Please forward statistical education news to the SSA Executive Officer (eo@statsoc.org.au) for inclusion in monthly newsletters and this site – whether it’s a related school, higher education, industry or broader community event, information or activity. Sharing this is key to broadening our community, capacity, general knowledge and potential collaborations and support.

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ANNUAL EVENT - National Schools Poster Competition (NSPC) 

Teams of school students (Grades 3 to 12) engage in this project-based learning activity via an investigation, on any topic, which uses data collection, exploration, visualisation and interpretation. They then develop a poster (for online submission) that reports upon their investigation. Submissions are due annually by 10 November. Find out more here.

 2024 news

15th International Congress of Mathematical Education (ICME) - 7-14 July, 2024 (Sydney, Australia)

SSA Section Chair, Professor Peter Howley, will co-chair Topic Study Group (TSG) 1.7: Teaching and learning of statistics.

IASE President (2021-23) and OZCOTS Program Chair (2023), A/Prof Ayse Bilgin, will co-chair TSG 1.6: Teaching and learning of probability

Join us at this quadrennial international conference being held in Australia for the first time in 40 years to help shape the future of statistical education! ICME is the largest international conference on mathematics education.

2023 news 

PhD student seeking participants (aged 18 - 65) having mathematical or statistical expertise

Their research seeks to understand performance differences in probabilistic reasoning between people with expertise in mathematics or statistics and two novice control groups. Thus they are seeking participants with expertise in mathematics or statistics. Contact hannah.fenwick@murdoch.edu.au for information.

AI In Education Forum

Sydney: 4-6 December, 2023

FREE in 2023 - NSW Bushfire STEM Poster Competition (Stages 3 to 5 - NSW)

Thanks to the NSW Office of Chief Scientist and Engineer, this competition is available in 2023 for Stages 3 to 5 students in NSW.  Submissions due: 30 November!

This competition is much like the above NSPC; however, submisssions need to relate to bushfires, environmental sustainability or other related topics such as, but not limited to, natural disasters, emergency services, Indigenous practices surrounding the bush and its management. Find out more here. 

FREE in 2023 - Preparing for Industry 5.0 and Beyond: Facilitating the cradle-to-career lifecycle

Statistics, Sustainability, Systems thinking & STEM (SSSS) learning

Delivered free and online by leading educators and industry practitioners via:

• Teacher PD workshops
• Student workshops
• Mini Solar Vehicle Challenge (including free solar vehicle kits)
• National Schools Poster Competition

Find out more here.

ASC & OZCOTS 2023 - 10-15 December, Wollongong, Australia

Statistical Education Section Session

Speakers:

• A/Prof  Elinor Jones, University College London, RSS Teaching Statistics Section Chair
• • Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistics and Data Science Education – the new era of the RSS Centre for Statistics Education
• A/Professor Ayse Bilgin, Macquarie University, Australia, IASE President
• • Possibilities for your future in statistics education research
• Professor Peter Howley, SSA Section Chair – Statistics Education, Hunter Medical Research Institute Affiliate
• • Industry 5.0, future workforce needs and national initiatives (including ‘National Schools Poster Competition’ now in its 10^th year (www.ssapostercomp.info) & “Preparing for Industry 5.0 and beyond in light of COVID19: Facilitating the cradle-to-career life cycle” (www.ssss.org.au) )

2022 news

The National Schools Poster Competition (NSPC) will begin its 10th year in 2023! Checkout annual past winners and honourable mentions, and feedback, via this link.

SSA Section Chair, Professor Peter Howley, has been participating as an invited expert advisor to ACARA in the development of Version 9.0 Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (F-10).

ISLP-led session surrounding ‘The role of statistics in helping lead data science’ for the JSM2023 to be hosted at Toronto 5 – 10 Aug.

2018-2021 news

International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME) 2024 bid

The SSA, via the Statistical Education section, is part of a consortium, led by former AAMT CEO Will Morony and UTas Prof Kim Beswick and including presidents and key representatives from MERGA, AAMT, AMSI, forming Australia’s bid to host the ICME 2024. The bid was successful and ICME-15 will be held in Sydney, Australia 7-14 July, 2024!

International Data Science Curriculum
Stemming from the successful STEMS16 event, former SSA President Professor Nicholas Fisher has been coordinating an international consortium backed by SSA, NZSA, ASA, SSC, RSS, towards development of a senior school curriculum for Data Science. The SSA’s Statistical Education section is proudly supporting this initiative on the advisory group committee.

STA STEM Ambassador
Section Chair, A/Prof Peter Howley, has recently been named as one of 10 inaugural Science and Technology Australia’s STEM Ambassadors.

2017 news

December
Sustainability meets Statistics and STEM
In August a team of Prof Tim Roberts (Environmental sustainability), A/Prof Peter Howley (Statistics), Ms Latha Lewis (Engineer/Project Officer) and Korbinian Kraus (visiting German undergraduate student in Management of Renewable Energy) undertook a two-week road trip to Dubbo, Broken Hill, Griffith, Orange – visiting schools and running Professional Development teacher workshops at each location surrounding statistics, sustainability and STEM. This was funded by the Department of Education’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program.

Pre- and post-visit/workshop surveys were conducted – all measures improved post intervention. Students’ feelings of awareness and interest in statistics increased, on average, by 60-99% (on 7-point Likert Scale); teachers’ confidence in connecting students with valuable practice, and their perceptions of student enthusiasm in projects surrounding statistics and sustainability increased, on average, by 30-50%.

2016 news

August
The SSA submission regarding the Statistics component of the proposed Stage 6 Mathematics Syllabus (including Extensions 1 and 2) as developed by the NSW Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES), was submitted. Thank you to all who contributed to this discussion and final submission.

June
STEMS2016 ‘Putting Statistics into STEM in the Age of Data’ was a huge success. The colloquium united primary, secondary, tertiary education, industry and national board and educational organisation representatives, and commenced a critically important national dialogue on how the discipline of Statistics will address the rise and impact of big data on all aspects of education, society and life – and how schools and universities may adapt to meet these challenges.  A report of this event was co-authored by Louise Ryan, Nicholas Fisher, Michael Martin and Peter Howley.