ASA 2021 Data Visualization Poster and Statistics Project Competitions Winners Announced

First-place winners receive $300, a certificate, and grade-appropriate graphing calculators for themselves and their advisers provided by Texas Instruments. Second-place winners receive $200 and a certificate; third-place winners receive $100 and a certificate; and honorable mentions receive certificates.

The poster and project competitions are directed by the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on Curriculum in Statistics and Probability. The 2021 ASA Data Visualization Poster Competition leader is Jennifer Broatch of Arizona State University. Michelle Larson of the University of Iowa is the head project competition leader.

Posters, submitted digitally either as photos of physical posters or a new digitally created poster, are due every year on April 1. Projects (written reports) for grades 7–12 are due every year on June 1.

Visit the website for details, including previous winners, entry forms, instructional webinars, and the rubrics used for judging the posters and projects.

2021 Regional Poster Competition Leaders

Connecticut Chapter Statistical Poster Competition
Zhou Fan, Yale University

Kansas/Western Missouri Statistics Poster Contest
Ananda Jayawardhana, Pittsburg State University

Michigan Statistics Poster Competition
Dan Adrian, Grand Valley State University

Nevada K–12 Statistics Poster Competition
Alicia Hansen, Past President, Nevada Chapter of the ASA

Ohio Statistics Poster Competition
Jerry Moreno, John Carroll University

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

Pullman, Washington Statistics Poster Competition
Dean Johnson, Washington State University

Southern California Statistics Data Visualization Poster Competition
Rebecca Le, County of Riverside / California State University, Long Beach

Washington Statistical Society Poster Competition (DC Metro Area)
Elizabeth Petraglia, Westat

ASA National Data Visualization Poster Competition
Leader: Jennifer Broatch, Arizona State University
Contact: Rebecca Nichols, ASA Director of Education

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 on regional poster competitions and winners are available on the individual regional poster competition websites.

2021 National Project Competition Winners

Each year, the Statistics Project Competition attracts a wide variety of submissions from students in grades 7–12 who have completed creative studies. The submission deadline for the project competition is June 1 to enable participation from high-school students who may be preparing for the AP Statistics exam administered in mid-May. The competition is especially useful for these students because it provides them with opportunities to apply the statistical skills they have acquired throughout the school year to solve real-world problems of interest to them.

Grades 7–12

First Place
Nicholas Burnell
The Need for Cryptocurrency Regulation Is Backed by Statistical Evidence
Hunter College High School
New York, New York

Judges’ Comments: This project addresses a timely issue and successfully uses statistical analysis to support their conclusion. The regression approach is clearly explained and well executed. Although the graphics are small (Note: adjacent bars in a histogram should touch), they are not distracting as the overall patterns could clearly be seen. The details of regression analysis were recognized and addressed; the use of R2 compared with the R2 values between other asset classes was notable.

Second Place
Emilie Kim
Various Nitrogen-Based Fertilizer Applications and Their Influence on the Growth of Cyanobacteria
McLean High School
McLean, Virginia

Judges’ Comments: The judges found the topic of this project to be of general interest; references were included and correctly cited. The description of the experiment was thorough and well written, and the images added to the understanding of the research process. It was not clearly stated that the placement of the experimental units onto the table by the windowsill was random, although different amounts of sunlight was mentioned as a potential issue in the reflection section. The conclusion could have been stated more definitively but, overall, this project was very strong.

Third Place
Anna Nguyen and Melanie Gresser
Soggy Cereal
Canyon Crest Academy
San Diego, California

Judges’ Comments: The judges enjoyed this unique project. The researchers provided much thought and detail in describing their procedure and defined an interesting way to determine “soggy.” The details of the experiment were clearly described, but the difference between experimental units and treatments and their roles in an experiment was not clearly demonstrated. The graph presented is not a segmented bar graph which would have been a nice visual comparison of the different distributions.

Honorable Mentionhttps://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2021HonorableMentionProjectWinner.pdf
Hans Xu
The Effect of Microplastics on Radish Growth
Century High School
Rochester, Minnesota

Judges’ Comments: The judges were pleased with the original research and investigative nature of this project. The reflection correctly indicated the limited scope of the results. By measuring small masses to only tenths of a gram, responses resulted in only five unique values affecting the overall analysis. Graphics were appropriate but the data used in the “difference graph” is unclear (were the data paired?); graphs would provide a better visual comparison if they were constructed using the same scales

2021 National ASA Data Visualization Poster Competition Winners

Grades K–3

First Place
Jun-Hur Erian Cheng
How Does Screen Time Affect Kids’ Health?
Data Scientist Jr. Program
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Second Place
Anjalika Mukherjee
How Children Are Learning in Public Schools in the United States Since COVID-19 Pandemic
Cougar Ridge Elementary
Bellevue, Washington

Third Place
Shriya Madhavan
United States Unemployment 2020 During COVID-19 Pandemic
STEM School Highlands Ranch
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Honorable Mention
Mubashwir Ariyan
Shaping Habits of Elementary School Kids
Dorothy C Goodwin School
Mansfield, Connecticut

Honorable Mention
Dr. Petrick’s Third Grade Class
What BIG “Conversations” Can We Have with Small “Hearts?”
Timmons Elementary School
Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Grades 4–6

First Place
Paavani Tewari
Fast and Furious: Fires in California
Clague Middle School
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Second Place
Joshua Bie
What Happened to Netflix Movies Between 2015 and 2020?
Data Scientist Jr.
Agoura Hills, California

Third Place
Students: Carter Shannon and Connor Shannon
The Rotten Race
Rydal Elementary School
Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania

Honorable Mention
Aarush Bagchi, Samarth Agrawal, Ashriya Kshirsagar, and Ishaan Mondal
Blood Bites
Country Meadows Elementary School
Long Grove, Illinois

Honorable Mention
Michelle Harrow
Does People’s Favorite Song Match Their Favorite Genre?
Hawken School
Lyndhurst, Ohio

Grades 7–9

First Place
Dinithi Senevirathna
The Ups and Downs of Human Food Habits
George S. Mickelson Middle School
Brookings, South Dakota

Second Place
Victoria Djidjev
Geography of the Pandemic: How COVID-19 Spreads in the US
Sandcreek Middle School
Ammon, Idaho

Third Place
Kate Soo Hyun Kim and Claire Jeon
Connecticut’s Wealth Disparity: The Correlation Between Student Expenses and Performance
James Hill House High School/ Cheshire High School
New Haven/Cheshire, Connecticut

Honorable Mention
Tolga Cavusoglu and Chengyuan Zhang
Does More Funding Improve a Space Program?
Hawken School
Lyndhurst, Ohio

Honorable Mention
Sara Gupta
Do Middle Schoolers Get Enough Hours of Sleep?
Northern Hills Middle School
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grades 10–12

First Place
Binze Li, Jiaqi Yu, Aurora Wu, and Jeslyn Gao
How Do COVID Infection Patterns in California Relate to Pandemic Responses?
Next-Gen Intelligent Science Training
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Second Place
Ava Chae
Who Is Vaping in High School?
Manhattan High School
Manhattan, Kansas

Third Place
Sarah Dong
How Do Age and Gender Affect COVID-19 Mortality?
Westview High School
San Diego, California

Honorable Mention
Jeffrey Pan
Gentrification & Policing: A Case Study of Austin, TX
Phillips Academy
Andover, Massachusetts

Honorable Mention
Nina Ganeshan
Blacks in Ballet: How Inclusive Are Top US Ballet Companies?
Lafayette High School
Williamsburg, Virginia