To begin this project we will be using the Census at School website.

“Census at School is an international classroom project that engages students in grades 4–12 in statistical problem solving. Students complete a brief online survey, analyze their class census results, and compare their class with random samples of students in the United States and other countries.” (Source: Census at School)

Go to the Census at School website (opens in a new window), and fill out the questionnaire. To do this you will click on the Student Section tab on the left side of the page. You do not have to print out the questionnaire, but please be sure to read the “Guide to taking measurements” (opens in a new window) information, linked on the right side of the student section page. Accuracy and consistency are important in statistics, and this will help ensure we are all measuring in the same manner.

You will need the following measurements:

Your height without shoes on (in centimeters)
Length of each foot without shoes (do not assume they are the same) (in centimeters)
Arm span (in centimeters)
Index finger on your left hand (in millimeters)
Ring finger on your right hand (in millimeters)

Obviously since we don’t have our own classroom we won’t have “stations” set up for you to take each measurement. Where possible, it’s a good idea to recreate the methods instructed in the handout, but if you cannot, you may take the measurements in the most accurate way possible. One idea for if you do not have a longer measurement tool, would be to use a piece of string to measure your height or arm span, then measure the string with a ruler.

You can use the ClassID: 310148 and password: VirtualSC to enter your own data into the questionnaire. (Student Section tab, then click the link in #3. )

When you are finished go to the random sampler page (opens in a new window) (another tab on left side) and take a random sample of 25. You may choose what states/grades/gender/year you’d like to look at. Once you download the data set, look through the data and make observations. What patterns do you notice? Is anything surprising or do some results stand out to you? Take two more samples of 25 and do the same thing, jotting down notes of interesting observations.

Create a post in the forum answering the following questions:

What types of samples did you take? (Did you choose different states or use the whole US? What grade levels did you look at?)
How did your own data compare to those in the samples? Was it very different than most? Similar? Some of both?
Were there any noticeable patterns or differences between your data sets?
What did you wonder while you were looking at the data?
If you left all the variables the same and took another random sample of 25, would the data be the same as the previous one? Why or why not?
What comparisons do you think might be interesting to look at? (Ex: Is the distribution of superpower different for males and females? What grade level of students spend the most time on homework on average? Does index finger length predict height?…)