2024 Results

Students: Corentin Blanchet, Kian Blanchet
Teacher: Stephen Begley
Dundalk Grammar School
Dundalk
Co. Louth
Does Fuel Price Affect the Sale of Electric Cars (PDF 256KB)

Students: Maeve Forrest, Jessica Tubb
Teacher: Brian Shanahan
Bandon Grammar School
Bandon
Co. Cork
Unplugged - Investigating smartphone addiction among teens (PDF 187KB)

Students: Savine Keaveney, Ella Grogan, Tracey Gillooly
Teacher: Patricia McHugh
Glenamaddy Community School
Glenamaddy
Co. Galway
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! (PDF 212KB)

Students: John Ding, Sean Mullane
Teacher: Padraig Costello
Blackrock College Dublin
Blackrock
Co. Dublin
A study into the Effectiveness of Popular AI Chatbots (PDF 8,117KB)

Students: Chaewhan Shin, Ronan Fahey
Teacher: Padraig Costello
Blackrock College Dublin
Blackrock
Co. Dublin
How has Covid-19 affected the social development of students in Dublin (PDF 80KB)

Students: Caoilinn Cahill, Aimee Colleran, Sofia Lynch
Teacher: Michelle Madigan
Colaiste Muire
Ennis
Co. Clare
Is it more expensive to be a woman (PDF 698KB)

Students: Cliona Jones, Ciara Punch, Kate Senton
Teacher: Michelle Madigan
Colaiste Muire
Ennis
Co. Clare
Does the cost of playing sports discourage people from playing (PDF 319KB)

Students: Grace Higgins, Sophie O'Connor
Teacher: Laura Brogan
St Andrew's College
Blackrock
Co. Dublin
There's Trouble in the Water! The Effects of Organic and Synthetic Fertilisers on Plant Growth and Eutrophication (PDF 14,143KB)

Students: Emily Liu, Beth Kelly, Danijela Pilipovic
Teacher: Jennifer Hand
Bush Post Primary School
Dundalk
Co. Louth
Nature or Nurture (PDF 5,384KB)

Students: Mastora Akhon, Syeda Fatima Shah
Teacher: Martin Murphy
Coláiste Chiaráin
Croom
Co. Limerick
How Effective are Campaigns at Preventing Incidence Increases Regarding Health Related Issues? (PDF 720KB)

Students: Grace Joyce, Amira Curran
Teacher: Deirdre O'Callaghan
Newbridge College
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Does the Rising Cost of Living Affect our Ability to Live Sustainably? A Case Study of a Suburban Town in Co. Kildare (PDF 999KB)

Students: Seamus Keenan, Isaac White
Teacher: Sophie Caine
St Mary's Diocesan School
Drogheda
Co. Louth
Is there a correlation between the number of hours of screen time and fine motor skills? (PDF 207KB)

The following are some of the issues that arise each year while we are trying to manage the registration and entry processes:
• Entries in the wrong format.
• School and/or pupil names on the posters.
We remind teachers and pupils each year to carefully read the rules, however we continue to come across the same issues. Please be aware that reading the rules, which are few and reasonably straightforward, will make the process a lot smoother for both the CSO and the schools involved. It would be a pity for a team to lose out after all their hard work because of a technicality. We are happy to answer your questions if there is any confusion about the entry requirements.

Feedback from the judges:

The judges were impressed with the variety of interesting topics covered in the posters this year but have offered the following tips and suggestions:
Try to avoid using a dark background colour in your poster as it can make some of the text very difficult to read. Sometimes colours and fonts can look different on screen and on paper, so it might be a good idea to print a copy of your poster to see how it looks before you submit it.

Cut down on the amount of text and consider the balance of blank space versus text/graphs. While a certain amount of blank space is needed in the margins etc. so that the poster is not too cluttered, small font sizes and small graphs are difficult to read. For the posters that were entered into BTYSTE, there should be some editing of these posters to make them more suitable to a poster competition.

Think about the appropriateness of the graphs that you use. Bar charts are good for comparisons, while line charts work better for trends. Scatter plot charts are good for relationships and distributions, but pie charts should be used only for simple compositions — never for comparisons or distributions. Graphs should help the reader to understand your results so be sure to label your axes and use a legend if required.

Some posters showed a lot of potential in terms of the subject matter and the data collection etc. but they didn’t quite follow through with the analysis section. Try to explore a range of statistical techniques including descriptive and inferential statistics.
Provide better information on where the data is sourced. Some posters were let down by a lack of description of their survey or data collection methods.

Be cautious around sensitive topics. We don't want to discourage students from working on topics that may be of a sensitive nature, but students and teachers need to be aware of issues around confidentiality and ethical surveying.
Finally, make sure to proof-read your poster before you submit it as typos and spelling mistakes can take from the overall impression of a poster.

Clarity of message: Try not to over-complicate your poster by attempting to test or analyse too many things.

Data collection: If survey data comes from a particular school, some background on the school should be provided so that the context of the findings may be more transparent. The possible effects of non-response could be explored.

Analysis and conclusions: Exercise caution when reporting your findings. Avoid overstating the inferences/conclusions that can be made from the results – usually the inferences are limited to the sample and probably can’t be extended to the overall population. It is very important to choose a statistical analysis that is appropriate for the type of data collected. Try to keep the commentary on the conclusions objective rather than subjective.

Graphs and tables: Make sure to label the axes of all graphs, label them correctly and try to select a style of graph that best conveys your message. Avoid the use of 3D graphs as they can often detract from the readability of a graph. Choose the graph type that is appropriate for your data, for example, do not use line graphs to summarise categorical data. In presenting your results, limit the number of decimal places displayed to 2 or less – unless the data specifically needs to be displayed with more decimal places.

Presentation: Take care with spelling and the overall alignment and formatting of the poster. Try to avoid having too much text and over-filling the poster area. Including more text by making the font size smaller on the poster can sometimes take away from the impact that the students’ hard work deserves. Use a mixture of text, graphs and images, but keep in mind graphs and images have a greater impact than text.

If the poster is in a slide format, do not over-complicate the flow of the narrative. Make sure the slides follow a simple, easy to follow and logical flow. For example:

Make sure all text, graphs and images are legible in the final poster. In a number of posters, the text was not legible as it blended into the background – try a dark font on a light background.

Try to create an eye-catching poster but be careful in choosing the overall colour scheme. 2 – 3 different colours should suffice. Use an overall colour scheme that is not too garish and hard on the eye. Avoid backgrounds that are too busy.

Creativity/Importance: Originality and creativity in the research question are key components of the competition.

Feedback welcome

Please send your feedback and comments on the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition to studentcompetitions@cso.ie