Campbell Bequest
Fund
The NZSA were the recipients of a very
generous donation ($48,000) from Professor Campbell’s estate. A group of the
executive met to discuss options for use of this money, and recommended to the
executive that the bequest be invested and interest from this be made available
for special projects. The amount of funding available each year would be roughly
$1500.
Applications would be received twice a year (April/October) for funding of
special projects that were within the interests of Professor Campbell.
Applications should be made to the Convenor of the Awards
Committee. The use
of the funds in this way was considered against the option of allocating all, or
a substantial part of the money, to a major project now. Given there is no major
project immediately obvious, and without wanting to preclude the money being
available for a worthy project at a later date, the "spend interest-only" option
was adopted. The use of the fund would be reviewed in 5 years.
To better understand Professor Campbell’s interests, the
following is summarised from a transcript of an interview of Professor Campbell
with David Vere-Jones and Sharleen Forbes in 1987:
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the importance of a good mathematical foundation for any
teaching of statistics;
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the likelihood of developments in mathematics being
stimulated by the needs of the social sciences, and the role that women, in
particular, will play in this;
-
more generally the need to help women mathematicians;
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the responsibility he felt towards ‘second-tier’ students -
the ‘elite’ ones were seen as ‘self-propelling’;
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effective connections between schools and universities;
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the importance of instilling intellectual honesty - much
wider than just mathematics.
Overall he had
a vision of mathematics and statistics as a unified whole.
Also, in
recognition of Professor Campbell, the NZSA have the NZSA Campbell Award. The
purpose of the award is to promote statistics in NZ and to recognise an
individual’s contribution to the promotion and development of statistics.
For more details see the award page.
Professor
Campbell is pictured below, lecturing a 1962 Honours class. The NZSA is
extremely grateful for his generosity.
The Otago Survey
of Statisticians
2003: A Campbell Bequest Fund grant of $1000 was made in 2003 to cover
postage in a University of Otago survey of PhD graduates from six of the New
Zealand Universities in a range of subjects which have statistics prerequisites.
The graduates had had two years in which to find employment because the purpose
of the study was to discover what statistical techniques these graduates were
using in the workplace and discover if there were any deficiencies in their
university statistics training. A total of 977 graduates responded to our postal
survey. This represented a 40% response rate after follow up, which raised
the number of respondents from around 780 to the 977.
One paper has been published in SERJ (Statistics Education Research Journal).
The reference is
Harraway, J.A. and Barker, R.J. Statistics in the workplace: a survey of use by
recent graduates with higher degrees. Statistics Education Research Journal,
4(2): 43-58 (2005).
A second report was presented at ICOTS7 in Brazil where an item response
analysis on the data was reported. The reference is
Harraway, J.A. and Andrade, D.F. An item response analysis of statistics use in
the workplace. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Teaching
Statistics, Salvador Bahia, Brazil. International Statistical Institute.
Voorburg, the Netherlands (2006).
The New Zealand Statistician on CD project
2002-2004: The journal archive of the New Zealand Statistician (the official
journal of the NZSA between 1966 and 1997) was converted to pdf format
and a CD published of the entire contents of the NZS. This project was supervised by Murray
Jorgensen and Harold Henderson. The total cost of the project was $1208.
About 100 copies of the CD have been distributed to September 2007. For
further information see:
NZSA 'New Zealand Statistician' Page
NZSA and the NZAMT Conference
The NZSA has
supported the New Zealand Association of Mathematics Teachers' Conference
through the sponsorship of the following invited and Plenary speakers:
|
1999
(Dunedin)
|
Jane Watson
University of Tasmania
|
|
2001
(Wellington)
|
Gail Burrill
Former President of the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics (USA)
|
|
2003
(Hamilton)
|
Jeff Witmer
Oberlin College (USA)
|
|
2005
(Christchurch)
|
Helen Chick
University of Melbourne
|
|
2007
(Auckland)
|
Maxine Pfannkuch
University of Auckland
|
|
2009 (Palmerston North)
|
Cliff Konold
University of Massachusetts (USA)
|
For
the up and coming 2011 NZAMT conference NZSA
has provided funds to support Professor Helen MacGillivray (Queensland University of Technology) as the Plenary speaker for Statistics.
The Educational
DVD Project
2005-2006:
The DVD: "Statistics in Research:
A Visual Teaching Resource" was created by John Harraway (University of
Otago) and filmed at and subsequent to the NZSA 2005 Conference in Dunedin.
