Karry Roberts, DC-ASA Secretary

The team of 11 judges includes (from left) Lance Heilbrun, Bern DeBacker, Rob Kushler, Bob Thomas, Huiyong Zheng, John Gillespie, Geoffrey Fell, Anamaria Kazanis, Ellen Barnes, and Karry Roberts. Not pictured is Alfred Hero.

Enjoying another year in a long-standing tradition as a joint special awards team at the Southeast Michigan Science Fair, the Detroit and Ann Arbor chapters judged projects on March 8. The purpose was to recognize and encourage the students’ incorporation of statistical methods in their science projects.

The fair, which took place at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, included 193 projects in the middle-school and 143 projects in the high-school divisions. To thoroughly review all 336 projects, the judges each selected a zone of the fair, reviewed all projects in that zone individually, and found projects worthy of the awards at the recognition and merit levels. They then developed a list of potential awards of excellence to share with their team and the entire group reviewed the best-of-the-best projects list.

This year, the team gave out 44 certificates of recognition for use of statistical principles and/or analysis, three certificates of merit for more detailed use of statistical methods, and three awards of excellence for outstanding use of statistical methods. Those receiving the awards of excellence received a special certificate and statistical book autographed by all the judges.

At the middle-school level, the judges gave their award of excellence to a student from Chelsea in the Experiment Physical Sciences category for “S.T.E.M. With a Cookie,” which used design of experiments.

At the high-school level, two students with a project in the Teams category received the award of excellence for their project, “Breast Cancer Drug Responsive Predictions Based on RNA Expression Signature.” This project exhibited impressive use of statistics on a complex topic. The students were from Huron High School and Community High School, both in Ann Arbor, Michigan.