Best Cooperative Project Award 2019

Dr. Mauren Porciúncula of Federal University of Rio Grande (Brazil) — The LeME Program Coordinator

Announcement of Winner

Five projects were considered for the 2019 competition. The winner is:

• Statistical Multimedia Literacy Program (LeME) - Brazil

LeME (meaning boat captain) is a Statistical Multimedia Literacy project based on a nautical theme. Running since 2012, LeME, a Brazilian project, involves collaboration between University academics (Statistical Education Center - NEE of the Institute of Mathematics, Statistic and Physics - IMEF of the Federal University of Rio Grande - FURG; Laboratory of Cognitive Studies and Technologies in Statistical Education - LabEst; Tutorial Education Program Connections of Statistical Knowledge - PET SabEst), Center of Conviviality of the Boys of the Sea - CCMar, other schools, communities, events, national societies (Carlos Chagas Foundation and Itaú Social) and the Brazilian Ministry of Education. LeME was initially founded by the University Extension Program of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. It teaches children and young people how to consider issues like human rights, culture, social justice, race, gender, environment, communication and education from a statistics perspective.

Competition details

The Best Cooperative Project Award in Statistical Literacy is awarded every two years, in recognition of outstanding, innovative, and influential statistical literacy projects that affect a broad segment of the general public and are fruit of the cooperation of different types of institutions (national statistical offices, schools, statistical societies, media, libraries etc.)

Submitted projects should have at least some of the following characteristics:

• Be current and have the potential to remain so in the future.
• Have free access to the project resources and membership.
• Educate on concepts of statistical theory and data analysis, their use in the development of information about countries and societies, and their application in a broad spectrum of disciplines and areas of society.
• Have pedagogically sound contents suitable for a general audience.
• Involve two or more institutions that would not usually work closely together. Examples are projects that involve cooperation between:
• The winners of the 2017 competition involved collaboration between University academics, national societies (Statistical Society of Australia and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)), industry professionals, schools, media experts and sponsors (SAS, Teacher’s Mutual Bank, RDA Hunters’ ME Program), with additional support from the Australian Government’s Department of Education and Training
• A national statistical institute, a statistical society and a knowledge centre, such as the winners of the 2015 competition with the product 'Exploristica', which was the result of cooperation between Sociedade Portuguesa de Estatística (SPE), Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (INE), and Ciência Viva in Portugal.
• Or between a national statistical institute, a statistical society, such as the winners of the 2013 competition with the 'CensusAtSchools', which was the result of cooperation between the Royal Statistical Society and the Office of National Statistics) in the United Kingdom.
• Other examples could be cooperation among universities and schools, or schools and statistical societies or media experts, statistical societies, national statistical offices, schools or combinations thereof.
• Be attractive to a wide audience, have “fun” appeal, invite participation. Characteristics that make it such are: Easy to find material, dynamism, variety, sound pedagogy, updated and contemporary subject matter.
• Have archives that are widely available. For example, if there is a regularly run contest, then past winners should be known.
• Have international outreach and make creative use of available resources. For example, a web page in English would help the dissemination of the resources to many countries.

There is no fixed format for applications, but entries should have sufficient information to allow the judging panel to assess the quality of the entry against the criteria outlined above.

Timetable: Proposals should be sent to the ISLP Deputy Director, Steve MacFeely by the end of April 2019.

Prizes: The winning project will receive 1000 euros.

Judging panel (2019):

• Chair: Steve MacFeely (Ireland)
• Teresita Terán
• Hugo Hernàndez Trevethan
• Manfred Borovcnik