This episode looks at the winning entries in the European Statistics Competition. The competition invites secondary-school students to create two-minute films presenting official statistics on the topic “Environment”. Over 17,000 students from 19 different countries across Europe entered this year’s contest.

Tim Allen from Eurostat explains why data analysis and communication work go hand in hand. The participating students were asked to demonstrate their skills by finding and analyzing data and then presenting them in in a video for the competition.

Joanna Karlowska-Pik, a professor from Poland, talks about inspiration, creativity and originality she has found in students and how she prepares them for the competition by supporting their individual talents and ideas.

Glen Campbell, a jury member from the Publications Office (European Commission), explains the criteria used to judge the competitors and why technical perfection is not the key to telling a good story.

Students from the winning teams from Bulgaria, Italy and Slovenia share their experiences with creating the videos and what they learned in the process.

In a conversation with Jonathan Elliott about this competition, we find out how all these factors decided the eventual winners and learn about the range and talent demonstrated by students with their very creative and original videos.