The San Diego Chapter of the American Statistical Association recently participated in the 50th Annual Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair. This year 730 middle school and high school students participated. Individual scientists and professional organizations judge the merits of their projects during several rounds of judging. SDASA members participated as a judging team in the professional organizations' round.

Dale Glaser, Sheila Talwalker, Matt Marler, Chris Ake, Jacinte Jean and Kevin Cummins comprised SDASA's judging team. As a team, these SDASA representatives reviewed 99 of the projects in the senior division. Project topics covered social sciences, biochemistry, botany, chemistry, computer science, earth science, engineering, environmental science, microbiology, physics, space sciences, and zoology.

The students used posters as an aid in describing their project to judges, who were circulating throughout science fair. Each student informally presented their project orally to one or a small group of judges at a time. It was when we were talking to the students that it became clear that many were genuinely inspired to learn about the natural world around them through the collection of quantitative data. Of course, all that quantitative data must be analyzed and that is where statistics played a role in their projects.

Once again the SDASA judges found that our local high school students are capable of formulating interesting scientific questions and are engaging those questions with worthy studies — without funding! Their efforts culminated in projects that were stimulating and rewarding to review. The tone of the buzzing coming from groups of deliberating judges from other professional organizations indicated that it wasn't just the statisticians who were happy to participate. It was well worth a few hours our time in order to give these students recognition for their months of preparation.

SDASA judges considered six questions in judging each project:

There were many students who were deserving of our recognition for their use of statistics in their projects. Four students received awards from the SDASA.

Sara Silverstein was awarded SDASA's top honor. She attends Henry High School and conducted a study titled, Attitudes, Exercise, & Stress: A longitudinal Study of Dental Students. Sara used an extensive set of statistical models to analyze the large data set that she had collected. Those analyses helped Sara to conclude that there were temporal patterns of stress and exercise was associated with lower stress levels. Her conclusions point to possible intervention strategies. These strategies might come in handy for her because she is considering a career related to dentistry.

When we asked Sara about the role of statistics in science she responded by saying, "Statistics is very important. You need [statistical analysis] to support your conclusions. Without statistics what's the point?"

Also honored was Leslie Manjarrez, from Imperial County's Southwest High School. Her project was titled, Statistical Variance of the Molecular Masses of Volatile Liquids. A student in AP statistics she recognized that statistical analysis would play an important part in her project from the outset. She consulted with her AP teacher before getting started. Leslie's study design addressed issues with measurement repeatability. Leslie will be attending UCSD next year and will be majoring in biology. She told the SDASA that she recognizes that being able to conduct quantitative analyses will be a necessary skill during her future as a biologist.

SDASA's two other awardees attend San Diego's High Tech High School. High Tech High is a charter school that promotes project-based learning. Jennifer Zarzoso and Christopher Mitchell, both Juniors at High Tech High, conducted award winning projects. Jennifer's project was titled, Efficacy of Citris Juice on Reducing Bacteria on Ceviche and Christopher's project was titled, Effect of Fireworks Residue on Primary Producers.

These awardees have been invited to SDASA's Careers Day where SDASA members will have the opportunity to meet these outstanding students.