IASE Readies for Statistical Literacy
Competition
Juana Sanchez, Director of the International Statistical Literacy Project of IASE
T
he first International Statistical Literacy
Competition of the International
Association for Statistics Education
opened registration in September 2007 and
will close it on February 28 in the Northern
Hemisphere (later in the Southern Hemisphere,
where summer break is from December to
March). Students 10–18 years old at the time of
registration will be able to participate under different categories,
according to their level of statistical literacy. Participation and train-
ing materials are free and posted online for anyone to use. To par-
ticipate, a teacher must register and represent his or her students. If
a student finishes school before the final event in 2009, the student
may participate in a higher category for students in this situation. If
a university teacher works with students in a school and wants to
register those students on behalf of their teacher, that is possible, but
that university teacher must register the school name and all the
Students participate in a pilot statistical literacy competition in Portugal,
information about the school. Registration forms and information
August 2007.
can be found at
www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/islp/competition.
Phases
Phase 1 will take place in the school attended by the students. so the materials for training will be in the country’s language and
Teachers will receive a question and be asked to distribute it to from that country. The ISLP will add or start whatever is necessary.
their participating students to answer in a set amount of time. In some countries where the internet is not prevalent, the ISLP will
The teacher will then return the students’ answers to the ISLP for mail the training materials.
grading. The student with the best answer will be chosen as the Questions in the competition will involve the whole data cycle
winner for that school. at different levels: question, data collection, graphical and numeri-
In phase 2, winners from each school will compete at a loca- cal description, informal or formal inference, prediction, and con-
tion determined later. Usually, this meeting will take place dur- clusion. Students also will be expected to be familiar with the basic
ing a national conference for teachers or similar event. We expect official summary statistics and graphs of their countries, as inter-
sponsors to cover the cost of travel for the students and teachers. A pretation and criticism of media reports arising from such numbers
national winner will arise from this phase. and graphs will be an integral part of the final questions.
The winners from each participating country will travel to The success of the competition depends on collaboration
Durban, South Africa, in August 2009 for the final competition. between participating countries. The names of those who have vol-
Durban was chosen because the 57th International Statistical unteered to coordinate the event in their regions will appear on the
Institute’s meeting will be hosted there and Statistics South Africa competition web page. Where that is not the case, the ISLP will
will host the final. Again, sponsors will be expected to cover trans- put more effort into helping the event take place.
portation costs for teachers and students. This international competition has a precedent in the pilot
Participants in all phases of the competition will be recognized program conducted in Portugal in August 2007. For information
with certificates and awards donated from sponsors. The first-place about that event, visit
www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/islp/game.
winner will receive a scholarship from Statistics South Africa, while The IASE/ISLP hopes to contribute to the promotion of statisti-
the second- and third-place winners also will receive prizes. In all cal literacy resources while increasing statistical literacy in children
events, there will be activities promoting statistical literacy, such as and adults. It also hopes to encourage teachers to pursue statisti-
presentations by statisticians working in different environments and cal literacy for their students. The Information Age demands the
fun activities with data and chance not tied to the competition. teaching and learning of new skills in data management, informa-
tion processing, and problemsolving. There is a growing need for
Competition Success
statistically literate citizens able to interpret, analyze, and challenge
To increase participation, the ISLP is trying to offer the competi- statistical claims. The IASE/ISLP competition is one small step
tion in as many languages as possible. One goal is to promote and toward a more statistically literate society for all. For more infor-
encourage national resources in statistical literacy in each country, mation, contact Juana Sanchez at
jsanchez@stat.ucla.edu. n
JANUARY 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 19
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