Population Change
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Approach:  Station
ACCESS
Level: Year 4 and year 8
Focus: Understanding place value  
Resources:
Computer program on laptop computer
172kb
Questions/instructions:  

This activity uses the computer.
Click on the button which says Population Change.
The computer will tell you what to do.
 
video voiceover:
You are going to order some numbers.
On the screen you will see numbers that show how many people live in some North Island towns.
Click and drag each town onto the table in order from the largest to the smallest number of people.
   
 
% responses
2009 ('05)
y4
y8
Ordered as: 1st Tauranga 65,967 87 (80) 98 (95)
  2nd Hastings 59,142 86 (69) 96 (93)
3rd Napier 54,573 81 (86) 96 (97)
4th New Plymouth 47,763 83 (69) 96 (94)
5th Whangarei 47,137 80 (75) 95 (94)
[Population figures based on 2005, as at time of task development.]
Total score:
 5 76 (64) 94 (92)
3–4 7 (12) 2 (2)
2 3 (3) 1 (1)
1
10 (17) 2 (4)
0 4 (4)
1 (1)
Subgroup Analysis [Click on charts to enlarge] :
Year 4
Year 8
Commentary:
Placing the five towns in order by size proved easy for most students. Between 2005 and 2009 the performance of year 4 students improved a little, with no meaningful change for year 8 students. Year 4 boys scored significantly higher than year 4 girls.