NMS Students Win Big In Poster Contest

By Eliza hallabeck

Newtown Middle School students recently earned the top three places and an honorable mention in the state level of a national poster competition.

Working for extra credit in their math classes and toward an extra grade of 100 in their science classes, Newtown Middle School students submitted posters in to the Connecticut Chapter of The American Statistical Association 2010 Statistical Poster Competition.

Submissions were sent into the competition from around the state.

There were nine entries into the seventh through ninth grade level of the competition, which ranged from kindergarten to twelfth grade submissions in all. According to the Connecticut Chapter of The American Statistical Association, each poster was judged on its message clarity, the appropriateness of the graphics used to show the data, the poster’s overall impact and creativity.

First place winning poster creators received $100, second place earned $75, and third place received $50 for the posters. Selected posters will be forwarded to the 2010 American Statistical Association National Poster Competition, according to the Connecticut Chapter of The American Statistical Association.

Julia Lansing, who took first place in the competition, said she created her poster to show how often students take a bus home, how long their rides are, and how they would rate their bus.

Math teacher Linda Dale Mulholland and science teacher Beverly Andracchi oversaw middle school students working on their projects.

Ryan Nathenson, whose poster took second place in the competition, created his poster to look at Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes between 2000 and 2009.

“I looked at how much people spend because of the damage,” said Ryan, “and I did a graph on wind speeds.”

Hurricanes are interesting to Ryan, and, he said, that was why he choose them for the topic of his poster.

Ms Mulholland said each poster had to keep a theme of science in mind.

Anna Northrop, who took third place, created her poster entry on the television watching habits of eighth grade students. Anna said she asked students how many hours they spend a day watching television and how many televisions sets they have in their household.

“I thought it would be an interesting topic to look at,” said Anna, “because a lot of kids talk about TV a lot. And it is a big part of people’s lives.”

Kirsten Liniger was awarded an honorable mention for her poster, which compared the eye color of students in her cluster.

“I’m very excited,” said Ms Mulholland. “They did a really good job.”