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Education News - October, 2012
A Word from the Editor
1. CensusAtSchool News The National Summary and Time Series data tables for 2012 have now been released on our CensusAtSchool website. Interesting data from the Time Series data has revealed a reduction over time in English as the dominant language spoken at home.
In keeping with our multicultural theme for this Ed News edition, here are some interesting facts about students' language preferences from the 2012 questionnaire:
(Reference: Time Series Table 6)
Save this Date! The CensusAtSchool 2013 Questionnaire will open on 4th February 2013. Keep an eye out for the new 2012 Data for Calculators files - they're coming soon. On the Data for Calculators page you can download files for graphics calculators as well as random samples of categorical, discrete, continuous and bivariate data from the CensusAtSchool database. Data for calculators are provided in Excel, Casio and TNS file formats. 2. Births by Country of Birth of Parents Did you know that 2010 was another record year for Australian births? A total of 297,000 births were registered in 2010 - the highest number of births ever registered in a single year. Of these, nearly 87,000 were babies whose mothers were born overseas. A similar number had fathers who were born overseas. You'll find this fact, and many more about births, in 'Births, Australia'. This publication presents detailed data and commentary about Australian births, including information about the country of birth of parents. You can compare median ages for mothers and fathers based on their country of birth, investigate fertility and paternity rates for parents born in overseas countries, and access at least 3 years worth of historical data about the country of birth of parents. You can start your investigation of Births data by using the Google search bar on the ABS website to search for the publication by its catalogue number - 3301.0 (Image 1). A new webpage will load with search results. Click on the 'Latest Issue' link in the yellow box - this will take you to the current issue of the publication (Image 2). Education Services Top Tip:
Image 1 - Using the Google Search Bar to Find Catalogue Number 3301.0 (Births) Image 2 - Accessing the 'Latest Issue' of Births Births data provide a vital component of Australian population data. Between each Census, Australia's population is 'estimated' - births data is an important ingredient in determining the change in the estimated population each year. If you're interested in using population data in your classroom, why not explore it today? You can access the ABS' Topics @ a Glance - Demography Releases homepage, where you'll find a suite of demographic data including population by age and sex, births, deaths and migration data. If you are following the instructions above, you should now see the 'Summary' page of the most recent Births publication. This page displays a table of contents and a series of tabs across the top of the screen: Summary, Downloads, Explanatory Notes, Related Information and Past & Future Releases. To access the data for births by country of birth of parents, click on the grey 'Downloads' tab. You should now see a page that lists all of the Excel datacubes for Births data. If you would like to download the datacube which contains country of birth of parents data, click on the Excel file icon for 'Table 8: Births, Country of birth of parents, Australia'. The website will then walk you through accessing and/or saving the file (Image 3). Image 3 - List of Births Datacubes A few ways you could harness these data in the classroom include:
Source: Births, Australia, 2010 (cat.no. 3301.0) And with the release of 2011 Births data on the 25th October, you can add another year's data to produce a five year time series of births by country of birth of parents (2007-2011). Do you think 2011, like 2010, will be another record year for Aussie births? Just use the instructions above, and you'll be taken to the 2011 edition of Births, Australia. 3. An Idea for the Classroom: Migration Data and Google Motion Charts In this edition of Ed News, we are profiling one of out Maths lessons called 'MATE 2 - Migration'. This lesson uses data about the median age and sex ratio of Australian residents from 1996 to 2009. You will also use the Education Services motion chart to look for interesting statistics related to country of birth. This lesson provides an interactive opportunity for students to 'watch' data change over time through data visualisations. Do you have a classroom idea that uses ABS data or ABS Education products? Let us know at education@abs.gov.au and we can share it with schools around Australia. 4. Migrant Data Matrices 2012 Did you know that in 2010-2011 that Australians aged 25-34 years, born both in Australia and overseas, made up the largest group of victims of physical assault? Or that the median age of Australian born women giving birth in 2010 was 30.4 years, compared to 31.8 years for mothers born in South-East Asia? You'll find these facts, and many more, in the 'Migrant Data Matrices, 2012' (cat.no. 3415.0). The Migrant Data Matrices provide users with a link to migrant data from a range of ABS products, covering interesting topics such as health, employment, population, housing and crime and justice. The Migrant Data Matrices is a great way of introducing students to the rich data produced by the ABS - and in one easy to navigate product. You can commence your journey of (migrant data) discovery by using the