Los Juegos Olímpicos Project

Objective:

To identify famous athletes from Spanish-speaking countries

To be able to identify Spanish-speaking countries

To value the importance of sporting activities during health and fitness week

To recognize how the religion of Spain spread to Spanish-speaking countries

In celebration of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Health & Fitness Week here at UC, you are going to research one athlete who is from a Spanish-speaking country. You are then going to do a little research on the country that your athlete represents. Listed below is an alphabetical list of the members of the class and the athlete that you have been assigned, both alphabetically by last name.

  1. Aqiyl Allen: Nicolás Massú
  2. Najah Artis: Sergio Matto
  3. Kate Bagger: Rafael Nadal
  4. Brian Butterly: Adiel Palma
  5. Kyle Cieri: Jefferson Pérez
  6. Brian Flores: Fernando Platas
  7. Collin Johnson: Francisco Fernández Ochoa
  8. Michelle Kalasin: Silvia Poll
  9. Vimal Manchery: Ximena Restrepo
  10. Kathleen McQuillan: Irving Saladino
  11. Jamaad Nash: Félix Sánchez
  12. Jackie Oathout: Samuel Sánchez
  13. Christina Otero: Cecilia Tait
  14. Kevin Polt: Aureliano Torres
  15. Steven Thomas: Rafael Vidal
  16. Jack Vena: Pablo Zabaleta

You are to type answers to the questions that follow.These projects will be graded on the completion of each of the 8 questions, and the accuracy of your responses.The projects are due Wednesday, February 10, 2010.They must be printed out before class begins! They will count as a Project Grade for the 3rd Marking Period.Then, we will have our own Olympic knowledge competition to learn a little about some of the Spanish-speaking countries. Over the course of several days, everyone will present the three facts that you found out about your country: capital city, colors of the flag, and most widely practiced religion. You will write down your best guess (without looking up the answer) as to what Spanish-speaking country is being described. The student who guesses the most correctly will be awarded a “medal” during Health & Fitness week. Use the following as a template for completing your project. I have already given you the name of the athlete you are to research. There are several resources to use to get your information.

Questions # 1 through 5 on your athlete can be answered by going to the following website:

Type your athlete’s name in the Athlete Search box in the upper right-hand corner

You can also visit if you want to see more information or do a general search on Google

Questions # 6 through 8 on your country can be answered by going to the following website:

Click on the tab near the top right to select a country or location (the country your athlete represents)

#6 CapitalCity is found under the “Government” tab

#7 Colors of Flag is pictured at the top

#8 Most widely practicedReligion is found under the “People” tab

You could also use the Gale Reference Library, with a link off of the Union Catholic Online Library page, to find information on your country. It is the second one listed under External Resources at

Answer the following:

Name of Athlete Assigned: ______

  1. Country the athlete represents: ______
  2. Date of Birth: ______
  3. Sport he/she Participates in: ______
  4. Most Recent Olympics that he/she medaled in – Year and City: ______
  5. Name of Event and Color of Medal earned: ______

Country Information

  1. CapitalCity: ______
  2. Colors of the Flag: ______
  3. Most widely practiced Religion: ______

------

Example:

Name of Athlete: Carli Lloyd

  1. Country the athlete represents:United States
  2. Date of Birth: July 16, 1982
  3. Sport he/she Participates in: Soccer
  4. Most Recent Olympics that he/she medaled in – Year and City: 2008 Beijing
  5. Name of Event and Color of Medal earned: Soccer – Gold

Country Information

  1. CapitalCity: Washington, D.C.
  2. Colors of the Flag: Red, white, and blue
  3. Most widely practiced Religion: Protestant

Poster Guidelines:

To celebrate World Languages Week, you are required to create a poster that emphasizes the importance of learning world languages for communication and that learning a language is fun

Your poster should be:

No smaller than the equivalent of ½ poster board / no larger than the equivalent of a full poster board

It should be about World Languages in general, not a specific language

Neatness counts

Collages are acceptable

Students may use crayon, chalk, paint, markers, pencils, etc.

Computer-generated posters are acceptable

There will be no specific categories but creative/original and artistic are some things that will be considered when judging.

Your poster should have a catchy slogan. For example:

Got Languages? They do a person good.

Dive into a Sea of World Languages!

Your poster will be due on Tuesday, February 23.

It will count as a Project Grade for the 3rd Marking Period.

Spanish FlagItalian Flag

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