How good is Australia at maths? Working with a partner, write down your answers to the following questions: 1. How good do you think Year 8 students in Australia are at Mathematics, compared with Year 8 students in other countries? 2. How do you think the maths achievements of Australian Year 8 students compare with the achievements of Year 8 students in the following countries: United States, Sweden, Armenia, Russia, South Korea, Hong Kong (which is part of China) and Indonesia?
Predict the order

3. Working by yourself, think about how the achievements of Year 8 students in the above countries compare to each other. Put the countries in order, from the lowest to the highest achievement in Year 8 maths. 4. Now work with your partner. Explain why you chose the order in your list. 5. Were there any differences between your list and your partner's? What did you agree on?
Explore Gapminder

6. You're going to explore the Gapminder world graph - , which plots the maths achievements of Year 8 students from different countries. To view the graph, follow these steps: o Launch the item, using the Gapminder world link - http://www.gapminder.org/ o Then Load Gapminder World. o Select Open Graph Menu. o Choose 'Education', then 'Asia is best in maths'. o To view the tutorial, which explains the interactive graph, select 'How to use' above the graph. o To view related videos, select the 'Video' tab in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. 7. According to Gapminder world, the achievement score for Year 8 students in Australia in 2007 was 496 out of 600. Write this result as a fraction in its simplest form. 8. Find Australia on the 2007 graph. What information can you find from the graph about Australia? Ask your teacher for help if you need it. 9. Choose a country that you'd like to investigate from the list on the right. Then, select the down arrow on the title (Income per capita) of the horizontal axis to see the related data. You can zoom in to particular areas of the graph. What do you notice?
Check your list

10. Use Gapminder world graph to find the scores of the countries listed at the beginning of this activity. Order the countries according to their maths score, from lowest to highest. (Your teacher might help you do this.) Was your predicted order close to the actual order?
Use percentages to show change over time

11. What is Australia's achievement score in 2007 as a percentage? You can use a calculator, but you need to show the operation you used. 12. How has the achievement score for Australian Year 8 students changed since 1995? You will need to use the slider at the bottom of the graph to see the scores. Explain the changes