The American Statistical Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Poster Competition and Project Competition. First-place winners received $200, a plaque, a plaque for their school, and grade-appropriate graphing calculators provided by Texas Instruments. Second-place winners received $100 and a plaque; third-place winners received $50 and a plaque; and honorable mentions received certificates.

The poster and project competitions are directed by the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability, with Linda Quinn of Cleveland State University serving as the poster competition leader and Jamis Perrett of Texas A&M University serving as the project competition leader. K–12 posters are due every year on April 1. Projects (written reports) for grades 4–12 are due every year on June 9. Visit the competitions web page for information—including previous winners, entry forms, instructional webinars, and a rubric of how the posters and projects are judged.

2011 National Poster Competition Winners

Grades K–3

First Place

Theo Ryden, Amelia VanConant, and Olivia Waite
Toilet Paper Habits?
Holland Public Schools Gifted & Talented Program
Holland, Michigan

Second Place

Erica Simon, Lauren Maransky, Hannah Redding-Gurczynski, and Madeline Ruch
Can I Sharpen My Pencil?
Highland Elementary
Abington, Pennsylvania

Third Place

Kevin Luke and Devin Vollono
What Drink Has the Most Sugar?
Stepney Elementary School
Monroe, Connecticut

Honorable Mention

Carson McCue
Groundhog Weather
The Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain
Las Vegas, Nevada

Honorable Mention

Caden Fujii
Missing Teeth
Roslyn Elementary School
Roslyn, Pennsylvania

Grades 4–6

First Place

Samantha Carpenter and Emily Marcum
When Do Students Visit the Health Office Most Often?
Estes McDoniel Elementary School
Henderson, Nevada

Second Place

Julian Perez
Boys vs. Girls Electric Match
Rydal Elementary
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania

Third Place

Sam Palmer
Txt U L8er
Ben Franklin Elementary
Indiana, Pennsylvania

Honorable Mention

Scott Hadley
Do Batteries Grow on Trees?
Central Woodlands
Ada, Michigan

Honorable Mention

Kathryn Crummitt, Hailee Emge, Trinity Pillar, and Rebecca Warfield
Whirl It, Arch It, Loop It
Arbutus Elementary School
Arbutus, Maryland

Grades 7–9

First Place

Doug Bender
Under the Weather?
Saltsburg Middle School
Saltsburg, Pennsylvania

Second Place

Ryan Hall
A Study of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Third Place (Tie)

Rose Lisi, Kyri Marinos, Jimmy McEwan, and Kristina Vetter
Choose the Cookie That’s the Best and Forget the Rest!
Madison Middle School
Trumbull, Connecticut

Third Place (Tie)

Josiah DeVizia
What Drives Fuel Prices?
Delaware Valley High School
Milford, Pennsylvania

Honorable Mention

Austin Chiu
Plants + Sugar = ?
Hyde Park Middle School
Las Vegas, Nevada

Grades 10–12

First Place

Alison Roudebush and Allison Koscianski
How Long Is a Minute?
St. Joseph Academy
Cleveland, Ohio

Second Place

Alex Aleman, Melissa Buesch, Amber Dudley, and Olivia Sloan
Obesity: The Plague of the 21st Century – Are Teens at Risk?
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Third Place

Allyson Carpenter, Kemet Omari, and Tiana Williams
How Do Birth Rates Vary?
Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Honorable Mention

Stephanie Liu
How Are Airborne Pollutants Affecting the Health of Americans?
Phillips Academy
Andover, Massachusetts

2011 Regional Poster Competition Leaders

Connecticut Chapter Statistical Poster Competition
Marianne E. Messina
Associate Director, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Global Biometric Sciences Oncology

Michigan Statistics Poster Competition
Dan Frobish
Department of Statistics, Grand Valley State University

Nevada K–12 Statistics Poster Competition
David Thiel
K–12 Mathematics Coordinator, Clark County School District

Ohio Statistics Poster Competition
Jerry Moreno
John Carroll University

Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition
Pete Skoner
Saint Francis University Science Outreach Center

Washington Statistical Society Poster Competition
Jill Montaquila
Westat and JPSM

Other Region/ASA National Poster Competition
Leader: Linda Quinn, Cleveland State University
Contact: Rebecca Nichols, ASA K–16
Education Manager

Students outside the regional competition areas submit their posters directly to the ASA office, which are then separately judged by the Washington Statistical Society as part of the “Other” region. The best posters from each region are sent to the national judging. Information about regional poster competitions and winners is available on the individual regional poster competition websites.

2011 National Project Competition Winners

Each year, the statistical project competition attracts a variety of submissions in which students from grades K–12 conduct creative studies. This year’s entries included studies regarding diaper absorbency, submarine sandwich preferences, subliminal messages, and comparisons across genders. The submission deadline for the project competition was delayed until June 9 this year to enable participation from high-school students who may have been preparing for the AP Statistics exam administered on May 11. The new deadline also made it possible for teachers who might otherwise be busy at the AP reading to assist with the competition judging. The statistical project competition was especially useful for these students because it provided them with opportunities to apply all the statistical skills they had acquired throughout the school year to solve real-world problems of interest to them. Motivation to participate in the competition included monetary awards, plaques, and new Texas Instruments calculators.

Grades 4-6

First Place

Isaac Round
The NBA Draft
Home Project
Overland Park, Kansas

Second Place

Suh Young H. Choi
Any Favor in the Flavor?
Valley View Intermediate School
Jonesboro, Arkansas

Third Place

Harish Chandrasekaran, Shankar Sundaresan, and Rohan Suri
The Relationship Between Creativity and a Sense of Responsibility
Oak Hill Elementary School, Greenbriar West Elementary School, and Hunters Woods Elementary School
Oak Hill, Virginia

Grades 7-9

First Place

Andrew Blonsky
Algae the Carbon Sponge: Optimum Temperature for Chlorella Photosynthesis
Price Creek Independent School
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Second Place

Hanel Baveja
Are Male and Female Facebook Profiles Different?
Huron High School
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Third Place

Priya Chandrasekaran, Geetika Lal, and Mallika Suri
The Relationship Between Teens’ Time-Spending Patterns and Their Personality Traits
Rachel Carson Middle School
Herndon, Virginia

Grades 10-12

First Place

Jeremiah J. Keenan
Coca-Cola’s Secret Formula – Internationally Variable?
Home school
Kowloon, Hong Kong

Second Place

Kelsey Maxwell, Tara Dearlove, and Kelli Dryer
Battle of the Genders: Dance Edition
Grand Blanc High School
Grand Blanc, Michigan

Third Place

Matthew Fligiel and Chen Chen
A Little Academic Into Men’s Shirts
Greenhills School
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Honorable Mention

Kyle Hanson
Hypothesis Testing for Homoscedasticity of the Coefficient of Restitution of Table Tennis Balls
Lathrop High School
Fairbanks, Alaska

Honorable Mention

Ioana Soaita and Lulu Zhong
Facebook Requests From Strangers: Does Acceptance Differ by Gender of Requestor?
East Lyme High School
East Lyme, Connecticut

Honorable Mention

Ian Donastorg
Ye Old Windbags
Grand Blanc High School
Grand Blanc, Michigan

Get Involved

For information about how to start a regional poster competition or mentor students in your area, see the article appearing in the July issue of Amstat News. You can download a flyer about the ASA poster and project competitions and other K–12 statistics education programs and resources to share with your local schools at the bottom of the ASA education website. For additional information or questions regarding how to get involved, contact ASA K–16 Education Manager Rebecca Nichols at rebecca@amstat.org.