UK Schools UK Schoolswww.google.co.uk/doodle4google
At Google, we like to reflect the ever changing world of our users through the logo designs on our homepage. These "doodles" celebrate different people, events or special dates and, until now, have been designed by our original Doodler, 29-year-old Dennis Hwang.
The 'Doodle 4 Google' competition asks young people across the UK to design their own doodle. The theme of this year's competition was "My Future". Whether technological advances, visions for the world, personal ambition, or something entirely different, hundreds of thousands of children created doodles that represented how they imagined the future. The winning doodle was displayed on the Google UK homepage for a day, and was seen by around 20 million people.
This December, UNICEF and the city of Copenhagen will host a Children's Climate Forum. Young people from all over the world will come together to share their views on how we should face up to the threat of climate change. And world leaders will listen. Four young people from the UK (aged 14-17) will travel to Copenhagen to take part. To secure a place on the team, students need to submit a short video or written piece via the YouTube channel www.youtube.com/uniceftagd
We have produced lesson plans to help link the competition with the Geography and Citizenship curricula. They help your students to explore the effects of climate change on the world's most vulnerable communities and to produce their competition entries.
The application deadline for the competition is 15 July 2009 and the age limit is 14-17 years. Students will have another opportunity to make their voices heard later in the year when they'll be able to take part in a global debate on YouTube (from September 2009). See www.tagd.org.uk/climate for more information.
Download the Geography lesson plan and the Citizenship lesson plan.
These practical workshops show teachers and expedition organisations how to create virtual fieldwork using Google Earth. Participants get hands-on experience with digital cameras and GPS units, creating mini-fieldwork projects, and transformed data into a Google Earth virtual journey.
For information on course dates and details visit the Royal Geographical Society website. The course handbook, "Virtual Fieldwork using Google Earth", provides detailed information on how to use Google Earth.
Inspired by a year of celebrations to mark the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, the Great Plant Hunt invites school children aged 5-11 to explore the natural world around them in a series of activities, all clearly linked to the primary science curriculum. The fun activities - which take place in the classroom, online and in the great outdoors - include exploring habitats, collecting seeds and growing plants. Schools can share their data and observations with other schools across the UK using Google Maps and Picasa.
www.healthyplanet.org/learning
Healthy Planet is a charity that offers free, online tools for teachers and school fundraisers. Each class can see, adopt and manage a piece of any of the world's 77,000 protected parks using Healthy Planet's Land Guardian program. A plaque, designed by your class, will appear alongside your plot on Google Maps & Google Earth for all to see. This links to the Geography, ICT and Citizenship curricula.
This website for secondary students and teachers explores the fascinating and dynamic world of enterprise. Some of the top businesses in the country, including Google, share what enterprise means to them through actual challenges they have faced. Linked into cross-curricular subjects, The Enterprise Zone brings enterprise to life!
If you are using Google tools in a schools project let us know at schools-uk@google.com