It was wonderful seeing so many teachers at last year’s Statistics Teachers’ Day in Auckland. Planning is already underway for this year’s event!

Later this year, we’ll let you know the overarching theme and put out a call for workshops and talks.

In the meantime, save the date:

Statistics Teachers’ Day 2026
Friday November 27

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Students are introduced to using scatter plots through the context of foot lengths. They use data from 91ÇÑ×Ó and interrogate this to see if they think the data is valid and reliable. Students then collect their own data and offer recommendations to the 91ÇÑ×Ó team to support improved validity and reliability of the data.Ìý

This activity explores the following key ideas:

• Investigate relationship situations for paired numerical data (where the relationship is approximately y = x).
• Use provided data for observational studies and interrogate the dataset (describe information about the variables using data dictionaries).
• Planning and collecting data in order to respond to an investigativeÌý question (e.g. Are our feet the same length?)
• Create data visualisations for relationship investigations.
• Describe features of data visualisations in context.
• Answer the investigative question(s) and communicate findings.
• Reflect on and evaluate investigations.

Resources

• Y8 Fabulous feet – Teaching notes with student worksheets

Connection to a previous activity

This classroom activity has its roots in an old favourite Scatter It. The original activity explored age versus height or age versus arm span, whereas this activity explores foot lengths (connecting to exploring paired numerical variables where the relationship is approximately y = x). The teaching and learning notes are more extensive, supporting teachers with ideas of questions to ask students to develop deeper understanding of working with paired numerical data. The data is linked to the latest 91ÇÑ×Ó database (2023), future databases are likely to include the variables (foot length) used in the activity, so the latest database can be used.

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Lucy EdmondsÌý & Heral Patel from Green Bay High School, covered their process of writing both internals and E-O-Y school assessments, from choosing interesting and engaging contexts, to developing an assessment at different levels of understanding. Lucy and Heral are reasonably confident they’ve already made every mistake possible when writing, moderating and administering assessments – and shared a system of writing assessments which make them interesting to both us and the students (acknowledgements to Sue Spencer, Epsom Girls’ Grammar School).Ìý

Resources

• Writing Statistics or any internal assessments
• Writing Statistics (or any really) Internal assessments Powerpoint

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In the second workshop, Stephanie and Amy continued to explore engaging contexts that can be used in the classroom utilising the Scampy Tool. They looked at waiting time data from the Tangerine Tweet Machine using 91ÇÑ×Ó Mode and Simulation Mode of the Scampy Tool.Ìý

Resources

• Ìý

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How to retrieve Yearbook data
The data used in the books are presented via charts and maps that form the basis of key
indicators. A more detailed overview of the data is provided by way of tables located
at the end of each thematic part. Documentation about the data, their methodology
and sources can be found through the MetaLink key below each indicator. For the web
version, the user can simply click on the MetaLink key, and will be directed to information about the data. Furthermore, a small icon allows the user to directly download the data presented in each indicator.

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Also check out:

If you are involved in any citizen science projects around Aotearoa, let 91ÇÑ×Ó know about your project.

PS: Did you know R coding language was created in New Zealand!

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DS: The Evolution ofÌýDaisy’s Career in Statistics: Statistics, why would someone even study that? What kind of job can I get with that?”ÌýDaisy’s 16 year-old self used to protest. Flash forward a decade later, andÌýDaisyÌý is working toward her doctorate in Statistics. So what changed over those years that made her mind set switch completely? In this session,ÌýDaisy discussed her personal journey through a career in statistics that changed the former skeptic to a passionate statistician. Daisy talked about her research combining statistics with molecular evolution, attempting to explain the many exciting opportunities of statistics to her 16 year-old self. Link to resources:

LM: LouiseÌýloves statistics because it allows her to dabble in several different fields. Her PhD is on statistical methods for animal population genetics, but she also separately collaborated with an ecologist who is studying the growth patterns of tree ferns. Her consulting work has mostly been investigating predictors of students’ tertiary outcomes.

OS: The wide world of stats: from crickets to cricket: Today data exists in almost every facet of life, and where there is data, is an opportunity for a statistician. The versatility of statistics has allowedÌýOllie to contribute to a wide range of areas of interest , including projects in ecology, education, marketing and sports. Presently, I am a PhD candidate focussing on developing new statistical models and methods with applications to the sport of cricket, an opportunityÌýOllie would never have thought was possible studying statistics at high school.

AH: Mapping species and communities: using statistics to improve ecosystem management.ÌýAndrea’s career has been motivated by both a passion in ecology and a love for statistics.Ìý She enjoys applying her spatial reasoning skills to tackle questions related to species distributions, or the spatial patterns of animals found across a land or seascape.ÌýAndrea’s PhD research focuses on developing statistical models to estimate and predict these patterns and relate them to environmental variables. Her PhD thesis lies at the forefront of this new area of research, looking into three different systems: a community of soil mites, a community of surf clam off the NZ coast, and the distribution of the marbled murrelet, a seabird found around the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The post You’re doing what? PhD students share their stats journeys appeared first on 91ÇÑ×Ó.

ÌýLink to resources:

Anne and Rachel are available (by arrangement) if you feel your students would benefit from a data detective visiting your classroom. We are looking for CAS data ambassadors across the country who would be prepared to present (particularly at the Primary and Intermediate levels). Let us know if you are keen! censusatschoolnz@gmail.com

The post How data can change our worldview (+ why 91ÇÑ×Ó matters more than ever) appeared first on 91ÇÑ×Ó.

Jon Fahlander, (Takapuna Grammar School) and Rhys Jones (University of Auckland) have put together the World Value Survey “light” data set. It contains country averages of over 200 variables from 2010-2014 (covering topics like happiness, religiosity, racism – ok with a neighbour of a different race, patriotism – willingness to fight for one’s country, etc, as well as GDP per capita). While there are other country level versions of the data around for research purposes, this version is in an easily accessible format, without any missing values etc, which they hope will make it more suitable for the secondary classroom.Ìý

Their workshop explored ways to let students engage in real world survey based research. The teachersÌýÌýundertook a mini research project based on their own research question. The session ended with a discussion of the potential benefits and pitfalls of letting students access rich data sets like the World Value Survey.Ìý

Jon and Rhys shared a “cleaned” version of the individual level data for each country, which might work for comparative box plots of, say, the distribution of happiness in NZ and Australia. An issue with that, however, is that the scales aren’t continuous, but at best an ordinal scale from 1 to 10, so it might not suit the multivariate standards.

The data and supporting material – the survey questionnaire, the Stata syntax used for data management,Ìý can be found on the websiteÌý

Link to Stats day presentation:ÌýÌý

Please leave a comment below if you use this dataset and let us know what worked and what questions students posed.Ìý Jon would be really keen to hear how it went and to publish student work on their website, so please get in touch with him or Rhys via the website.

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