Teachers' notes

Connection to the syllabus

Our aim when designing this competition was to provide an activity to help teachers apply the syllabus. However, individual teachers have the greatest understanding of the syllabus and are in the best position to judge whether or not this activity complements the syllabus. Issues considered during the design of the Competition include:

• syllabi usually call for students to be effective communicators. Creating a Project is an excellent way of learning communication skills. The students must be able to communicate what they have done, the results they have obtained, and the questions they are answering. The students must write succinctly and clearly
• syllabi usually call for students to collect, analyse, explore and interpret data. The Australian Statistics Project Competition explicitly addresses this component
• syllabi often encourage group work. The Australian Statistics Project Competition is a fantastic way for students to reap the benefits of teamwork.

Here are some example excerpts from school syllabi from New South Wales and Victoria.

Time allocations

In past years, teachers have indicated that no more than four lessons are required for students to select a question, collect and analyse data and prepare their Project completely in class. This figure, naturally, will vary from class to class, student to student. Because students work in teams, the work can be divided.

Notes on statistical analysis

The notes on statistical analysis (PDF 148 kb) give a brief overview of basic statistical analyses. This and more information can be found in any of the numerous statistics books and resources available.

Teachers' Pack

The Teachers' Pack for the Australian Statistics Project Competition (PDF 430 kb) includes the equivalent information to this web page in a print friendly format:

• a list of the competition rules
• a list of guidelines
• a list of ideas for competition Projects
• some useful resources
• example Projects from previous competitions
• answers to frequently-asked questions
• some notes on statistical analysis.