Press Statement

Preasráiteas

03 September 2019

Competition entries from four Irish female students have been judged the best in the world at the recent World Statistics Congress 2019, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, claiming first prize in both the junior and senior categories of the International Statistical Literacy Project Poster Competition, 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.

Commenting on the competition results, Aisling Leavy, the national coordinator for the ISLP in Ireland stated: “This was a remarkable achievement and the first time that any country has won both categories since the competition began.”

Aisling Barry and Katrin Birk from Bandon Grammar School, Co. Cork took top place in the senior category, with their poster “A Statistical Analysis of the Accuracy of 5-day Forecasts in Predicting Hot vs Cold Temperatures”. Their maths teacher, Stephen Mc Loughlin, has said he’s delighted with the girls’ success. Teams from Poland and Russia took second and third place respectively.

Besides winning first place in the ISLP Competition, the Bandon students’ project had already won the John Hooper Medal for Statistics in the national poster competition, as well as €1,600 in prize money; €1,000 awarded to the school and €600 to the students themselves.

Not to be outdone by the older students, the poster titled “Using statistics to investigate changing use of language in Irish Primary students’ writing after 80 years” by Kate Bagnall and Bobbi Beattie from The King’s Hospital, Dublin, won first place in the junior category of the same competition. Their teacher, Ciaran O’Connor, oversaw the project. Again, this is a great achievement by these young Irish students from Dublin taking on the world. Students from Bulgaria and South Korea placed second and third respectively with an honourable mention going to the Spanish team for their entry.

Both the junior and senior winning entries in the ISLP Competition receive a prize of €450.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) runs the John Hooper Medal for Statistics competition in Ireland, north and south. It also runs the selection process for the Irish posters to be put forward to the international IASE/ISLP competition.

CSO staff are delighted with the results and for the students. Maria Hurley, Assistant Director General of the CSO, which oversees the John Hooper competition stressed the importance of this achievement by Irish students, while CSO Director General, Pádraig Dalton, complimented the students on their awards, which reflect the very high standard of entries to the national competition.

The prize-winning posters and further details of the competition can be found on the IASE website:

https://iase-web.org/islp/Poster_Competition_2018-2019.php

Along with the participating students, the CSO wish to acknowledge the parents, teachers and schools who encouraged and supported all students who entered the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition. The CSO is grateful for the ongoing support of Project Maths, PDST Technology in Education, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Education in Northern Ireland. We would also like to thank all our volunteer judges and all our national and international colleagues who support the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition and its international counterpart, the IASE/ISLP poster competition.

If your school is interested in taking part in the John Hooper Medal for Statistics competition 2019-2020, this competition will be launched during Maths Week in October 2019. An award ceremony for participants of the 2018-2019 competition will also take place that week, with students having the opportunity to present their posters in person.

For the latest information about the John Hooper 2019-2020 competition, go to:

John Hooper Statistics Competition

-- ENDS --