Skills and Objectives:
● Students will recognize the importance of the census and the need to encourage
others to participate in the census.
● Students will identify the potential concerns of different segments of the population.
● Students will design an advertisement for Census 2000.
FUTURE FOCUS
Community Involvement
Suggested Groupings:
Small groups
Getting Started:
● Discuss with students the impor-
tance of getting involved in their
community and helping to increase
census awareness. As a way of doing
this, students will develop census
ads. The goal is to choose a specific
segment of the population as their
target audience and encourage them to
participate in the census, thereby helping
the Census Bureau achieve an accurate count
of the population.
● Explain that conducting a decennial census is
a tremendous undertaking. For American Samoa,
the U.S. Postal Service will deliver Advance
Census Reports (ACRs) to all households. Each
household is asked to complete the form and hold
it until a census worker picks it up. If the household
has not completed it, then the census worker
conducts a personal interview to complete the
census questionnaire.
● Brainstorm about the importance of participating
in the census and the ways in which census data
affect our future. (Examples include: allocating
money for education and transportation.)
Using the Activity Worksheets:
● Photocopy and distribute the Activity
Worksheets on pages 18 and 19.
● Divide students into small groups. Have groups
read the text and do the first activity
on page 18.
● After groups complete the first
activity, have volunteers explain how
results of the census might affect the
people represented by the various
household categories.
● Before students begin designing their
ads, encourage them to think of
examples of other public service cam-
paigns. You might discuss ad campaigns
designed to encourage people to register to vote, or
to discourage people from drinking and driving.
● You may wish to offer students the opportunity
to select the ty