In July, the Department of Statistics, University of California Los Angeles, hosted the second four-day international workshop for the CensusAtSchool project. The event was superbly organised under the auspices of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE) International Statistical Literacy Project by its director, Juana Sanchez.
The workshop theme was 'Data Handling and Chance Activities that Promote Statistical Literacy in School Children' and provided opportunities for participants to:
- Achieve common understanding of the International CensusAtSchool project http://www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk/ and other efforts of countries to impact statistical literacy in schools;
- Acquire experience with CensusAtSchool country-specific data handling activities and resources for teachers and students;
- Learn about census-like projects not coordinated with CensusAtSchool;
- Further promote and increase students' and teacher's interests in statistical literacy globally;
- Increase awareness of the efforts made in the United States and other countries to improve statistical literacy in school children;
- Share existing hands-on curriculum materials in the US and other countries.
Allan Rossman, President of IASE, chaired the four-day event. Speakers were from countries that included Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, UK and USA. Amongst other things, proposals were made to formalise and unify future international activities for the CensusAtSchool project by setting up an international committee with specific terms of reference. A chair of the committee is yet to be appointed, but plans are for the person to take a leading role in getting more countries to join this popular and useful project. More details can be found on the web site http://censusatschool-california.stat.ucla.edu/. It is very likely that the third workshop will be held in Durban, South Africa, to coincide with the 57th session of the International Statistical Institute from 16 - 22 August 2009.
