Snapshot of data collected between September 2011 and March 2012
Help Dr Rob find if school absence data can detect flu peaks early. Get your students to analyse your school’s absence data and report on their findings.
We are looking for secondary schools in England and Wales to take part. The project starts in October 2012. You can get started now. [THIS IS NOW CLOSED]
What’s involved?
- Get started and get consent from your headteacher
- Collect and analyse your school’s absence data
- Report your findings to Dr Rob and the UCL team
[THIS IS NOW CLOSED]
[THIS IS NOW CLOSED]
[THIS IS NOW CLOSED]
Took part in 2011/12?
We ran this project over last winter. One of the reasons for doing the project was to show students that science doesn’t always produce a nice staight line or smooth curve. Or indeed that sometimes it doesn’t work at all! Last year saw the lowest incidence of flu on record and whilst we learnt about baseline levels of absence we didn’t see enough flu to justify publishing a paper. A second winter without significant levels of flu would be unprecendented so we are running the project again in the expectation that this time we will collect and analyse enough data. Read about what else has changed here.
About the graph
RCGP GP ILI consultation activity England and Wales 1988 to 2012
- National Influenza Like Illness: The number of individuals across England and Wales going to see their General Practitioner with Influenza Like Illness (per 100,000 of the population). This is data collected by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and is one of the best indicators for flu activity (read more about it here).
- Days missed due to illness: National school data showing the number of days missed due to illness (per 100 students).
You can keep up to date with Decipher my data! and the Flu! project by following us on twitter @deciphermydata and watch out for tweets marked #IASdata.
The Cotswold School
We are interested in taking part.
We would be very interested in the project and hope it includes NI
It looks at the moment as though NI will not be included because the base data we want to compare against is England and Wales only. Sorry.
I would be interested in getting my students involved in this exercise. At Rush Croft Sports College, students follow the 21st Century science curriculum and I fell tha this exercise will have a direct relevance to the curriculum. Please let me know when registration begins
Please keep me updated on decipher my data
Keep me updated on the decipher data event
good idea
fits in well with ‘How Science Works’
Please keep me updated on this project!
Wy High says yes please!
Wycombe High School in Bucks would be interested in taking part.
Please keep me updated.
Mount House School
very interested
What a great idea to get young scientists interested while they learn. If this is anything like ‘I’m A Scientist’ we are interested – please let us know when to register.
Please keep me updated.
Interested. I’m sure that our students will be ken to take part.
Interested. I’m sure that our students will be keen to take part.
We would definitely be interested!
Almondbury HIgh School, Huddersfield are interested in taking part please
Please keep me updated as I would like my students to take part
Definitely interested in taking part in this. Please keep me updated.
My school is interested in taking part too!
This sounds fantastic – very interested
Interested in the project. Please keep me updated.
Thanks.
Caister High School are interested in taking part
We are interested in taking part.
Attleborough High School.
Sounds exciting. Interested in taking part.
thank you – any resources to help students understand how to manipulate and evaluate data is very welcome!
Sounds like a fun idea to include students in real science…bring it on!
We are an FE college, so a bit older than the years you prescribe. However it would suit BTEC first work. If you want us we would be willing to take part.
loved I Am A Scientist and very keen to be a part of this project too!
We would be very interested in taking part
we have really enjoyed the I’m a Scientist events and would love to be part of this data work!
I have loved being involved in I’m a Scientist and would be very interested in getting involved in this project too.
Please keep me updated on this project
Sounds interesting. Please keep me updated!
Please keep me informed of when to register
Let me know if you would like us to tell schools about this.
Editor@goodschoolsguide.co.uk
Rushey Mead would be interested.
Great opportunity for learning!
Are you only interested in high schools? I work in a primary school and this would be an interesting project for our science club. Is there an age range you are monitoring?
We’ll discuss it with the science team, but to date we’ve been talking secondary schools.
Would be very interested in doing this with my Science Club.
I take it you don’t want Jersey schools then either?
It’s not that we don’t want you…
We’ll have a think about how schools could take part but without affecting the data analysis for the study.
Interesting. Looks good for numeracy and community links.
An other great idea:)
Our school would be interested in taking part.
Looks good. Will there be a flu outbreak this winter?
Nothing is 100% certain, but in most years there tends to be an increase in cases at some point. How big and when that is varies considerably from year to year.
Our school (Swindon Academy) would be onterested in taking part.
LGS Biology very keen to get involved.
Thornden very keen to be invovled as well!!
Stanway School in Essex would like to be involved.