2016: A summer of global sport

Teachers’ Notes

Introduction

The2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games begin on 5th August in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

The Global Learning Programmeis providing this free resource to support schools that want to celebratetheseglobal events and, at the same time, develop pupils’ thinking about key global development ideas, particularly interdependence.

The resource includes the following activities:

  1. investigating the numbers behind the Olympics,by comparing countries’ Olympicrankings with other development-related scores;
  2. investigating the geography of the Olympics and Paralympics;
  3. exploring sport and global values;
  4. shorter activity suggestions.

Learning objectives

This resource is targeted at Key Stages 2 and 3 (ages 8–14). It will particularly support teachers in developing:

  • pupils’ knowledge and understanding of global themes such as interdependence and development
  • pupils’ enquiry and critical thinking skills
  • opportunities for pupils to consider their own and others’ values, particularly in relation to sport.

Resources

●PowerPoint®:The Rio Olympics and Paralympics: values

●Olympics data file: a spreadsheet with ‘intro’ and ‘full’ worksheets, containing data on 16 countries which will take part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Age range: 8–14 years

Investigatingthe Olympics

Activity 1: Scoring development

Pupils look at a data set of statistics about the development of different countries in the Olympics – called development scores – and make comparisons between different types of score. This supports lessons inMathematics related to handling data, making graphs and doing simple statistical operations, and lessons in Geography when investigating differences in development.

The data is a sample of sixteen countries from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia which will take part in the Olympics; you may choose to add data from other countries in order to make a bigger Olympics set.

You will need

●Olympicdataset, which includes:

  • a smaller ‘intro data’ set (for younger/less able pupils)
  • a larger ‘full data’ set (for older/more able pupils).

●Internet access and a whiteboard.

●Access to computers with Excel® or a similar program; alternatively, print-outs of the introductory and full data tables for different groups.

●A3 copies of a blank world map or larger display maps.

Starter activity

Build up the big picture of the Olympicsby investigating which countries are involved.

●You could start by identifying an appropriate number and range of countries to follow and share these around individual or pairs of pupils, or perhaps share continents around groups.

Investigating the data

●Using the Olympicdataset, show pupils the countries’ Olympic rankings. Do they notice any geographical patterns relating to which countries have higher/lower rankings?

●Introduce the other columns in the table.What do they think the different scores mean? Discuss their meanings (see the Data Sources tab). Which scores do pupils think might be more or less important to people in a country? Which might have an impact on Olympic success and why?

Ask pupils to work in small groups to investigate either one or both of the datasets. They can either devise their own theories about sporting success to test out, or explore the questions below, perhaps sharing them around each group. They can do this visually, by applying and using the ‘filter’ tools on the spreadsheet, or by making tallies/graphs to explore the questions.

Easier

Askpupils to use the Intro data to answer some/all of these questions:

●Are countries where people are generally better off also more successful at sport? (Compare Gross National Income [GNI] per capita and Olympic rankings).

●Are countries with bigger populations more successful at sport? (Compare Populationsize and Olympic rankings).

●Are countries with better health more successful at sport? (Compare Life Expectancy and Olympic rankings).

●Do peoplelive longer in richer countries? (Compare Life Expectancy and GNIdata).

Harder

Askpupils touse the Full data to answer the same questions above, and think about some/all of the following:

●Are countries with a better quality of life more successful at sport? (Compare Human Development Index [HDI]scores with Olympic rankings).

●Are countries with a better quality of life generally where people are better off? (Compare HDI and GNIdata).

●Are countries that are generally more equal also those where people are generally better off? (Compare Fairness index and GNI data).

●Do people live longer in countries with more doctors? (Compare Life Expectancy and Doctors data).

Extension

Ask pupils to investigate their dataset to find out more about the countries involved and how they relate to each other. You could ask them to:

●Use the data to make simple calculations, e.g. the mean, mode and range in the datasets, and work out ways to show how individual countries compare.

●Use either Excel®or graph paper to chart and display the data. If you have started a group or class world map, you could add charts or graphics to the map, for example as located barsor pictograms on each country.

●If pupils are familiar withusing scattergraphs, they could use them to test some of the questions; make sure that the Olympics ranking (the dependent variable)is shown on the y axis.The relationships betweenthese sport rankings and other sets of datacan be fairly weak, so you could ask pupils to test one relationship with the sportrankings, then one relationship between other data such as GDP and Life expectancy.

●To build on the use and presentation of development data on countries, you could use the Gapmindersiteto investigate ways of presenting development data, in particular what scattergraphs can show.

Completing the work:

Ask pupils to:

●Identify patterns they think are there – including countries that show the patterns and others that don’t.

