Classroom activities – mathematics and statistics

In mathematics and statistics, students explore relationships in quantities, space, and data, which help them make sense of the world around them.

By building career-related activities into your curriculum area you are helping your students to develop the understandings, skills and attributes that they need to make positive career decisions throughout their lives.

• Display the Where to? poster for mathematics. (You can order this from Career Services.)
• Encourage critical thinking by continually relating in-class learning to out-of-class contexts.
• Allow students time to write in their learning and career plans about the skills they are learning in the subject.
• Set homework activities that include using this website to research mathematics and statistics-related occupations.
• Encourage discussion about what occupations use mathematical skills.
• Use this website to find information on average wages for a range of jobs. Supply students with the data and ask them to graph the results.
• Encourage students to use the Internet to research their role models’ career paths.

Use this website to find a number of mathematics and statistics-related occupations for your class. Ask students to each pick one occupation and then research it by:

• interviewing a famous person, or someone they know, who is in that job
• finding information on the Internet
• asking family/whānau if they know a person in the occupation who would be willing to talk about their work
  
• texting CAREER to 434 to get a career information pack posted to them.

• Invite guests from the community to speak about their career pathways.
• When developing research topics, try to include careers content. For example, research 10 mathematics or statistics-related occupations or tasks that would be involved with planning the next Rugby World Cup.
• Start a discussion about the impact mathematics and statistics have had on the world of work.
• Provide opportunities for students to do mock interviews. The focus of the interviews could be mathematics and statistics-related occupations.
• Create a careers corner in your classroom. This could feature subject/occupation-related posters, tertiary posters, magazines and books that are related to mathematics and statistics, and newspaper articles.
• When doing out-of-classroom activities try to link careers content to each activity. For example, when visiting a work setting, have a set of questions students can ask about occupations and career pathways.
• Make the most of your students’ favourite medium. For example, create an exercise involving mobile learning. Ask students to text someone about something that is relevant to what they are doing in class. (For example, they could conduct a survey via text.) This could also be an inter-class texting session. Ask students to text another student identifying three skills the latter has in your subject area.
• Encourage students to text or email Career Services and ask for information on a particular industry, occupation or course of study.
  

• Do I know what my students' career aspirations are?
• Do I have an up-to-date understanding of the importance and use of the skills I teach in mathematics and statistics in the workplace? If not, how could I brush up on that knowledge?
• Do I have support from senior management? How can I get this?
• What combination of subjects are my students taking? What is their rationale for this? How can I better help my Year 10 students during subject choice time?
• Am I encouraging students to reflect on the relevance of their learning to their options after they leave school?
• Have my students set clear goals? What other skills do they need to develop on top of mathematics and statistics for them to achieve their goals?
• How can I make the most of school events such as parent evenings?
• What do parents know about career pathways related to mathematics and statistics? How could I help parents improve their understanding of this?
• Is my school using The Real Game with junior classes? How can I utilise the mathematics component of this?
• What mathematics activities can I incorporate with careers expos?