On 3 June last, Eurostat announced the Italian students of the Giottistica team from the Giotto Ulivi Institute of Borgo San Lorenzo (Firenze) as the winners of the European statistics competition (ESC).
The 66 competing teams from 17 European Countries challenged each other with videos on the environmental theme realised using statistical data from various official sources. The international jury deemed the Italian video on the forest ecosystem as the best out of 32 works in the B category of 14-16 year olds. The winning video was shot in the Casentino Forest Park using environmental statistical data from Istat, Sistan entities and the European Statistical System.
The European Statistics Competition is the final international phase of the Statistics Olympics, coordinated by Eurostat and Ine Spain (the Spanish Institute of public statistics), which pits secondary education schools from all over Europe against each other divided into two age groups, Category A (14-16 years old) and Category B (16-18 years old).
The aim of the competition is to encourage students to get familiar with statistics and official statistical sources. The contest consists of several selective stages. The individual tests for the national stages are prepared by a team of Istat methodologists and Sis referents. The 12 winners in individual tests, i.e. the top three students for each course year (1-4 classes of upper secondary school) are entered in the “Albo nazionale delle eccellenze” (National register of excellences) within the Annual Program for the Excellence Promotion. The second national phase, instead, is team-based and involves a statistical analysis of Istat data. The top two teams in the Italian Statistics Olympics, then proceed to the European phase.
The international jury’s motivation for awarding the 2022 prize is as follows: “The GIOTTISTICA team (Italy) won first prize in the junior age group (14-16 years old) with a very personal video about the forest ecosystem. The jury particularly appreciated the clear and sharp focus on a single topic, the engaging format of a social media storytelling by three hikers, the very involving narrative, and the excellent use of statistics.”