[Yr11 Information Technology] [Year 12 IT Apps] Data source

[Esther Andrews]

That is the dilemma - to find unprocessed data that is not huge and incomprehensible.

I'm rather taken with the RSPCA annnual report.
Lots of data in there, and quite a few visualisations - the fiscal graph is like no other I've seen!
http://www.rspcavic.org/documents/About%20us/Annual%20Report/RSPCA-Annual-Report-2011.pdf
I'm thinking of asking students to prepare a report for the newspaper: "There have been a number of letters to the editor in the Bendigo Advertiser complaining that the local RSPCA is not doing its job, that the animals are not finding good homes, that the money is not being well spent. You suspect these comments are ill-informed. Prepare an unbiassed report that includes data visualisations that clarify the issue."
It has summary data but I'm asking students to extract the data from it and present it in a different way.
But if that doesn't eventuate, I'll just show the student the report as an example.

I'm keen to read other people's ideas!

Esther Andrews | Admin Systems Developer, IT and Maths Teacher
Bendigo Senior Secondary College
Box 545 | BENDIGO | Victoria  3552   Australia
B +61 3 5443 1222 | F  +61 3 5441 4548
andrews.esther at bssc.edu.au<mailto:andrews.esther at bssc.edu.au>
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________________________________
From: yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au [yr11it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark KELLY [kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 6 March 2012 12:49 PM
To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Yr11 Information Technology] [Year 12 IT Apps] Data source

Thanks for that, Paula. I was just about to start seriously looking at data sources for U1O1.

After a brief browse I found some psychiatric admissions data at
http://mhsa.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147484124&libID=2147484121
which might be good to work with.

If I stripped out the summary data so the kids had to work out their own formulas, they could then chart their results.  It would not be too hard to modify the data so they'd need to use vlookup to look up procedure names from codes, etc.

On 6 March 2012 12:11, Christophersen, Paula P <christophersen.paula.p at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:christophersen.paula.p at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Dear colleagues

The following government website is a very rich source of data for many different aspects of IT.

http://data.gov.au/

Regards
Paula

Paula Christophersen
ICT Curriculum Manager
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
Authority
(03) 9651 4378<tel:%2803%29%209651%204378>



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Mark Kelly
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au<mailto:kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
VCE IT Lecture Notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IT Applications Edulist<http://www.edulists.com.au/>

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