National ASA Homepage

The Northeast Ohio Statistics
Poster Competition

Recognizing that there is a continuing need to encourage and promote the understanding and application of statistics, the Cleveland Chapter of the American Statistical Association is sponsoring a statistical poster competition that offers an avenue for students in northeast Ohio to express their creativity in the graphical analysis of data. This competition encourages our students to discover the usefulness of statistics in displaying data that occur in various contexts in their everyday lives. There has been a national statistics poster competition since 1990 in which some winners have come from northeast Ohio. This local competition will give more students the opportunity to be recognized for their efforts and will encourage even more schools to participate in the national competition.

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Application Form in Adobe AcroBat pdf format: Northeast Ohio Statistics Poster Application Form (pdf)

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WHAT IS A STATISTICAL POSTER?

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JUDGING

Entries will be judged on the basis of:

Overall impact of the display

• Does the poster immediately catch your eye?
• Is it bright and visually attractive?
• Does it draw you in to investigate the individual graphs?

Clarity of the message

• Do the important relationships and patterns in the data stand out?
• Are the conclusions obvious?

Appropriateness of the graphics for the data

Judges will be teachers of statistics and statisticians. Their decisions are final. Entries cannot be returned.

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ELIGIBILITY:

All students in K-12 public or private schools in the greater Cleveland are eligible.

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RULES:

• Posters are to measure between 18 and 24 inches high and 24 to 30 inches wide.
• Any weight of paper is permitted. Standard posterboard is recommended.
• Be sure that anything attached to the poster is affixed securely. Do not attach perishable items.
• Posters must be the original design and creation of the students.
• Subject matter is the choice of the participants. Data may be original or published. Original data must be collected by the student(s).
• Brief descriptions of the method of collection and purpose of the poster must be securely taped to the back of the poster. For published data, a reference must be given.
• Posters must not contain any marks, names or information that reveal the identity of the individual, team, school, or location.
• Students may work individually or in teams. For the K-3 category, there is no restriction on the size of the team; it may be as large as the entire class. For the other three categories, the team may have up to four students. For teams with embers from different grade levels, the highest grade level determines the entry category.

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PERMISSIONS

By submitting a poster, students must agree that all rights to their poster, including all copyrights, are assigned to and become the property of the American Statistical Association and shall be considered "work for hire" under the copyright act.

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CATEGORIES and PRIZES

There are four categories: grades K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. At least $100 in prizes is available for each category.

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ENTRY FEE and MAILING

There is no entry fee. Each poster submitted to the local competition will be entered in the national competition provided the application form for the national competition is submitted. Note that appropriate signatures must be completed on both entry forms. Each entry must include:

• Application forms (local and national) at the bottom of this page
• Poster with required descriptions (see rules) securely taped to poster back

Multiple entries may be mailed together. The best way to send them is flat between taped sheets of cardboard.

Mail to: Jerry L. Moreno Department of Mathematics and Computer Science John Carroll University University Heights, OH 44118

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DEADLINE

Entries must be received by March 20, 2008. Local winners will be chosen by May 1, 2008. National winners will be announced by June 1, 2008.

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CONTACT INFO

For application forms or further information, contact Jerry Moreno, director of the local competition, at 216-397-4681, fax 216-397-3033, or moreno@jcu.edu. Members of the Cleveland Chapter are also available to speak to your classes about this competition.

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REFERENCES

Center for Statistical Education, ASA. Student Poster Projects: Winners of the 1991-1992 ASA Competition, Dale Seymour Publications.

Cleveland, W.S. (1985). The Elements of Graphing Data, Monterey, CA: Wadsworth Advanced Books and Software.

Curcio, F.R. (1989). Developing Graph Comprehension: Elementary and Middle School Activities, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Landwehr, J.M. and Watkins, A.E. (1993, revised). Exploring Data, Palo Alto, CA: Dale Seymour Publications.

Tufte, E.R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

Wainer, H. (May, 1984). "How to Display Data Badly," American Statistician, 38 no. 2: 137-147.

Wainer, H. and Thissen, D. (Winter, 1988). "Plotting in the Modern World: Statistics Packages and Good Graphics," Chance, 1 no, 1: 10-20.

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Other Interesting Web Sites

• American Statistical Association National Poster and Project Competition Page
• Pennsylvania Poster Competition Page
• Visit the American Statistical Association Home Page
• Visit the Cleveland Chapter of the American Statistical Association Home Page