Learning Resources bulletin - March 2008
Dear teachers: This regular bulletin presents free information and teaching materials available on Statistics Canada's Learning Resources website.
In this issue:
- Feature: Fun facts and ideas for the classroom
- New! Podcasts for students (secondary)
- Census at School update
- A multimedia Census history (intermediate-secondary)
- New from 2006 Census: Labour force and Education (secondary)
- Education Matters: Literacy skills and achievements in science
- Health study: Participation in sports
- New in E-STAT (intermediate-secondary)
- Regional support
Feature: Fun facts and ideas for the classroom
- Wealth and income tax: This will particularly interest you if you teach Business studies or Economics.
- St. Patrick's Day: Look for some surprising facts!
Watch out for "Spring" coming next week.
New! Podcasts for students (secondary)
Audio learning files are fun for students! Available on the Student page, our first series of podcasts helps in finding data for projects. The listener follows two high school students in their search for data from the Statistics Canada website. Students can listen from a computer, download files or transfer them to an MP3 player. Transcripts also available.
Census at School update
The Census at School online survey project is also held in several other countries besides Canada. The Australian project site recently started a new survey in February for their current school year and in New Zealand, up to 33,000 students participated last year. Here in Canada, 23,000 students have responded so far this year and we hope to reach 35,000 by the June 20 closing date. We especially need responses from the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec and the Territories if we are to provide comparative results on the site next fall. Get your class participating now! Read teacher instructions and click on "Help" if you need assistance.
Access the international site and read about a workshop to be held in Los Angeles next July by clicking on 'International project' on the left sidebar of the Census at School site.
A multimedia Census history (intermediate-secondary)
A new Flash product called The Living Census takes visitors on a virtual tour of more than 340 years of census-taking in Canada. It includes eight mini-movies, or flash presentations, of key Canadian censuses placed in the political and social context of their day. Thirty richly illustrated background texts in the Census timeline tell the story of every census, starting with Jean Talon's first colonial census in 1665. (Tip: For easier entry, click 'Skip' to bypass the intro.)
Find it on the Census of Canada resources page.
New from 2006 Census: Labour force and Education (secondary)
Labour force: Between 2001 and 2006, total employment in Canada increased at an annual average rate of 1.7%, the fastest percentage increase among the Group of Seven (G7) nations. Employment growth was strongest in Alberta and British Columbia, with the fastest growth occurring in the mining and oil and gas extraction industries.
Read analysis in the article "Canada's Changing Labour Force, 2006 Census".
See the slide presentation (PDF, 248 Kb) of major findings.
Education: Profile of adult population aged 25 to 64
Overall, 6 out of every 10 adult Canadians (between the ages of 25 and 64) had completed some form of postsecondary education in 2006, and 1 out of every 5 postsecondary graduates had studied business, management and marketing. Over half the recent immigrants (who arrived between 2001 and 2006) had a university degree. This was more than twice the proportion of degree holders among the Canadian-born population (20%).
Read analysis in the article "Educational Portrait of Canada, 2006 Census".
See the slide presentation (PDF, 123 Kb) of major findings.
Find these slide presentations and articles in the Census of Canada resources page, under 'Key resources': look under 'Topics' for 'Labour force' and 'Education'.
To find data tables, click on the 'Data' tab: the 2006 tables on labour and education are now incorporated in Community Profiles, E-STAT, Census tract profiles and Highlight tables.
Education Matters: Literacy skills and achievements in science
In the February 2008 issue of Education Matters, the article "Literacy skills of Canadians across the ages: Fewer low achievers, fewer high achievers" found that literacy levels have improved at the lower end of the literacy distribution among the Canadian-born population. There is also evidence that younger Canadians have lower levels of literacy than older Canadians had, at the same age and level of education.
The article "Student characteristics and achievement in science" summarizes the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment for 15-year old students. Canada was one of the few countries where science achievement was above average while the disparity between student performances was below average. However some differences in student achievement persist, which are related to student characteristics.
Health and physical education: Participation in sports
A new study shows a dramatic decline in the proportion of Canadians 15 and over who participate regularly in sports: 3 out of 10 in 2005, down from about one-half in the early 1990s. For children aged 5 to 14, the study found that 55% of boys were actively involved in sport, compared with only 44% of girls. However, the rate for girls remained stable from 1998, while the rate for boys dropped from 59%. Soccer has become the sport of choice for children, played by about 44% of both boys and girls in this age group. Soccer was followed by ice hockey, swimming and baseball. Note that sport is defined as mainly team or organized activity and does not include popular recreational physical activities such bicycling, dancing, hiking or jogging.
Read more in The Daily of February 7.
See lessons related to Health and physical education.
New in E-STAT (intermediate-secondary)
See What's new in E-STAT: 2006 Census data for labour market activities, industry, occupation, education, language of work, place of work and mode of transportation
E-STAT is an interactive research tool free to schools.
To see if your school is registered and allowed access, click on "Educational institutions registered with E-STAT".
If you are assigning homework that requires students to use E-STAT, remember to give them your school's username and password.
For help using our resources in the classroom, contact the Statistics Canada education representative in your region.
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