Generation YES Blog

From Lucy Gray:

Google is running a contest called Doodle 4 Google. It offers students all over the U.S. the chance to play around with the Google logo, and perhaps have their artwork viewed by people all over the world on Google’s home page.

The Doodle 4 Google theme is “What if…?” Here are some examples of what this could mean:

- What if…I could live underwater, or in outer space, or in Colonial America?
- What if…I could see into the future?
- What if…I could build any kind of invention I wanted?

But your students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas about this theme. The competition is open to U.S. K-12 students between 5 and 18. An expert panel will pick 40 finalists who’ll be invited to a workshop with Google’s official doodler, Dennis Hwang, at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. The U.S. public will vote for their favorites, and the winning design will replace the regular Google homepage on May 22, 2008. This champion doodler will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and his or her school will receive a $25,000 technology grant.

More details, dates and resources are on the Google site. School registration closes on March 28th and doodle entries must be received by April 12th, 2008.

Sylvia

P.S. A great accompaniment to this contest is a recent Wired multimedia article about how the original logo was designed. Really interesting stuff to show students. So many students don’t know that design is an iterative, collaborative process. They think that unless an idea is fully formed, it’s not good enough. Looking at a blank screen is intimidating, but knowing that’s where all great ideas start helps!

Be a Video All-Star Contest

Sponsored by: Technology & Learning magazine and 21st Century Connections
Prizes: 12 prizes - laptops and video production software
Who: K-12 students (seems to be U.S. only - see note below)
Deadline: February 29, 2008

To enter, students create a public service announcement—a short video that showcases why digital learning tools are critical to your school or curriculum. The contest, sponsored by 21st Century Connections, is open to all K-12 students. Enter the contest or learn more at the website.

Note on eligibility: The contest website says the contest is open “to all K-12 students”. However, the online contest entry form only allows you to select the 50 US states or the District of Columbia, and there is no country asked for on the form. It seems a bit of a throwback that anyone would assume that a webpage wouldn’t be seen outside of the U.S. in this day and age! For a contest called “21st Century Connections” sponsored by a marketing cooperative of multi-national companies (Lenovo, Intel, Adobe, and Futurekids,) it seems a lazy oversight.