Statistics Canada
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Teachers

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First-time user

Need help? Call us or send your comments.

Participated last year? Read this before starting again.

1. Get started

2. Prepare your class and complete the survey

3. Get results immediately

4. Useful materials

1. Get started

Share information about the project

Inform your principal

Please ask your principal to read the letter to the principal to learn about the project and be able to propose it to other teachers in your school.

Inform parents or caregivers

It’s a good idea to inform parents using the letter to parents or caregivers, but it’s not a formal requirement.

First-time user: Get your teacher password

Register your classes

Go to Sign in on the Teacherspage.

Enter the e-mail address you gave us when you registered as a first-time user and the teacher password we sent you by e-mail. Then press Sign in.

Your personal page will look like this:

Example 1

Select the level and specific grade, enter the number of students and the class name, and create a password.

Once submitted, the class information will appear at the bottom of the screen like in this example:

Example 2

The system will automatically generate the class ID number.

Take note of the class ID and the class password.
You will need to give these to your students so they can access the online questionnaire at the Students page.

Repeat the registration process for each participating class.

2. Prepare your class and complete the survey

Arrange Internet access

Your students will each need approximately 15 minutes of Internet access time to complete the online questionnaire. They can do it all at once in a computer lab, or one after the other on the same computer.

To properly access the online questionnaire, your web browser should be Microsoft Explorer, version 5.x or above, or Netscape, version 7.x or above.

Java script needs to be enabled on your web browser.

For instructions on how to enable Java in Microsoft Explorer, click here. For other operating systems and browsers, contact our technical help line.

If computer access is difficult in your school, you might consider asking students to complete the survey at home as homework. Or you could do the class survey by hand without contributing to the national data. Print out the survey questions, have students complete them by hand, then tabulate the responses and create the spreadsheet of results yourself.

Review and try the questionnaire

Review the appropriate survey questions for your class (grades 4 to 8 or grades 9 to 12). A printable version is available in Acrobat (PDF) format. You can also test the online questionnaire yourself.

Before completing the survey, students will have to collect and record various body measurements. At the Survey questions page, we offer a guide to taking measurements as well as some printable tools-measuring strips and worksheets.

Most students really enjoy measuring themselves and this activity increases their body-awareness as well as their measurement skills.

Have students take measurements

Before completing the survey, students will have to collect and record various body measurements. At the Survey questions page, we offer we offer a guide to taking measurements as well as some printable measurement tools: measuring strips and worksheets.

Most students really enjoy measuring themselves and this activity increases their body-awareness as well as their measurement skills.

Talk about it!

Explain Canada's national census

See the mini-course on the census designed for teachers.

Just as this class census will give information about your group, Canada's national census, taken every five years, provides a picture of our country's population. See the overview of the census of Canada.

Discuss security on the Web

Have the class discuss Internet safety rules about giving personal information online. Refer to your own school's Internet use policy.

If your school does not have such a policy, consult the Media Awareness Network website at <http://www.media-awareness.ca>.It offers many resources, including the following:

Explain that many websites have privacy policies and review the privacy statement offered on this site.

Have students respond online

Students are now ready to use the computers.

Give the students their class IDand class password. (These are displayed on your personal teacher's page after you register the class. See Register your class.)

Direct them to the Students button on the sidebar to access the online questionnaire.

Students should have no difficulty understanding the questions, which have all been previously field-tested with young people. Help any students who require assistance or clarification.

Monitor student progress

You can monitor progress online as your students are submitting their responses.

Go to Teachers, then sign in and enter your teacher password and e-mail address. At the bottom of your personal teacher's page, find the class information and click on Results. The number of students who have already completed the survey will appear at the top of the results page.

Once all your students have completed the survey, please change the class password so that no more data can be added.

3. Get results immediately

Get class results

Go to Teachers, then sign in and enter your teacher password and e-mail address. At the bottom of your personal teacher's page, find the class information and click on Results.

Click on View resultsto see a spreadsheet of the class results.

Click on View or download in Microsoft Excelto obtain the results as an Excel spreadsheet

If you are using spreadsheet software other than Excel, click on Download CSV format. The comma-separated values (CSV) format is a generic one that can be downloaded into any spreadsheet program.

Obtain Canadian and international results

Canadian results are collected throughout the school year, then summarized and posted on the website during the summer months. Access Canadian summary tables from last year's survey by clicking on Data and results on the sidebar.

We also add the Canadian results to the international databases maintained on the U.K. CensusatSchool site. From Data and results, link to the international random data selector. Follow its directions to request a random sample of survey responses from Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.

Use the learning activities

Check out ideas for lessons under Learning activities on the sidebar. These ready-to-use activities designed by Canadian teachers help students graph and analyse their own survey data and compare them with national and international results.

The lessons are sorted into elementary and secondary levels and according to math concepts.

Image - Census at School