It
is now available through the CASM Unit, University of Otago. It
contains nine case studies, and has an accompanying data CD. See the
linked pdf file for full details. It was edited by John Harraway and Robert van der Vyver,
and jointly sponsored by NZSA, with a $750 grant from the Campbell Bequest
Fund, and HEDC, University of Otago. Most of the publication run of 250 copies
has
now been sold; if you are interested in obtaining a copy please email
Irene Goodwin at the CASM Unit,
University of Otago. For further information see these web pages:
NZSA
Newsletter Report
Promotional Flier
CASM
Unit order form
John Harraway
writes (12 September 2007):
The grant of $750 was received in 2005 to assist with development of a DVD
and CD for school use and for use in teaching some preliminary classes at
University. The DVD contains movies and powerpoints of seven researchers at
the University of Otago plus some material from Statistics New Zealand. The
CD contains the data used by the researchers and it is hoped this may
provide ideas for project work in schools. 250 DVD/CD packs were produced.
There are 27 remaining. About 195 have been purchased by schools in New
Zealand for use in year 13 and the balance of 28 have been distributed to
the presenters and the Education Committee of the New Zealand Statistics
Association. The grant was used to pay for a member of staff of the Higher
Education Development Unit at the University of Otago to travel to
Christchurch to record the contributions from Statistics New Zealand. Also
to help with the cost of production of the DVD/CD pack in Auckland. It was
not intended to profit from the sales, just to break even.
The idea for the DVD/CD developed at the NZ Statistics Association
Conference in Dunedin in 2005. Papers have been presented on the DVD at the
NZ Statistics Association Conference in Christchurch in 2007. The material
in the DVD/CD may be slightly complicated for school use. But the project
was a move into the unknown. It is hoped that a second DVD/CD can be
produced involving the advice from a school teacher to ensure that the
product is presented at the appropriate level. There is some interest in
this from the American Statistics Association Journal STATS: the magazine
for students of statistics.
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference 2008
2008: A grant of $500 was provided to support statistical students
travelling to this conference, which was held in Whitianga in November 2008.
Report on the New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference,
November 2008
Building on the success of the New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference, held last year in
2007 in Queenstown. This meeting, like last year, included Honours, Masters and Doctoral students who are affiliated
with Universities in New Zealand. There were 63 Mathematics and Statistics postgraduate students, from all of the
New Zealand Universities, who travelled to Whitianga for this three day meeting. The talks at the meeting were
diverse, ranging in topic from Representation theory to Queueing theory, from Phylogenetics to Topology. The quality
of presentations was high with all students taking up the challenge of explaining their work to a more diverse audience
than other conferences. Mareike Fischer’s presentation titled, “Why DNA Sequences can be Perfectly Misleading” was
chosen for the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics & its Applications (NZIMA) Best Presentation Award. Peter
(Johnny) Humphries’s Recreational Mathematics presentation on “Nesting Polynomials in Infinite Radicals” earned
him the Peoples’ Choice Award sponsored by Hoare Research Software (HRS).
The meeting was co-directed by Howard Cohl and Alethea Rea from the Departments of Mathematics and the
Department of Statistics respectively at the University of Auckland and organised by Maarten Jordens and Haydn
Cooper at Massey Albany, Beata Faller at the University of Canterbury, Dion O’Neale at Massey Palmerston North,
and Lyndon Walker of the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland.
Funding was given
by the The University of Auckland Department of Mathematics, The University of
Auckland Department of Statistics, The New Zealand Institute of Mathematics &
its Applications, The New Zealand Mathematical Society, The Institute of Information and Mathematical Sciences at Massey University, Albany, The New
Zealand Institute of Advanced Study at Massey University, Albany, Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics, The New Zealand Statistical Association, and Hoare Research Software Ltd. The success of this
conference indicates that it should be a fixture on the New Zealand Mathematical Conference scene. Keep on rolling
on to NZMASP 2009!
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference 2009
2009: A grant of $500 was provided to support statistical students
travelling to this conference, which was held in Foxton in November 2009.
Report on the
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference,
November 2009
For three days last month the normally quiet seaside township of Foxton Beach
became a hive of mathematical and statistical enterprise with the 3rd annual New Zealand Maths And Statistics Postgraduate conference, NZMASP,
held there over the 23rd-26th November 2009. As in previous years, the conference was well attended (57 students enrolled from honours, masters,
and doctorate degrees) and was well represented by most of the New Zealand universities.
There was also a good spread of subjects with approximately 1/3 each of the talks split between pure mathematics,
applied mathematics, and statistics.
