We’re inviting school students in years 1-10 to sharpen their pencils, use their imagination and reveal their artistic talent to create a Google doodle depicting their vision for “If I was an Explorer I would...” The winning doodle will be shown on the Google homepage for a day for millions of Australians to enjoy. From today, schools can register to take part.
Since 1998, when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate they were going to the Burning Man Festival in Nevada, Google’s team of doodlers has been creating doodles to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous writers, scientists and explorers.
This year, we’ve lined up a panel of judges who are incredibly passionate about children’s art and education. Judging the initiative will be Professor Chris Turney, the Commonwealth Bank’s Lyn McGrath and back for another round of doodlin’ fun is Anne Geddes. These judges will select finalists across four age groups: Grades 1-3; Grade 4-6; Grades 7-8, and Grades 9-10, whose doodles will be shown online.
We’ll ask the public to vote on their favourite doodles from each age group and the winners will receive fantastic prizes for themselves and their schools, including laptops, tablets and $10,000 worth of technology for the national winner’s school. A Google doodler will select the overall national winner to be shown on the homepage and will be exhibited by our special partners at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
This year we have an extra special prize which is sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. A teacher from the winning doodlers school will be accompanying Professor Chris Turney on an expedition to the Antarctic to meet the local penguins and help with research projects which will emulate Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition research from a century ago. We’ll be catching all their adventures through a series of Hangouts on Air from the Google Australia +page.
During June, we’ll be sending out information packs to every Australian school. To take part, please register your school by 23 August, and all doodles must be submitted by 20 September. Please visit the Doodle 4 Google website for a full listing of all the contest rules and information.
We’re so excited and can’t wait to see the doodles!
Posted by Leticia Lentini, Events Magician, Google Australia and New Zealand, whose favourite doodle is Einstein’s 124th Birthday doodle from 2003.
