Using big datasets to find out what affects children’s quality of life

Suitable for 14 to 19-year-olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom or shared with students online.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 Economics, Mathematics and Social Science.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Professor Birgitta Rabe, an economist based at the University of Essex in the UK. A researcher on the Understanding Society longitudinal study, Birgitta investigates trends in education, family and labour economics and uses data from Understanding Society to inform government support for children’s well-being.
• This resource also contains an interview with Birgitta. If you or your students have a question for her, you can submit it online – go to the article using the Futurum link below and scroll to the bottom of the page. Birgitta will reply!
• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Birgitta’s research, and tasks them to devise their own Understanding Society survey.
• The PowerPoint reiterates the key points in the article and includes further talking points to encourage students to reflect on careers in economics.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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