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Introducing students to the Statistics Canada Website
by Joel Yan

Suggestions for getting students started on data projects using the Statistics Canada website
1. Distribute free copies of the Canada at a Glance booklet to introduce students to the type of data Statistics Canada produces and makes available on its website. You can order free class sets of this booklet. This booklet can also be viewed online.
 
2. To introduce students to how data can be used to examine major issues affecting Canada, look at Societal Indicators. This electronic publication contains graphs and tables illustrating health, environmental, economic and social issues, such as youth crime, labour force participation by sex, attendance at religious services, and voting participation in federal elections.
 
3. Ask your students to browse Canadian statistics to find a table relating to a topic of interest. Note that the “Source” line (at the bottom of each table) indicates where to find more detailed information on this topic. In most cases, the source links to the table number on CANSIM, the time series database. For example, select in sequence Justice and Crime, Crimes, and finally Crimes by type of offence.
 
4. To further explore the data in a Canadian Statistics table, record the corresponding CANSIM table number. You can later retrieve that detailed table at no cost through E-STAT, the interactive database available free to schools through the Learning Resources page. Just click on Search CANSIM II and enter the specific table number.
5. Once you have retrieved time series or tables of interest in E-STAT, you can add new series from the more than ten million time series within CANSIM, in order to explore possible relationships among the selected variables. (Include example here)
 
6. Once you open up a specific CANSIM table, you may find a link to the latest article from The Daily, highlighting the most recent release of that data. The Daily is Statistics Canada’s online newsletter that provides new information almost every working day.  Note: no data or information is made available without first being announced in The Daily.
 
7. To find other Daily articles related to your topic, you can Search the Daily.  For example, a search on “youth crime” reveals several articles, including a report on 2000 Crime Statistics that highlights the youth crime rate.
 
 8. E-STAT also contains hundreds of free articles organized by topic. On the E-STAT Table of contents page, click the Articles button at the top, then select the topic of interest.
 
9. Many tables in Canadian Statistics also have a link to information about how the data in the table were collected. At the bottom of the table, click on "Statistical data documentation" to learn about the survey that collected the data, including the actual questionnaire. You can also obtain information on all Statistics Canada surveys in the Statistical methods section of the Statistics Canada site.
 
10. Though many publications are for sale, we offer hundreds of free downloadable publications, listed by subject.
 
11. If you are interested in demographic data for communities, look at community profiles. Or explore the detailed online maps that provide population counts for different geographic boundaries, including cities, towns, and neighborhoods (census tracts). The Census page gives access to the latest information and maps from the Canadian Census of Population and Agriculture.
 
12. Health indicators provides a wide range of information for Canada, provinces and health regions.
 
13. If you are considering doing your own survey, Statistics: Power from Data  provides helpful tips on data collection and graphing.
 
File: Education/curriculum links/ introducing students to STC site for data projects Updated: August 26, 2002