Google search bar on the ABS website to search for the publication by its catalogue number - 3415.0 (Image 1). A new webpage will load with search results - select the first result to be taken directly to the 2012 matrices (Image 2). Image 1 - Use the Google search bar to find the Migrant Data Matrices. Image 2 - Select 'Migrant Data Matrices, 2012.' The summary page of of the 2012 Migrant Data Matrices clearly illustrates a range of topics for which migrant data is available. Alternatively, click on the 'Downloads' tab to explore the available Excel datacubes (Image 3). Image 3 - Contents Page for Migrant Data Matrices, 2012. With the inclusion of Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia as a Cross Curriculum Perspective in the new Australian curriculum, why not take some time to see how you could harness data available in this ABS product and apply it to the classroom? But wait, there's more! Read on to our next article about recently released migrant and cultural diversity data from the 2011 Census.5. Cultural Diversity - Census 2011 Did you know in 2011 that 26% of Australia's population were born overseas and that a further 20% of Australians have at least one overseas born parent? The 2011 Census has revealed the rich cultural diversity that exists in Australia. This diversity is shown through the variety of ancestries, birthplaces, languages and religions reported by Australians when filling in their Census form. The Census article Cultural Diversity in Australia (cat. no. 2071.0) includes interesting historical and contemporary migration data. This article can assist you and your students to explore fascinating topics such as:
Source: Census of Population and Housing, 2011 This article can introduce your students to a range of migrant data, which has been graphed in a variety of ways. An interesting finding from the 2011 Census was the age distribution of Australian born people and recent arrivals. The following graph illustrates that the median age of recent arrivals was 27 years - considerably younger than the Australian median age of 37. Source: Census of Population and Housing, 2011 Suggestions for use in the classroom:
If you're interested in investigating the cultural diversity of your state or territory, you can access useful data through Census QuickStats. Use the Quick Stats search function to request data for your state or territory. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is proud to be the national coordinator of the 2012-13 ISLP Poster Competition. The International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) is a section of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). They operate to support, create and participate in statistical literacy activities and promotion around the world. In 2010-11, 891 students from 30 countries participated in the competition, and the ISLP hope to gain more participants this year. So far 11 countries, including Australia, are signed up for the 2012-13 competition. The aim of the competition is to build students’ ability to define their environment with statistics, and to use statistics as an instrument of learning on a daily basis. Students work in teams of two to three to design a poster on a selected topic of their choosing that ties into this year’s broader topic of agriculture. The competition is free to enter and is run in three phases:
Winners will be announced at the 59th World Statistics Congress in Hong Kong, China, 25-30 August 2013. Posters must be submitted to the ABS for national judging by 8 March 2013. Registration opened on 3 September. To register, simply fill in the Registration Form on the ISLP website by 29 March 2013. For further details on how the competition will function within Australia, including how to submit posters, please access our Information Flyer. If you would like to see the International Winners posters from 2010, you can do so here. ABS Year Books provide an overview of Australia's economic, social and environmental conditions with a statistically orientated focus. We currently have a very limited supply of pre-2012 ABS Year Books to give away for free and have had an overwhelmingly positive response to these. If you are interested, please click on the pre-2012 ABS Year Book link to see what is available and how to place your order. You can view the latest ABS Year Book 2012 now online. You can purchase a copy of the 2012 edition by contacting the National Information Referral Service on 1300 135 070, or clicking on the Information Consultancy link on the National Information and Referral Service webpage. 8. Conferences Conferences Recently Attended: Jean, Mary-Anne and Sarah attended the Maths Association of New South Wales (MANSW) conference in September. This conference was held at Novotel in Brighton-Le-Sands, Sydney. The Education Services Unit of ABS will have representatives at various conferences over the following months:
26th October - Teacher PD (ACT) 31st October - 1st November - ACSA Curriculum Symposium, Adelaide
26 - 27th November - MAWA Conference, Fremantle
6 - 7th December - MAV Conference, Melbourne 9. Interesting Publications Remember: all ABS publications are free to download from the ABS website. 10. Contact Details How to contact ABS Education Services Free Call: 1800 623 273 Mail: GPO Box 2796, Melbourne, 3001 Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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1330.0 - Education News, Oct 2012
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/10/2012
This page last updated 19 February 2013