I.C. West student wins top statistics awards: Won $400 prize

IOWA CITY, Sep 27, 2008 (The Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TXN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- What are the odds that one student will achieve first place twice in a national competition?

Ask Iowa City West High School's Qiushuang Jin.

The senior received first place in the American Statistical Association's Center for Statistics Education's 2008 Annual Poster Competition and Project Competition.

And the accolades keep coming.

Qiushuang's project -- "The Association Between Heavy Academic Workload and Sleep Deprivation Among High School Students" -- will be published in the December edition of the Journal of School Nursing.

"This is absolutely remarkable to have a high school student in a professional publication," said Kate Cowles of the University of Iowa's department of statistics and actuarial science.

Qiushuang, 17, took Cowles' statistical methods in computing class in the spring.

Qiushuang learned of the competition in her Advanced Placement statistics class at West last year.

"I heard my classmates talking about it, and it was something I wanted to do," she said.

She studied teenage sleep deprivation because she has it.

"I got into a car accident last year because I fell asleep," she said.

Qiushuang said she was drowsy and a little dizzy. When the car in front of her stopped, she didn't react. Her vehicle rear-ended the car, but she was unhurt.

The project itself was not as physically taxing. Qiushuang developed a questionnaire. After securing permission from principals, she mailed 4,000

questionnaires to students at 15 Iowa high schools, including West. More than 2,100 were returned.

The results were clear: Iowa's high school students are sleep-deprived, especially those who take Advanced Placement and upper-level courses. The average amount of sleep per night is seven hours. The National Sleep Foundation said teens need an average of 9 1/4 hours of sleep per night.

"I was surprised by the number of young kids who are already losing sleep," Qiushuang said.

Qiushuang learned of her first-place finish in the project competition this summer. She later was notified of her firstplace finish in the poster competition.

"I was not surprised because I knew she had done such super work," Cowles said.

But Qiushuang was surprised. "I didn't expect to win. There was silent jaw-dropping for a few minutes," she said.

Only one other student has won both awards in the same year.

Qiushuang, the daughter of Lixian Sun and Chenggang Jin, received two plaques, two checks for $200 and a graphing calculator from Texas Instruments.

She donated $100 to the Chinese Embassy to help in the wake of a May earthquake in China.

The remaining money will fund her project and, if possible, help pay for college.

Qiushuang hopes to study epidemiology and public health, with a focus on research and statistics. She is researching universities.

"I'll be happy with anywhere that has strong research opportunities for students," she said.

The American Statistical Association's Center for Statistics Education's Project Competition began in 1987. The first poster contest was in 1990.

aEUR" Contact the writer: (319) 398-8434 or meredith.hines-dochterman@ gazcomm.com

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