The student presentations were very enjoyable and the attendees gained valuable experience
and an opportunity to test out and refine their talks ahead of bigger events such as the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium. Of particular note were talks
from Shannon Ezzat (university of Canterbury) who took out the best pure mathematics talk, Rachael Tappenden (University of Canterbury) who presented
the best applied mathematics talk, Lyndon Walker (University of Auckland) who won the best statistics talk, and Yousaf Habib (University of Auckland)
who was voted the "peoples choice" for 2009. Also, two members of the "Calcium Mafia" (their words, not mine!), Emily Harvey and Katie Sharp,
from the University of Auckland were highly commended.
The meeting was co-directed by Atheer Matroud and Luke Fullard of the
Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University and organised by Haydn Cooper at Massey Albany, Brigid Betz-Stablein at IFS, Massey,
Christopher Ball at Victoria University, Shannon Ezzat of the University of Canterbury, and Aidin Jalilzadeh of the University of Otago.
The conference organisers would like to thank the sponsors of this event for
encouraging and enabling the professional development of postgraduate students throughout New Zealand. The sponsors this year were:
NZMS;
NZIMA;
ANZIAM;
NZSA;
Hoare Research Software Ltd.;
Statistics New Zealand;
SAS;
Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University;
Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Canterbury;
Mathematics and Statistics Department, University of Auckland;
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, Victoria University.
Student feedback received from the NZMASP conferences included:
"NZMASP was a good opportunity to network with other maths and stats postgrad students.
On both a social and professional research level this was very valuable."
"Getting to see stats, applied maths and pure maths talks gave students the opportunity to see what was being done in related disciplines.
There were actually strong links between some of the work done in applied maths and stats, i.e. work in genetics and biomath/stats modelling.
I think there was definitely value in having the 3 groups together."
"NZMASP was a good opportunity for more senior postgraduate students to have the experience of: chairing sessions, organising + running a conference,
evaluating abstracts etc."
We all look forward to the 2010 event. We hope this conference becomes an institution for the mathematics and statistics postgraduate students of New Zealand.
Women in Statistics Conference 20.10.2010
2010: A grant of $500 was provided to support the Women in Statistics
Conference.
The Conference, hosted by the Victoria University’s School of Government and held at Victoria University, was well attended with 55
registrations and a number of on-the-day attendees from a range of backgrounds. Statistics New Zealand, the New Zealand Statistics
Association, the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA), the Statistics Department and Faculty of Science
of Auckland University, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at University of Canterbury and the School of Mathematics,
Statistics and Operations Research at Victoria University all provided sponsorship. This covered administrative costs, attendance
at the conference and catering (morning and afternoon teas and a light lunch).
Hon Pansy Wong, Minister of Women’s Affairs, opened the Conference and enthusiastically promoted the importance of statistics.
As well as acknowledging pioneers in gender equity in statistics education she instanced statistics of direct relevance to women,
such as the gender pay gap. The Chair for the Conference was Kim Hill who unfortunately was available for the afternoon only.
However, she was a lively interjector often providing an alternative perspective and an air of levity. The six speakers
presented a range of papers and perspectives designed both to convey information and to stimulate discussion
(a full programme is attached).
Professor Natalie Jackson’s paper, made parallels between the life of Rita, in the 1983 film ‘Educating Rita’
(a 26 year old Liverpudlian who enrolled in Britain’s Open University in an attempt to improve her situation)
and New Zealand women at that time. She made the point that women have increasingly embarked upon further
education as their families grew older, showing graphically the gaps between early study and further tertiary
education for successive cohorts. However, increasing education and decreasing reproduction has not necessarily
advantaged women with the burden of student debt taking longer to pay off with the gender pay gap.
Lisa Davies, discussed the use of statistics to inform Maori development policy focussing on the research behind the
Closing the Gaps initiatives in 1998 and 2000 that Maori had poorer outcomes than the rest of the population. She
pointed out some of the controversies that arose from this ‘deficit-model’ and how it led to the concept of Whanau
Ora (based on the logic that service delivery was the key impediment to improving Maori outcomes and that the whanau
not the individual should be the focus of public policy). She advocated tertiary institutions providing statistics as
a core component of qualifications as evidence-based policy would require a growing pool of statisticians.
Sharleen Forbes stressed the importance of visualising data and provided examples from currently available sources including
www.worldmapper.org and www.gapminder.org
together with a range of tools in current use by national statistics offices.
These included population pyramids, a tool for looking within the CPI, and the application of GeoVista software to 2006
Census data in Auckland city. She also cautioned that new ways of looking at available data were often not useful for small
populations or when not sure of the data quality.
Megan Clark’s talk covered the use of statistics by organisations where a minor statistic can be blown-up by the media to become an item.
