Research the Olympic Games and a Host City

ACTIVITY ONE

Title:  Choosing a Prospective Olympic Host City

Topic:  The purpose of this activity is to instruct the student what the criteria is to select a host city for the Olympic Games.  The students will learn the history of how the Olympic committee has selected past cities as well as learn the history and culture of few selected past Olympic host cities.   The students will understand what the Olympic committee is wanting to see with each city's applications.  Each student will know what the criteria for selection is and perform research accordingly.  Each group of students will then present to the committee a response to the selection criteria: Geographical location, Type of Government and Economy, Climate, Historical, Cultural (food, art, religion), and Infrastructure and architecture.  The students will then choose a city from a listed of suggested cities that have never been selected as an Olympic host city.  The list will be distributed by the instructor.

Grade Level:  9th grade through 12th

Subject Area:  History

Time Frame:  One to Two Days

Learning Objectives:
 
Learning Objective 1)  After the completion of a lesson on the history of the Olympic Games as well as geography, government, economic, history and culture instruction on a selected past host city based on State Standards for that level, the students will break up into their groups using computers and the internet to research cities and then choose a city to represent.



ACTIVITY TWO

Title:  Researching a Prospective Olympic Host City

Topic:  The purpose of this activity is to instruct the students within their groups research methodology, how to use the internet for research, and how to utilize search engines for optimal research information on their selected cities.  Each student will know what the criteria for selection is and perform research accordingly.  Each group of students will then present to the committee a response to the selection criteria.  The research report should contain the following: Geographical location, Type of Government and Economy, Climate, one (1) historical event, two (2) examples of Cultural significance that include life styles, food, art, religion points of interest, and two (2) examples of Infrastructure and architecture that include hotels, living quarters, transportation, and other accommodations and support systems.  

Grade Level:  9th grade through 12th

Subject Area:  History

Time Frame:  Two to Three Weeks

Learning Objectives:

Learning Objective 2)  After the completion of a lesson on the history of the Olympic Games as we as geography, government and economy instruction based on State Standards for the level, the students will break up into their groups.  Using computers and the internet the groups will research and identify the geographical location, government and economy, and climate of the city they have selected.

Learning Objective 3)  After the completion of a lesson on the history of the Olympic Games as well as geography, government, economy, history and culture instruction on a selected past host city based on State Standards for the level, the students will break up into their groups using computers and the internet to research and identify features of their city's history and culture.  The students will report of the city's history and culture that should include one (1) major historical event and two (2) cultural examples of the following: Life styles, food, art and religion, and points of interest natural and man-made.

Learning Objective 4)  After the completion of a lesson on the history of the Olympic Games as well as a  geography, government, economy, history and culture instruction on a selected past host city based on State  Standards for the level, the students will break up into their groups using computers and internet to research their city's architecture and infrastructure.  Reporting on architecture and infrastructure should include two (2) examples of each of the following: hotels, living quarters, transportation, and other accommodations and support systems that will be needed to accommodate athletes, members of the media, and visitors for the Olympic event.



ACTIVITY THREE

Title:  Presenting the Selected Host City to the Class

Topic:  The purpose of this activity is to instruct the students (in group setting) how to present researched material using VoiceThread.  The students will learn how to use the internet for research and how to systematically create a 15 minute presentation about their city.  The students will learn how to create and use VoiceThread presentation software and how to present their city to their peers.

Grade Level:  9th grade through 12th

Subject Area: Language Arts

Time Frame:  2 to 3 Weeks

Learning Objectives:

Learning Objective 5)  After completing their research, the students, working in their groups will create and deliver to their class a multimedia presentation using VoiceThread.  The multimedia presentation should include text, images, audio and video information about their city.  The presentation should include the city's history, culture citing two (2) examples of life styles, food, art and religion and points of natural or man made interest and infrastructure and architecture which should include two (2) examples of the following: hotels, living quarters, transportation, and other accommodations and support systems that will be needed to accommodate athletes, members of the media and other visitor's for the Olympic Event.