Research the Olympic Games and a host city

Research the Olympic Games and a host city

In this lesson, students learn about the history of the Olympic Games, research one summer or winter Olympic Games hosted by a specific city, and then create a brochure in Microsoft Office 2007 to present their findings.

​Objectives

  • Students will learn about the history of the Olympic Games and the various cities and countries that have hosted them.
  • Students will learn about some of the sports featured in the Olympics.

Learning Outcomes

Students will create a six-panel brochure that showcases the culture and history of a specific host city for the Olympic Games.

Lesson procedure

​Introduction

The Olympic Games are an international sporting event held every four years (a period of time known as an Olympiad). The first modern, international Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1859. These games were a revival of the ancient Olympic Games, which date back to Olympia, Greece, in 776 B.C.E. This revival was so successful that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed in 1894 and the first IOC Olympic Games, called the I Olympiad, were held in Athens in 1896.

What comes to your mind when you think about the Olympic Games? How many countries can you name that have hosted the Olympic Games? How many sports can you name that are part of the games? Can you think of any significant world events related to the Olympic Games? What well-known athletes come to mind? Even though the four-year Olympiad period coincided with these years, no games were held in the years 1916, 1940, or 1944. Why not? [List their thoughts on an overhead projector or whiteboard. Discuss.] Since 1896, there have been 29 summer games and 20 winter games. As of 2010, the Olympic Games have been hosted by 41 cities in 22 countries. The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing, China. The 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London, England.

In this activity, you will work in groups, or by yourself, to create a brochure about the games in Vancouver or those of a previous Olympiad. You will choose, or be assigned, either the summer or winter games for this project, and you will research the sporting events and the host city for those games.

 

Student activity

Teachers: You can download the Student activity handout for details on the main activities for this lesson plan.
Student Handout - (Office Word 2007 document, 18 KB) includes Step 1, "Research the Olympic Games and one set of games in one host city," and Step 2, "Create a brochure for your Olympic Games host city."

 

Teacher Tips

  • A marathon in sandals

    Encourage students to think of differences between the ancient Olympic Games, the early modern games, and the current-day version. If the I Olympiad had commercials, what would they be about?

  • Be your own decathlete

    Ask students to create an Olympic decathlon based on their typical week in and out of school.

Lesson extension activities

Ask the students to create a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation to convince the International Olympic Committee to consider their town or city as the next Olympic Games venue.

Ask the class to study the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, with special attention to the geography of the Pacific Northwest; Canadian history, culture, and government; First Nations People in British Columbia; and the role of aboriginal peoples in the games. With Glowing Hearts, the official Web site of the Vancouver Olympics, provides information on the games.

Ask the entire class to study the summer Olympic Games held in Beijing, and then discuss with them how the most recent summer games are similar to and different from the games for which they created a brochure.

Ask the students to investigate the intersection of sports and politics by researching important political events that have canceled, disrupted, marred, or otherwise marked the Olympic Games (World War I, World War II, the 1936 Berlin games, or the 1972 Munich games, for example). Ask them to write an essay about how the Olympic Games serve as a symbol of international cooperation, what makes them vulnerable to groups wishing to make political statements to the world, and what they believe such acts do or don't accomplish.

Ask students to research the history of women's participation in the games.

Ask students to use Bing Maps to pinpoint all of the cities that have hosted the Olympic Games since the inception of the modern Olympics and then analyze the visual data. What trends do they observe? What reasons are there for these trends? What recommendations would they make for future Olympic Games’ locations? Students can also read the Olympic Committee's process for choosing host cities.

Ask students to research the role of physical education in ancient Greek culture and the history of physical education in North America, and then write an essay linking or comparing the two.

Conclusion

Ask the students to present their brochures individually to the class, grouping them by date or geographical region. Or, host a travel seminar where all students display their brochures around the classroom. Students can browse through all of the brochures and then vote for the city they would most like to visit or for the specific games they would most like to attend.

Assess the brochures according to your list of considerations. Ask students to assess their own and other students' brochures according to the assessment list you’ve provided.

Create an assessment sheet and hand it out to students at the start of the project or place it in a folder on the classroom computer. The assessment could include the following considerations:

  • Was all the necessary information included?
  • Were there spelling or grammatical errors? Were proper capitalization and punctuation used?
  • Was the information presented accurate?
  • Were all of the areas covered in sufficient detail?
  • Was the information interesting to read?
  • Were the pictures and graphics appropriate to the information?
  • Was the overall design of the words and pictures attractive?