Richard M. Heiberger
Temple University, Department of Statistical Science, Fox School of Business
240 – Awareness and Quality Improvements for the Joint ASA/NCTM Poster Competition
Observations on the Type and Quality of Graphs Used in the ASA/NCTM Annual Poster Competition During the Years 2013 to 2016
Jurgen Symanzik
Utah State University
Naomi B. Robbins
NBR
Richard M. Heiberger
Temple University, Department of Statistical Science, Fox School of Business
Each year, the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee on the Curriculum in Statistics and Probability and the ASA Education Department encourage students and their advisors to participate in its annual Poster Competition and Project Competition. Despite many high quality posters, there are frequently posters with relatively weak graphs among the winners. This was observed by members of the Statistical Graphics section and a task force was formed in late 2012 to collaborate with the ASA/NCTM Joint Committee to further improve the graphs in the posters. In this article, we will summarize which types of graphs have been used most frequently in the winning posters from 2013 to 2016 and which frequent mistakes could be found in these posters during these four years. We will discuss the single most frequent type of mistake, that is, several variations of 3D graphs, in more detail.