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.
Under the direction of their teachers, students in grades 4–12 anonymously complete an online questionnaire, thus submitting the data to a national database. The questions ask about such things as the length of their right foot, height, favorite subject in school, and how long it takes them to get to school. Thirteen questions are common to every country participating in Census at School, but each country adds its own questions specific to the interests of its students. Periodically, the national data from the 13 common questions go to an international database maintained in the UK.
To teach measurement, data analysis, and statistics, teachers in all participating countries not only can extract the Census at School data submitted by their own students, but they can also obtain a random sample of data from other students-either students from their own country or from all participating countries. Students can engage in statistical problemsolving by formulating questions of interest that can be answered with the data, collecting and selecting the appropriate data, analyzing the data, and making appropriate conclusions in context.