It’s not every day that you get asked
to explain what you do in your day-to-day job to someone outside your work. But
I am always up for a challenge and because I like being a statistician I generally
think it shouldn't be too difficult.
Well they were my long held thoughts
until a local headmaster approached me to give a talk to a group of primary
school children. The request came about because the school was due to hold a work
focus week. As part of this exercise several parents were asked if they could provide
presentations about the content of their work.
I tried to think about how I could
describe my job in simple but easily understandable terms. I had previously read
about the Up-Goer Five Text Editor,
which challenges you to explain hard ideas using only the 'ten hundred' most
common words, and I thought I would try and describe my job using only words from the list. This is what I came up with, and it allowed me to focus on
what I should deliver in a presentation to the children:
I work
with numbers and I have always worked with numbers. I write things on a
computer that lets me get these numbers and allows me to handle them. I speak
to people about them, and then I put them out using a paper which groups them
all together. My work can be hard to understand and some do not
accept it without a get together before they are taken seriously. Sometimes
people don't like the numbers and that causes some problems, they may be
against what they say. Other times, maybe when the numbers go down, they
are liked by everyone. In the end, I like to think that my work helps to give all
people a better life.
So I started with a blank sheet of
paper and for a while I was stumped, and then it occurred to me that I should
give a talk about the names of children born in Scotland. In this way I could
engage the children in a discussion about data collection, analysis and
interpretation, and finally dissemination. Of course, I didn’t use those words
exactly but they are the specialist skills that we need to develop as
professional statisticians.
Armed with my presentation I headed to
the school’s classroom. Forty children aged between 8 and 10 years old were in
attendance, and they were accompanied by their teachers. There wasn’t much space
available so some children sat on the floor, others in the room sat at their
tables.
As
an introduction I said to the children why I liked numbers and then I gave them
some idea about the kind of numbers we can encounter in our everyday working lives.
To ensure there was some interaction I asked them if they knew about numbers
that included a decimal point, and others that started with £ and % - they were
very forthcoming. I covered some of my other examples over and asked the group
if they could think of any that remain. Someone enthusiastically put their hand
up, and after my acknowledgement they replied “Yes, euros”.
Given
it was work focus week it was of course appropriate that I went on to tell them
about how I came into my career as a statistician and the training I had
undertaken. Subsequently I then discussed my specific example of statistics i.e. the names of children born in Scotland. Here are two slides that I used to
provide an example of these statistics. I didn't just want to give them a
presentation and end up with 40 blank faces, so I continued with the
interaction approach ….
A boy called Ethan put his hand up and said that
his name was at the top – he knew several Ethan’s at schools in Edinburgh, then
Sophie put her hand up. After hearing from quite a few children I then revealed
the answer. Ethan was at number 5 and I gave them several reasons why it went
against the thoughts of Ethan in the class e.g. Edinburgh may not reflect the
national figures, and it is now at least 8 years after they were born and times
change.
I hadn't originally
appreciated how much interest my statistics example would generate. I have only paraphrased a small part of the discussion. At the time this made me realise
how passionate I am about statistics. It also let me flow into a final
discussion about why we need to work and I gave several examples of this.
In summary, the presentation was
received with so much enthusiasm and nearly every one of the children asked at
least one question. I have transcribed the comments of one of the children who
commented after the event:
“Thank you for coming
in I liked all the new facts you told us about. I never knew that people made
charts of names and other similar stuff. I enjoyed doing the wee sums you asked
us. Your job looks exciting, I might want to do it when I'm older. I thought it
was very interesting when you told us about the numbers you used and the
charts. It looked complicated. I’d like a job a little like yours because I
like doing maths. Thank you for coming in to talk to us and for giving up your
time.”
Ian Morton has worked as a
statistician for a number of years. In 2013, he entered his presentation into
The Greenfield Challenge (a competition run by the European Network of Business
and Industrial Statisticians (ENBIS)), and he won an award of book tokens for
his contribution.
Note: The views expressed are his own
and do not represent the views of any organisation he has worked for in the
past or at present.
