Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Science of the Olympic Winter Games

I've just been reading through my Learning & Leading with Technology magazine from ISTE. Lo and behold, staring me in the face was an excerpt about NBC's contribution to the Vancouver Olympics. Sadly for a Canadian such as myself, NBC has decided to make this fantastic educational tool "restricted to viewers within the United States." Fortunately the National Science Foundation has come through for us international educators and has the whole series available for viewing.

Here is an example of one called Slapshot Physics :

Global news has been holding a series of clips called "Beyond the Podium" that is also addressing a lot of the science behind the scenes. One example is a clip that speaks about the possibility of borrowing snow from Isreal!!!

Discovery Network's Daily Planet is also hosting a fabulous series called "Daily Planet Goes to Vancouver." If you go to this link you will have access to these clips and many others that are associated with the Olympics.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Best of Us - ALL TOGETHER NOW

Every time I see this Olympic commercial I get goosebumps. After several viewings I started to wonder why it has such a fantastic effect on me. I decided to do some searching. Of course I tend to go youtube before I go anywhere these days. Anything you ever wanted to learn about or how to do you can find on youtube. It is REALLY effective, especially for those visual learners like myself. This commercial is called "The Best of Us - ALL TOGETHER NOW."


I noticed that the commercial is sponsered by olympics.org and found on this site, some background to the message this committee wanted to convey. The following is an excerpt from this site:

"The "All Together Now" Public Service Announcement communicates the fundamental Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. In this spot, six larger-than-life Olympians seem to be competing against each other in what appears to be a gigantic tug-of-war. As the spot develops, it becomes clear that the athletes are not working against each other, but actually working together to unite the world in celebration of the Olympic Games. Thus, the spot conveys not only the determination and excellence of Olympic athletes, but also their unique ability to bring the world together for the Olympic Games in a massive display of optimism and inspiration."

No wonder I LOVE it!! I've already told you how much I love the Olympics. I need to let you in on a little secret now. I'm not an athlete. Those of you who know me, know that I'm the farthest thing from it. What I am is a hopeless romantic. I'm in love with the notion of bringing the whole world together in harmony. And the Olympics does just that. For a few weeks, these athletes come together from every walk of life imaginable and gather on even playing grounds to act out their passion of sport and team spirit and love of their country. How fantastic is that?

Yes I can hear you pessimists right now murmuring to yourself. I urge you to ignore the politics that try to ooze their way into these games and focus on the unparalleled energy that exists within them. It is such a rush!

As for the potential education that lies within this commercial, have your students really analyse it from both media literacy and critical thinking points of view - before you read them the excerpt from the site. Both these terms are linked to great websites that give you nice overviews of each through video clips.

Have your students deconstruct the message that was intended by this commercial. Let me know how it goes:)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

K-7 Classrooms Invited to Contribute to Olympics Website


Nicole Chatz, a second grade teacher, who is undertaking a graduate diploma in Learning & Teaching with Technology at Simon Fraser University, has posted in the Vancouver Observer a fantastic opportunity for students. She has created a collaborative project that will have kids from all over the world engaged in posting information to her website based on three different ideas.
By clicking on the links within the paragraph above you can find more information about her project. Registration closes January 25th.

2010 Vancouver Olympics


For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE winter Olympics. Since I can't immerse my own class in the event this time around, I'm going to try to send everything I would use in a classroom your way. Of course I'm going to try to integrate tech tools where ever possible :)



I always had students follow events from a both a Canadian website and an American website, as well as the two different broadcasting networks on television to compare viewpoints based on athletes.
Official Olympic Site and their Education Programs:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/
Canadian Site:
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/
American Site:
Look for postings weekly until this fantastic event is over:)