Excited Educator

Lenny Dutton
www.buymeacoffee.com/excitededucator
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

Teachable Moment: Olympic Mascots

20/7/2016

 
I've done lessons before where students have focussed on character design and logo design. Mainly I have had students design characters which link to the IB's Learner Profile. These have resulted in students creating brooches, 3D Printed characters and even comic book/zines.

I recommend the following video for teaching about character design:
This morning I have been listening to WABE/NPR and a story came on about the Atlanta Olympics of 1996. I live in Atlanta now, love the Olympics and it is their 20 year anniversary so information about this is everywhere. For some reason I hadn't looked up the Olympic Mascot till I heard a story about how ugly it was. You can listen to the story and read an accompanying article here. You can also learn more from the Olympics official site here.
Picture
Picture
To be honest the Olympic Mascot for London 2012, Wenlock wasn't much better....
Picture
Picture
Our logo also was heavily criticized...
Picture
Picture
This brings me to the teachable moment mentioned in the blog post's title. So of course the Olympics is fast approaching, so school's across the world will have a focus on these, but I wonder how many will focus on the logo? Students could easily analyze it, redesign their own for Brazil, for their country or for their schools...they may even wish to think about what inspired the designers of the current mascots Vinicuis de Moraes and Tom Jobim, (Fun fact, their was a public vote to decide the names).

It is always important to create a curriculum which connects students...and this summer I am sure many of them have been playing Pokemon Go....so why not use this is a good bridge?

Possible Learning Statements: "Was the 2016 Brazilian Olympic Mascot inspired or plagiarized from Pokemon designs?" or "Is there such thing as a new idea: Are similarities between the Brazilian Olympic Mascot Tom Jobin and the Pokemon Oddish purposeful or coincidence?"
Picture
2016 Brazilian Olympic Mascots Vinicuis de Moraes and Tom Jobim
Picture
Picture
Pokemon Pikachu and Oddish
Leave your comments, ideas and suggestions below.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    June 2023
    April 2023
    August 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  Excited Educator
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact