Washington State Statistics Poster Competition (K-12)

The annual Washington State Statistics Poster Competition helps K-12 students learn about and develop enthusiasm about data analysis and statistics.

Students can work alone or in groups on almost any topic or theme! They will develop a question and then, along the way, they will learn the basics of collecting, summarizing, and analyzing data to address questions of their interest.

In the spring, Faculty from the Washington State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics serve as judges for the posters and prizes are awarded. A lot of excitement is generated by the event and is described in an article that appeared in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Who can enter the competition?

All students in grades K through 12 residing in Washington are eligible to participate. There is no entry fee!  Entries will be judged in four different grade level categories and prizes will be awarded:

If a team of students produces a winning poster, the prize money will be divided equally among the members of the team.

What is a data visualization poster?

A data visualization poster is a display containing two or more related graphics that summarize a set of data, look at the data from different points of view, and answer specific questions about the data.

Rules

• Students may work individually or in teams. For those in the K–3 category, there is no restriction on the size of the team. For other categories, the maximum number of students per team is four.
• For teams with members from different grade levels, the highest grade determines the entry category.
• Posters measure between 18 and 24 inches high and 24 and 30 inches wide.
• You will upload a photo/image file of a physical poster or a PDF file of a digitally created poster.
• If creating a digital poster, please follow the guidelines in the electronic poster tutorial.
• Include the grade category and title of your poster in your file name.
• Ensure the image/file is high enough quality that it can be zoomed in on and all text and graphics can be easily read.
• Make sure the poster gives no information that identifies the team or school.
• Posters must be the original design and creation of the entrant(s).
• Computer graphics may be used.
• Subject matter is the choice of the participant(s) or their classmates.
• In submitting a poster, students agree the poster may be displayed at the ASA’s Joint Statistical Meetings, featured in its publications, and included on its website.

Judging

Your poster should be driven by the data visualization’s ability to support the conclusion/answer to your statistical question.

Review the scoring rubric used by the judges to help you create a poster that formulates a statistical investigative question, collects the data appropriate to answer your question, and supports your conclusion using data visualizations (not text). Entries will be judged within the each grade-level category on the basis of:

• Overall Impact of the Display (Poster Design) – Poster design aspects, colors/patterns, grammar, spelling, dimensionality, readability, neatness.
• Formulate Statistical Investigative Questions – Statistical question that anticipates variability leads to productive investigations (GAISE* – Step 1).
• Collect/Consider Data – How useful are the data for answering the statistical investigative question? (GAISE* – Step 2).
• Appropriateness of the Data Visualizations – Visualizations address the statistical question.
• Creativity (Topic Is of Interest) – Who cares factor.
• GAISE Four-step Investigative Process
  1. Formulate Questions
  2. Collect Data
  3. Analyze Data
  4. Interpret Results (see GAISE II Pre-K–12 Report)

The judging criteria/rubric rewards students who use data visualizations to support their conclusions and penalizes the use of excessive text to describe what we are supposed to see in the graphics.

Submitting your poster

As an image file (.jpg or .png file): Take a high-quality picture of your poster so the graphics and text are easy to read (a smartphone camera is usually sufficient).

• Tips:
  • Use bright light (outdoor daylight is good); be aware of shadows on the poster
  • Spread the poster on a flat surface.
  • Take the picture straight on so the poster appears rectangular instead of trapezoidal.

As a digital-only poster (.pptx or .pdf file):

• Follow the guidelines in the electronic poster tutorial.
• Note that your file must only contain one page. (Submissions consisting of more than a single image or slide will be disqualified.)