Google has announced that they are launching their fourth annual “Doodle 4 Google” contest. This is a contest that is for children and teenagers to enter. The winners can receive a scholarship for themselves, and a grant for their school. Time to get out the crayons and pencils, and start doodling!
Google, of course, is a super popular search engine. I use google all day long. It is my “go-to” resource when I need to find out more information about something. Everything from the phone number of the local pizza place, to the possible location of a long lost relative can be searched through google. I have heard that the most common thing that people search for are health related topics. At at time when so many people are without health insurance, and cannot easily afford to be seen by a doctor, I’m not surprised that people use google to seek helpful information about whatever could be ailing them.
I’ve always found it interesting that Google changes their logo to reflect something important that happened that day in history. My favorite version, by far, was the one they did that looked like an image from an X-ray. Today, they have changed their logo to look like a painting, in the style that artist Paul Cezanne painted in. It’s a lovely, painterly, google logo, created from dishes, and a crumpled tablecloth. Google has selected this version of the Google logo to kick off it’s announcement of the contest.
This year is Google’s fourth annual “Google 4 Doodle” contest. To enter this contest, you must be a child, pre-teen, or teenager, who is in grades K-12, and is in the United States. The theme of this year’s contest is: “What I’d like to do someday….”. Kids are to take the standard, typical, usual Google logo, and change it. Make a drawing that transforms the Google logo into something that reflects what that child hopes to someday do with his or her life. The registration deadline to participate in this contest is March 2, 2011. (Entries must be postmarked before March 16, 2011).
The contest is broken into different categories, based on age. The first grouping includes students who are in Kindergarten, through third grade. The second group is for fourth through sixth grade students. The next group includes students who are in grades seven through nine, and the last group is for tenth through twelfth graders. The winners will be judged by Whoopi Goldberg, ice skater Evan Lysacek, Jim Davis (creator of the Garfield cartoons), and Google employees.
Winners for each age group will have their artwork displayed on Google’s homepage. They also will receive a $15,000 scholarship. The school that the winner attends will receive a $25,000 technology grant. I would image a lot of computers could be purchased, or upgraded, with that much grant money.
Image by Paul Stein on Flickr