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Census at School – Canada
Teacher notes –Grades 9 to 12

These notes will help you prepare your class to fill in the Census at School questionnaire.

Taking measurements

Complete the following measurements with your class and ask students to record their responses before they input the answers to the online questionnaire.

Height (Question 6)

Measure your height to the nearest centimetre without your shoes on. You could fix a tape measure to the classroom wall to help with this.

Hand span (Questions 7)

Open your hands as wide as you can. The distance between your thumb and your little finger is called a span. You need to measure it to the nearest half centimetre.

Stretch your hands out across a piece of graph paper with the half centimetre scale marked onto it.

Wrist circumference (Question 8)

Measure to the nearest millimetre using a tape measure or a piece of string and a ruler.

Foot length (Question 9)

Measure your right foot without your shoe on, to the nearest half centimetre. Use a piece of graph paper with the half centimetre scale marked on it.

Interpreting questions

The questions were designed to be simple and unambiguous, but some students may have questions about them. Feel free to help the students.

Question 1
We are only asking for the first three characters in your home postal code so that we can sort the results by region.

Question 2
"Your household" means "your home". If you have more than one home, choose the one that you spend the most time in. (Note: the term "household" is used in the national census)

Question 4
Date of birth is usually requested in numeric form: day, month and year. We are asking only the month and year so that your survey answers will remain anonymous.

Question 10
Check the box with your nearest eye colour, or choose "other" if your eyes are grey or hazel.

Question 13
"Watching live sport" means attending a sports event in person.

Question 16
The time travelled to school must be given in minutes, not hours. For example, write “70 minutes” not “1 hour 10 minutes”.

Question 18
"Being bullied" means when someone does or says things to make you feel uncomfortable or afraid.

Question 21
"Someone you look up to" could be a person who is living today or someone from the past, or even a fictional character. It's someone you admire –a role model.

Submitting the answers

Certain questions have been programmed so that only realistic answers will be accepted. Students must complete all questions, except the final request for suggestions, before the system will accept their form.

Accessing the results

As soon as the students submit their answers, you can access the results. From the Teachers' page click on Sign in and enter your teacher password. Once the students have finished submitting their data, please change the class password. This ensures that no further responses can be added to the class results.