Olympic Games Geography Lesson Plan Ideas
Bringing the 2010 Vancouver Olympics into the Classroom
Oct 3, 2009
Geography teachers work hard to bring the world into their classroom. What better way to do this than to incorporate the 2010 Vancouver Olympics into their classes? There’s no need to wait until February to start using the Olympics in the classroom. The 2010 Vancouver Olympics website is up and stocked with information. The countries are preparing their athletes, and the Olympic Torch Relay starts on October 30, 2009.
Introducing the Olympics
Teachers can begin generating interest in the 2010 Olympic Games by have students locate and label past countries that have hosted. Students can locate the countries that have hosted the winter games one color and the summer games another color. Depending on the educational level of the classroom teachers can have students do all of the host countries, or just a select few.
To activate students’ higher order thinking, have them look for patterns in:
- Countries that have hosted the summer and winter games.
- Countries that have hosted the summer and winter games multiple times.
- Continents that have hosted the summer and winter games.
- Countries that have never hosted the summer or the winter games.
- Countries that have never hosted the summer or the winter games.
To wrap this activity up, students can develop geographical hypotheses on why some countries and continents consistently host the games, and others don’t. Depending on the difficulty level of the classroom, teachers can have students prove their theory’s using maps in their books or that they find through other resources. The recent nod to Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will further enhance this discussion and debate.
The Olympic Torch Relay
The Olympic Torch Relay runs from October 30, 2009-February 12, 2010. It is set to be the longest relay ever held in the borders of a host country. The route of the Olympic Torch can be viewed online and it presents students with the perfect opportunity to practically apply their latitude and longitude skills. Students can plot the route of the Olympic Torch through coordinates given to them by their teacher.
The Opening Ceremonies
Geography teachers can easily use the Olympic Opening Ceremony’s as a teaching tool in their classrooms. Students can watch The Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremony and shade in the countries that are in attendance. Again, students can also look for patterns in terms of what countries are in attendance at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
The Olympic Games
One of the easiest ways to incorporate the Olympic Games themselves into the classroom is through the medal count. As each country is awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals students can shade them in on a map using different colors for each type of medal. Interesting patterns can be seen in what countries win the most medals. Don’t forget to remind students to look at many types of maps, economic maps might prove to be particularly interesting when looking for patterns in the medal count.
The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games offer the perfect opportunity for geography teachers to have their students practice basic skills like latitude and longitude and country identification. They also offer many opportunities for students to use higher order thinking skills like looking for geographical patterns. Teachers can start putting the Olympics into their classroom lesson plans right now, building excitement that will last until the Olympic Games start in February. Be sure to also check out the Vancouver 2010 website for many lesson plan ideas in all subjects that teachers can use in their classrooms.
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