However, quantification where none is necessary, can be interpreted as attempts to mislead. She warned of the danger of using statistics
in isolation and that throwing in numbers to ‘authenticate’ policy was becoming increasingly common and that the production of statistics
by government agencies was occupying increasing numbers of staff positions.
Jennifer Brown presented some of her statistics research in environmental monitoring of endangered and pest species, both here in NZ
and overseas. In a very visual talk she discussed the use of adaptive and spatially balanced sampling in possum monitoring and the
estimation of rare and endangered populations (such as the Pyrenees Desman or the Crau Plain grasshopper) or early detection of threats
to our biosecurity (such as weeds).
The day was rounded off by Rachael Milicich giving a personal account of how statistics have influenced her life and how they continue
to do so. She presented birth, marriages and employment figures at the time of these events in her life and compared them with other time
periods. She also discussed her work managing National Accounts and with the Sustainable Development indicators in Statistics New Zealand.
Conference Speakers: Jennifer Brown, Lisa Davies, Pansy Wong, Sharleen Forbes, Megan Clark and Natalie Jackson.
That the attendees enjoyed the day was evidenced by the number who stayed to chat for an hour or so after the conference had formally ended
and from the emails since received. A number of requests have already been made for copies of the presentations (including from the Minister
of Women’s Affairs) and these are available from lu.folau@stats.govt.nz.
I would like to offer my personal thanks to all of the people and organisations that contributed to the success of this conference.
Sharleen Forbes
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference 2010
2010: An award of $500 was made to support the 2010 New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics postgraduate conference, held 21-25 November at Westport.
ISLP Poster Competition
2010: A grant of $500 was made towards the national prizes for the
International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP)
International Poster Competition. The mission of this ISI organisation is to support, create and participate in statistical
literacy activities and promotion around the world. The aim of the poster competition is to promote statistics
learning and education at school level.
Congratulations to Asha, Swashna and Sasha (Mission Heights Junior College) and
Megan, Jack and Mitchell (Cashmere Primary School) for coming first equal in the ISLP National Statistics Competition.
Click here for a report on the Competition.
Results of the International Competition
Congratulations to Megan, Jack and Mitchell for their success in the International Competition.
Their poster, "Can you predict the weather at midday by looking out your window in the morning?", won third prize
in the intermediate section. For more information visit the Online Newsletter #73.
Developing Bootstrapping and Randomisation in New Zealand High Schools
2011: An award of $546 was made to John Harraway (University of Otago) to fund travel costs associated with a large
project on the development of bootstrapping and randomisation in New Zealand high schools.
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference 2011
2011: An award of $500 was made to Michael Snook in support of the organization of the 2011 New
Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference, which took place at Silverstream Retreat
(near Upper Hutt) in November.
Report on the
New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference,
November 2011
This year the New Zealand Postgrad Conference was located in Silverstream. The
weather was a little bit erratic. However, this was not able to dampen the mood
of the attendees as a good time was had by all. Everybody came away with new
friends, providing a great jump start to their network of colleges for their careers. This is a great result
as these people will likely be the future mathematicians and statisticians of New Zealand
and its creating such networks of friends that convince masters students to become PhD
students and PhD students to continue on into academia.
The three invited speakers (Mike Plank from the University of Canterbury, Richard
Penny from Statistics New Zealand and Peter Donelan from Victoria University of Wellington) all gave great talks accessible to an audience with a wide range of backgrounds. On
that note, all the student talks were of a high quality. In particular, those students who
had never presented at a conference before managed to ignore their nerves and deliver
great talks. This is a large part of the motivation behind the conference and it was quite
clear how much less intimidating for the first time students presenting at this conference
was.
Congratulations should go to the prize winners. The prize for best pure maths talk
went to Ben Clark of Victoria University of Wellington. Victoria University of Wellington student Melissa Welsh also got the prize for the best applied mathematics talk. The
statistics prize went to Daniel Turek from the University of Otago. Finally the prize for
best talk voted by the students went to Edoardo Persichetti of the University of Auckland.
A big thank you to our sponsors: Institute of Information and Mathematical Science,
the New Zealand Statistics Association, Hoare Research Software, the Royal Society of
New Zealand, the University of Auckland Department of Mathematics, the New Zealand
Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Australia and New Zealand Industrial
and Applied Mathematics, the New Zealand Mathematics Society and the Department
of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research at Victoria University of Wellington.
Without your generosity this conference would not have happened.
We all look forward to next year where this conference will be tentatively held in
Auckland or Dunedin. With the number of great enthusiastic people at the conference I
am sure the future of NZMASP is in good hands.
Michael Snook
Victoria University of Wellington
