Original announcement, posted December 2007

Commencing in 2008 the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT), together with statisticians from various Australian Universities, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), run a national Australian Statistics Poster Competition (ASPC). This event is sponsored by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ASPC is for secondary students working in teams of 2 or 3. Typically the students who enter the competition study some statistics on an academic web site, conduct a statistical investigation (possibly involving repeated experiments or work on the ABS Census in Schools site) and submit it for judging. Prizes are awarded for the best posters in various categories.

The AMT recommends this event as a very valuable activity for any secondary mathematics class.

A group of statisticians at USQ and elsewhere have been running a poster contest in Queensland and other parts of the country for a number of years and have now arranged for the Australian Mathematics Trust to take over the administration of the logistical aspects of running this competition from 2008.

• To increase the awareness of statistics issues and to improve skills in statistics.
• To increase students awareness of career options offered by statistics.

The inaugural committee comprises

• Paul Fahey (Queensland Dept Health) (Chair)
• Peter Taylor (Executive Director, AMT)
• Christine Sergi (ABS)
• Peter Dunn (University of Sunshine Coast) (State Coordinator, Queensland & NT)
• Chris Reading (UNE) (State Coordinator, NSW)
• Sue Finch (University of Melbourne) (State Coordinator, Victoria)
• Alice Richardson (UC) (State Coordinator, ACT and southern NSW)
• Des Fitzgerald (University of Tasmania) (State Coordinator, Tasmania)
• Sue Middleton (University of Adelaide) (State Coordinator, South Australia)
• Ross Taplin (Murdoch University) (State Coordinator, Western Australia)

• There are two events, one for students up to Year 12 (upper secondary) and the other for students up to Year 9 (lower secondary).
• The AMT will send a mail-out to all secondary schools at the beginning of each year, inviting schools to register teams to enter a poster in the competition in that year. There is an entry fee similar to that charged for the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians.
• Teams of 2 or 3 students work together. Teams submit their posters to their local representative for judging by 15 September.
• Judging: Regional Representatives determine the top 3 posters for their region in order, and for each of the two levels, and send the best ones to the committee for national judging.
• The committee then judges the best national posters and determines the top 3 nationally and in each region.
• Results & Certificates: The AMT then posts results on its web site and mail prize cheques for the National and State winning teams. Certificates are printed for all participants. The national judging will also allow for the awarding of “Highly Commended” Certificates.
• AMT Staff are available to answer telephone calls from schools, within their ability to answer or otherwise by consultation with relevant parties ((02) 6201 5137).