Department of Statistics, UCLA

GAISE and many school curriculum reforms around the world aim to enhance the process of statistical inquiry across the curriculum from a very early age and to make young students statistically literate. To improve understanding of the data gathering process, its purposes and benefits to society, taking advantage of students’ interests outside the classroom to engage them in data gathering about themselves and bringing their data back to the classroom is an alternative that teachers could explore further. In this paper, we explore how the SOCCER4Stats innovative activities of Statistics South Africa could be integrated into our school’s path towards statistical literacy. The paper describes the SOCCER4Stats activities for youth and prior use of them in the International Statistical Literacy Project. The paper also assesses the incidence of interest of soccer among youth in the U.S. Discussion of the use of these activities to implement the Common Core Standards in a consistent way with GAISE is also presented.