CensusAtSchool
Developing Statistical Literacy
Christine Sergi
Assistant Director, Education Services Unit
Australian Bureau of Statistics

ABS Mission• To assist and encourage informed decision
making, research and discussion withingovernments and the community,community by leading ahigh quality, objective and responsive national
statistical service.

5th & 6th March 2010

The Importance Of Statistics
In Today’s Society

Why is Statistics Education
Important?
•Ensure school children develop an understanding andappreciation of how data can be acquired and used tomake informed decisions in their daily lives, as children
and then as adults; and•

Evoke in school children interest and enthusiasm forstatistics, and provide sufficient statistical learning toprepare them for tertiary studies, or a potential career, instatistics.

“Statistical thinking will one day be asnecessary for efficient citizenship as theability to read and writewrite.” H.G
HGW
Wellsll 1928

What Defines Statistical
Literacy?
•Data Awareness•

The Ability to Understand Statistical Concepts•

The Ability to Analyse, Interpret and Evaluate StatisticalInformation•The Ability to Communicate Statistical Information andUnderstandings

CensusAtSchoolInternational Projectj•

CensusAtSchool has become an international projectwith a number of countries now participating. They
include:
United Kingdom
New Zealand
CanadaSouth Africa
Australia
Japan

CensusAtSchool
Background• CensusAtSchool was initiated in the United
Ki dKingdombby ththe RRoyall St
Statisticalti ti l SSocietyi t C
Centretfor Statistical Education, the Department ofEducation and Employment,
p y, and the Office for
National Statistics.
• The project was launched nationally in Australia
by the ABS in 2005. It is used to promote thestatistical literacy of students
students, in addition topromoting the Census of Population andHousing.

CensusAtSchool
International Project• All pparticipating
pg countries include a set ofcommon questions in their questionnaires.
• There is now an International CensusAtSchool
website.
• The website has an international databasewhich allows students to compare their resultswith students across the world.

CensusAtSchool
Strengths
Engages students in data about themselves

Supports curricula

Integrates Information and Communication
Technology

Interdisciplinary learning

Rich, Raw, Real data

CensusAtSchool
Characteristics

CensusAtSchool
Questionnaire• CensusAtSchool is an online learning resource
accessed via the CensusAtSchool web pages.
p g•

The Australian CensusAtSchool questionnaire consists of30 questions. (This includes 11 common internationalquestions.)• The project is suitable for upper primary andsecondary school students.

•The questionnaire asks student about theircharacteristics, lifestyle, and opinions. There are alsointeractive activities which measure students’concentration and reaction time.

•The questionnaire is completed and submitted online
online.

•espo ses to tthe
e questquestionnaireo a eaaree coconfidential
de t a aandd nooAll responses
student can be identified in the response data.

• Students can participate in the questionnaire
and the data usage phases.

CensusAtSchool
Data Usage

Data Analysis• Data can be accessed via the random sampler
and students can take samples of up to 200
200.

Mean and Median Analysis• Thee data iss presented
p ese ted in Excel
ce sp
spreadsheets.
eads eets• Alternatives are pprovided for teachers who
cannot or do not want to use the random
sampler e.g. prepared samples and informationtables.
tables• Categorical, Discrete, Continuous and Bivariate
data is available.

Time to finish the Questionnaire
Gender Mean time Median time
Boys
19.0
16
Girls
20.1
18
 Why is the mean greater than themedian?
What happens to the mean andmedian if a large Qtime is removed?

Change a value to Qtime to makethe mean the same as the medianHow can y
you make the median formales equal to 20?
Dataata Analysis
a ys sData Analysis
Reaction times using
Excel add in tool
Min.

Q1

0 17
0.17

Med0 2975
0.2975

0 34
0.34

Q3

Boxplot for $A$3:$A$202

What is the height of your bellybutton above the floor when you're standing?

Max04
0.4

0 81
0.81

H i ht VS BHeight
Bellyll Button
B tt
HeightH i ht
00.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

220

1

Heighht(cm)

200
180

Right Hand Reaction Time ofStudents

160
140
120
100

60

80
60
40

Frequency
y50
40
30
20

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Belly Button Height (cm)

0.
3
0.
35
0.
4
0.
45
0.
5
0.
55
0.
6
0.
65
0.
7
0.
75
00 ..885

0.
2
0.
25

0.
1
0.
15

000.
05

10

Right Reaction Time (sec)Remove outliers?

Data Analysis

Data Analysis
Outliers: Delete if height/belly button is <1.2 or >2

We should use less water (2006)

Height vs Belly Button Height

Height = 1.6091 x Belly Button

Heighht (cm)

220
200
180
160
140

Percentage of stu
udents

80%

240

70%
60%
50%
Disagree

40%

Agree

30%
%
20%
10%
0%
TAS

12060

80

100120Belly Button Height (cm)140160Vic

NSWWAQLDSAData Analysis
Have opinions
pfrom 2006 translated into actions in2008?

CensusAtSchool
Teaching Resources• All teaching resources are available atwww.abs.gov.au/censusatschoolData AnalysisyCensusAtSchool
Statistics Lessons

CensusAtSchool
ABS Support for Teachers

CensusAtSchool
ABS Support for Teachers• On-line videos• Professional development workshops.
• Prepared
Pd materials
t i l andd llesson plans.
l• Representation at teacher conferences
and workshops.
• Articles in teacher jjournals and websites.
• CensusAtSchool webpages, with email
and phone contact details.

Student feedback on CensusAtSchool.

Cens sAtSchool Professional Development
CensusAtSchool
De elopment
tutorials for teachers on YouTube andTeacherTube.

CensusAtSchool
Advice Based on ABS Experience• CensusAtSchool can be used in a simple orsophisticated wayway.
• Allow students the opportunity to handle andexplore data.
• Information
I fi andd Communication
Ci i T
Technologyh liisimportant.
• Prepared materials and lesson plans support
teachers’ use of CensusAtSchool.
• Teachers learn from other teachers.
• CensusAtSchool
CAtS h l resources – freefandd on th
theweb.

St tS
StatSmartt Project
P j t“The CensusAtSchool questionnaire worked very well. Students weregenuinely interested in collecting personal measurement statistics andcomparing themselves to both others in the class and students of similarages around Australia.”
Some students poor at mathematics found themselves participating in the“Someactivity.”“At times it was hard to get some students to spend time thinking andexperimenting rather than doing, which is something they were not used toin mathematics.”
The fact that in some cases there wasn
wasn’tt really a correct or an incorrect“Theanswer was hard for certain students to swallow.”In Conclusion
Conclusion…..
“ItIt would be a capital mistake totheorize before one had data.”
Sherlock Holmes

Thank you