●Discuss and draft conclusions with some possible reasons for the patterns and connections they have identified.

●Ask groups to compare their findings with other groups’ ideas before finalising their work.

Discussions with pupils may draw out some key ideas such as the following:

●Not all countries score equally well for things like sporting success, being well off or having better health.

●These things can be related – e.g. being better off might be an advantage for becoming better at sport. However, there are exceptions, and this may not be a hard and fast ‘rule’.

●Are there exceptions where ‘common sense’ conclusions are not supported by the data? For example, some countries excel at particular sportsdespite having small populations and fairly low incomes.Why might this be? You might follow this discussion up in Activity 3, which is focused on sportand globalvalues.

●What are pupils’ thoughts on whether differences should exist?What is the more desirable state of the world?

Activity 2: The geography and impact of the Olympics and Paralympics

You will need

●Atlases, and ideally access to the Internet and Google Earth®

●Outline maps of Brazil

●Olympics dataset.

Follow the Olympic torch around Brazil to investigate the country’ssize, diversity of landscapes and people:

●The official Olympic website has a comprehensive itinerary for the torch’s tour of Brazil. You may want to locate a limited number of milestones in different parts of the country, perhaps getting pupils to identify these on an outline map. Then get pupils to use their atlases to find evidence about climate, vegetation, landscapes and the diversity of places encountered on the way, perhaps annotating the results on the map or display of the route.

●If you have access to Google Earth® pupils could select and add details of the variety of rural and urban landscapes using contrasting satellite images or photographs.

Investigate images of Brazil

●Investigate images from the official Olympics site – what image of the country are they promoting?

●Investigate images of Brazil from an internet search, perhaps comparing them with those turned up by an image search for Wales or Britain. How realistic are they as a view of the country? What surprises and stereotypes emerge – and what images would pupils like to find to fill the gaps?

●You could look again at the Olympics dataset. Twenty-five years ago Brazil was sometimes called ‘The World Champion of Inequality’ – what evidence of that is there today, or of Brazil’s rapid development this century?

Investigate the location of the Olympic and Paralympic venues and their impact:

●If you have access to Google Earth®, pupils can investigate and view the Olympic venues in satellite and street view, perhaps discussing how visitors will experience them and the positive and negative impacts on their localities and people.

●Oxfam’s publication ‘A Sporting Chance’ investigates inequality in Brazil and the impact of the Olympics in detail (see links).

Investigate the Olympic legacy:

●Many Olympic Games have negative impacts on local people in the construction phase, as well as positive ones: the Rio Olympics was no exception, including the demolition of low-income housing for World Cup and Olympic development. Investigating the legacy of other Games may help pupils predict what will happen in Rio after 2016. The GA’s Planet Sport site (see links) has material on a number of other Olympics, including on the legacy of London 2012

Activity 3: Sport and global values

As well as success and excellence in competition, sportalso develops values that are widely relevant. You can use this activity to help pupils think about what values are, and discuss which are important for them, in school, nationally and globally.

You will need

●‘Joining Hands’ - Olympic Solidarity in action - Olympic Values video

●PowerPoint® The Rio Olympics and Paralympics: values

●A3 paper for concept maps;

Activity

●You might start by discussing what we mean by values, and why they are useful for people, communities and the wider world.You can then use a combination of these activities to explore sport values and develop pupils’ thinking to also consider ‘global’ values.

●Ask the pupils to suggest values that are developed by taking part in sport.

●Show the Olympics values video (to about 4:30 out of 6:30 minutes).

●List the values mentioned in the video and discuss them to check pupils’ understanding;or share the values round groups, who can then draft and share their own definitions.

●Alternatively,print the PowerPoint®slides 1, 2 and 3 showing the Olympic values and definitions (first delete the headings),then get pupils to match definitions and values.

●Share the values around, e.g. in or between groups. For each value, get pupils to create concept maps with examples of what it looks like in practice insport, in school and in the wider world/between countries. If they haven’t done so already, pupils could add their own definitions. Finally,ask pupils to compare their work with other groups.

●Older/more able pupils might compare sport values with a set of global values, perhaps using slide4,‘Global values for pupils’.You could perhaps createa Venn diagram,or use a format similar to theOlympic Rings® to prioritisethe five sport/shared/globalvalues they feel are most important.

●Alternatively,slide 5‘Global values for countries’sets out some values underpinning the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR); you could ask pupils to think of examples (e.g. freedom of speech, equality between men and women) within or between countries, or compare the values with the UNDHR itself.

●Think critically about the values, e.g.

