download - IOA

providing relevant activities, which enhanced learning across all curriculum areas.
This was achieved primarily through Olympic Resource Kits, which provided
teachers and students with specific Olympic reference material and teaching and
learning strategies. These resources were commissioned by the Australian Olympic
Committee for distribution to all schools across Australia.
• The Olympic Education Kit distributed in 1995, was produced in two
versions — Primary (Years 1 to 6) and Secondary (Years 7 to 12) and
became the basic information source for all further resource development.
• The Olympic Torch Education Kit was developed specifically to celebrate
the Atlanta Torch Relay in 1996 and created a sense of involvement as
students followed the route of the Olympic flame from Ancient Olympia
to Atlanta. For 2000, "The Oceania Journey" encouraged students in the
island countries of Oceania to follow the Olympic Flame as it travelled
to Australia.
• The Nagano Winter Olympic Kit provided information on the 1998 Winter
Olympic Games, winter sports and the culture of Japan through, posters,
video and student activities.
• The Sydney 2000 Olympic Resource "Aspire" was distributed in 1999, as
an interactive package of learning materials, which encouraged students
and teachers to explore a learning environment, which captured the spirit
of the Games. This kit provided a resource file of teaching and learning
activities stored on a CD-ROM, teacher guidebook, posters, video and
complementary Internet activities. "Aspire" was designed to live on in
schools beyond the 2000 Games and definitely appealed to students.
(Copies of all these Olympic resources are available in the Academy
library.)
• The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) produced an
education kit "Set No Limits" which was distributed to all schools across
Australia in 1998 and provided a sound educational base for all
subsequent activities related to the Paralympic Games.
The "Set No Limits" kit contained an invitation to schools to become penpals
with a Paralympian - the LEAP program (Link Elite Athletes Program). Over the
next two years, LEAP developed into the centrepiece of the Paralympic Education
Program and provided the communication channel between schools and the
Paralympic Games. By August 2000, some 2,735 schools were communicating with
their athlete and many had planned to attend the Paralympic Games.
Another key initiative was the publication of O-News, the Olympic student
newspaper. The initial three million copies of O-News were handed to school
students in August 1998 and followed up by subsequent editions in 1999 and 2000.
O-News featured topical Olympic news and activities, including various sporting,
cultural and environmental perspectives over five editions.
In September 1999, the official website of the 2000 Olympic Games was
enhanced with a youth component known as "Kids". The "kids" area included
interactive leisure and learning activities organised into Sport, Green, World and
121