23 October 2019
On Tuesday 22 October, Assistant Director General of the Central Statistics Office, Paul Morrin, presented prizes to the winners of the 2019 John Hooper Medal and the Award for the Best Use of CSO Open Data at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, in the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
The goal of the John Hooper competition is to improve students' abilities to describe, explore and investigate their environment using statistics. This national competition is open to teams of 2 to 3 students, up to 18 years old and is named in honour of John Hooper BA* (1878 - 1930). The competition was first launched nine years ago to mark the first World Statistics Day in 2010.
This year, the John Hooper Medal winners also won the senior category in the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) poster competition, with their entry titled “A Statistical Analysis of the Accuracy of 5-day Forecasts in Predicting Hot vs Cold Temperatures ”. Kate Bagnall and Bobbi Beattie from The King’s Hospital, Dublin won the junior category with their submission titled “Using Statistics to Investigate the Changing Use of Language in Irish Primary Students’ Writing after 80 years”, which had achieved an Order of Merit in the John Hooper Competition. Ms. Reija Helenius, Director of the ISLP, travelled from Finland to present the certificates to the winners.
This is the fifth year of the Award for the Best Use of CSO Open Data at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition. This competition aims to encourage young people to use open data; the award is for the most innovative use, or potential use, of CSO data, be it in statistical analyses, processes or outputs, a piece of research, a visualisation or a data map, the development of a device, a software application or the use of CSO data in any other innovative way. Conor Casey and Hannah Coombs, Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine, Kenmare, were awarded the medal for Best Use of CSO Open Data at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Morrin said:
“Every year we see a very high standard of entries for the John Hooper competition and the Best Use of CSO Open Data Award, which is reflected in the wins on the International Stage.
Students consistently demonstrate ingenuity and original thinking by exploring a vast range of topics.
Promoting the understanding and use of statistics is an integral part of the CSO’s Educational Outreach programme which includes; the John Hooper Medal, Award for the Best Use of CSO Open Data at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition and the Census at Schools initiatives.”
John Hooper BA* (1878 - 1930) graduated in 1898 with a First Class Honours degree in Mathematics, and in 1923 at the foundation of State, was appointed the first Director of Statistics for Saorstát Éireann. As the first Director of Statistics, John Hooper shaped the development of official statistics for the new State until his death in December 1930. His work led to the development of new statistics (e.g. first Census of Population and Census of Industrial Production in 1926), and the 1926 Statistics Act.
The International Statistical Literacy Project Poster Competition is run by the International Association of Statistical Education (IASE) in collaboration with the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP). The poster competition attracted entries from around 15,000 students, from 37 different countries, across all continents, including Ireland, the USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and across Europe.
Ken Kennedy (+353) 21 453 5036 or Elaine O'Mahoney (+353) 1 498 4317
or email information@cso.ie
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