It was recently reported that an average New Zealand child guzzles almost 6Kg of sugar a year in sweetened drinks. Is this true?

We can use statistics to answer all sorts of questions and to investigate lots of ideas.

Please visit: http://www.statistics.govt.nz/methods_and_services/schools_corner.aspx

Statistics NZ provides advice and funding to the CensusAtSchool project.

Students will be working with investigative questions they have posed previously (see activity on posing questions) or investigative questions they pose in this session for the given data set they are working with.  This particular activity is designed for using CensusAtSchool data.

Helpful links:

From CensusAtSchool UK

http://www.censusatschool.org.uk/resources/data-handling/118-cleaning-up-your-data

Students will need to be familiar with the background information to the data set.  This may involve looking at the variables in the dataset, looking at how the data was collected and measured, looking at the survey question that was asked to get the data.

In this activity students will be exploring the given data cards in response to investigative questions they have posed.  In some instances students might organise the data cards and then pose their investigative question once they have found something of interest in their data cards (EDA- exploratory data analysis).

This activity will also allow students to develop the language of description for summary situations.

Information about the CensusAtSchool survey can be found at: http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/

Information relating to determining appropriate variables and data collection methods, and gathering data can be found in the making measures document which is located at: http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/2009/information-packs/

In this activity students are reintroduced to the 2009 CensusAtSchool survey by way of data cards.  (This could be adapted to meet any of the previous CensusAtSchool surveys.) Students will be involved in posing investigative questions, making displays using their data cards and giving descriptions of their display.  This is followed up with a reflection on the process leading to identifying what are key aspects of a good investigative question.

The insight comes from the first 1000 students to complete the online CensusAtSchool 2009, which opened on Tuesday March 3 and runs all term. The figures would seem to back recent chiropractor concern that some young people carry heavy bags all day, risking chronic shoulder, neck and back pain.

An estimated 50,000 students aged between 10 and 18 (Year 5 to Year 13) are due to answer 35 questions about their lives in CensusAtSchool 2009. Teachers administer the 15-minute survey, available in English and Māori, in class. “The project aims to raise students’ interest in statistics as well as provide a snapshot of what they are thinking, feeling and doing,” says co-director Rachel Cunliffe, a statistics lecturer in the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics.

In other sneak-peek results, 65% of participants said they had played online games in the week before they completed the census. Half downloaded or listened to music on line, and half downloaded or watched online videos such as YouTube, TV shows and movies. Other activities on the internet included keeping in touch with friends (58%) and school work (56%).

Young people proved themselves at ease in the online world, but it seems that the love affair with social networking site Bebo might be waning — among the first 1000 respondents, 35% had their own Bebo page, down from 48% in the last CensusAtSchool in 2007. Personal Skype access at home tallied 30%, a Facebook page 13% and a MySpace page 11%.

And if they could have super powers, girls would choose telepathy (28%) and boys the ability to travel in time (37%).

CensusAtSchool is a collaborative project involving teachers, the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. It is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people, and is carried out in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa.

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An estimated 50,000 students aged between 10 and 18 (Year 5 to Year 13) are due to start answering these questions – and a host of others about their lives – as the online CensusAtSchool 2009 begins.

Their teachers will be administering the 15-minute census in class between next Tuesday, March 3, and the last day of term one, Thursday April 9. The 35-question survey, available in English and Māori, aims to raise students’ interest in mathematics and statistics as well as provide a fascinating sketch of what they are thinking, feeling and doing.

“It’s about making numbers practical, fun and relevant to young people,” says co-director Rachel Cunliffe, a statistics lecturer at the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics. “We are encouraging them to be data detectives and explore the uses of numbers.”

One question asks students to measure their popliteal length – that’s the measurement from the back of the knee, when seated, to the floor. Another invites them to click on a button to measure their reaction time. Students submitted four of the survey’s questions, with one of those asking about favourite online activities.

CensusAtSchool proved enormously popular with teachers and students in 2003, 2005 and 2007, says Rachel Cunliffe. “Students tell us over and over that they love the results. They love to know about other students.”

CensusAtSchool is a collaborative project involving teachers, the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Education. It is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people, and is carried out in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa.
“CensusAtSchool is about real-world learning in a way that is compelling and exciting for students,” says Mary Chamberlain, the Ministry of Education’s Group Manager, Curriculum Teaching and Learning. “It not only teaches them how to measure the world around them and why statistics are important, it offers interesting snapshots of their lives.”

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Notes to media:

- Further information and a list of schools taking part in CensusAtSchool New Zealand 2009 is available at http://www.censusatschool.org.nz/

- Rachel Cunliffe, CensusAtSchool co-director and spokesperson, is available on 373
7599 ext 89622. This number transfers to Rachel’s mobile phone if she is not in the office. Her email is rachel@stat.auckland.ac.nz

About CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe

Rachel Cunliffe, a statistics lecturer at the University of Auckland, also lectures and speaks about online communications and youth culture. Rachel and her husband Regan are behind the popular New Zealand TV-watchers’ website Throng. Rachel has been researching the use of instant messaging in educational settings.

A copyright-free portrait of Rachel Cunliffe for media use is available here.

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