning off the tap when they brush their teeth, more than 80 per cent of households recycling and more than half having shorter showers to save water and or turning off appliances to save power when not in use.”

Continue reading »

More results are out from CensusAtSchool Australia:

The CensusAtSchool survey findings, released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show 22.3 per cent of [Australian] Territory kids are missing the most important meal of the day.

The survey was made up of voluntary responses from more than 23,700 Australian school children.

The second worst in the country was the ACT (20.1 per cent not eating breakfast) and Tasmania (18.5 per cent).

In Victoria, the best performing state, only 12.3 per cent of kids missed breakfast.

Continue reading »