  • Which are most/more/less important?
  • Are anyimportant values missing?
  • Are any values more important locally/between individuals, or globally/between countries?

You could ask pupils toapply the values, for example by creating a class/school charter of values and examples of how they will work, or usingsport values to evaluate their own working, e.g.

●Joy of effort - which aspect of the work helped them to enjoy and achieve?

●Fair play - how well did they work together?

●Respect for others – how well did they listen to others’ ideas?

●Pursuit of excellence – what did they achieve, and how?

●Balance between body, will and mind – what skills did they learn and apply?

Reflection point

As global citizens, regardless of our culture, traditions or customs, we have many shared values.

Extension ideas

●If your school has an international partner, check how their country achieves in the Olympics and compare your school’s global values with those identified by pupils in your partner school.

Activity 4: some shorter ideas

PSE/Literacy - Role Model Debate

  • Ask the pupils to work in groups to research reasons why sportspeople, both male and female, able bodied and Paralympians, areseen as good sporting role models;for example, Mo Farah was born in Somalia, spent the early years of his life in Djibouti, but moved to Britain when he was 8 years old to join his father, speaking barely a word of English.

For research, Welsh athletes might include:

  • Jade Jones;aWelshtaekwondoathlete who representedTeam GBat the2012 London Olympics, winning Britain's first gold medal.
  • Tanni Grey-Thompson; Paralympian gold medallist, peer and disabled rights campaigner.
  • Aled Sion Davies; Paralympian gold medallist.
  • Ellie Simmonds; aParalympianswimmer and winnerof four gold medals.
  • Becky James; cycling world champion and potential Olympic medallist.
  • Also consider why some sportspeople may also be perceived as negative sporting role models; for example, allegations of using performance enhancing substances and other forms of cheating.

Art and Design

  • The RioOlympics 2016 logo drawson all aspects of Brazilianculture.Show pupils the officialRio Olympics 2016 logo video (15 seconds). Ask the pupils to discuss how the logo represents Brazil - its people, places, landscapes, coloursand traditions.
  • Arrange the class into groups,and ask the groups to choose and research anOlympic country, and design a logo that reflects its culture and traditions.

Environmental and social impact

●Investigate the environmental impact of visiting the Olympics using an online Carbon Calculator (see links), or compare the environmental footprint of teamsfrom different parts of the world.

●Use the official websites to investigate the social and environmental impact statements and actions taken by the organisers of the Olympics; pupils could discuss why these have become much more important in recent tournaments, and whether they are simply a marketing strategy.

●The Summer Olympics have been held almost every four years since 1896. Using a world map ask pupils to record the locations of the host cities/countries. What pattern emerges? Consider if developing countries will ever be able to host major sporting events like the Olympics, compared with emerging and developed countries like Brazilandthe UK? Ask pupils, in groups, to choose a developing country competing in the Summer Olympics that has not yet hosted the games. Ask them to explain why their country should be able to host a global sporting event and how it would benefit the country.

●Discuss the pros and cons of hosting a major sporting competition like the Olympics. Pros might include: improved profile and status; increased tourism; improved infrastructure (roads, rail links, and accommodation); financial profit,and improved sports facilities. Cons might include: high cost of improving infrastructure, risk of complaints about the event’s organisation, security concerns; financial loss, and lessspending on other sports.

●Are you an ethical consumer? Would you pay more for a fair trade trainers or sustainable sports shoes?Ask the class to research how and where trainers are made and who makes them? Explore the connections between companies making sportswear, child labour and human rights.

●High ticket prices prevent many spectators from attending major sporting competition like the Olympics. To help pupils understand about the affordability of tickets, compare Rio Olympics’ ticket prices with average weekly wages in Wales (according to ONS data in 2015, the figure for Wales earnings was £473.40 per week) and other countries.

Links

Educational sites

A sporting chance: Oxfam publication on the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, containing detailed support for work in maths, English, geography and PE:

Geographical Association Planet Sport:

Gapminder:

Joining Hands - Olympic Solidarity in action - Olympic Values video:

Olympics Teaching Values: Teachers Toolkit – a comprehensive guide and activity suggestions focused on the Olympic values and symbols

Brazil in the school: resources for Key Stages 2 and 3 from the Brazilian embassy

Olympics sites

Rio Olympics and Paralympics main site

Venues map

Olympic torch relay site includes a schedule and animated map showing the route through Brazil

Resource created by the Geographical Association and Markitfor the Global Learning Programme Wales
Adapted from sources including the GLP Rugby World Cup resource, and the 2014 Brazil World Cup resources fromOxfam and the Geographical Association, with permission.

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