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Area Students 'Doodle 4 Google' In National Contest
  
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By Nicky Lipartito, The Bulletin
Google announced Monday the approximately 400 state finalists and 40 regional winners for its “Doodle 4 Google” art contest. The contest invited students across the country in grades K-12 to design a Google logo around the theme “What I Wish for the World.”
This is the second year Google offered the contest, which received a 70 percent increase in responses over last year, with more than 28,000 doodles. Students in public, private and home schools were all eligible to participate.
Voting for the four national finalists has been open to the public this week, but the polls will close at midnight Pacific Time on Monday. Voters can select their favorite doodle in each grade group — kindergarten to grade 3, grade 4 to grade 6, grade 7 to grade 9 and grade 10 to grade 12 — on the “Doodle 4 Google” Web site: www.google.com/doodle4google.
The four national finalists, one of whom will be the overall national winner, will be announced in an awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City on May 20.
All 40 regional winners will have their doodles showcased in an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from May 21 to July 5, but the overall winner’s doodle will also be featured on the Google homepage on May 21. This student will also win a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his or her school.
This year, Google added a “District Quality Participation Prize” of a $10,000 technology grant “to the school district that most encourages high-quality participation from its schools,” according to the Web site. School districts were allowed to submit up to six doodles each to be given an overall quality score, with those making it to the finalist rounds given additional points. The highest scoring school will receive the grant.
Alan Asriants, age 12, is one of the approximately 400 state finalists chosen by a panel of Google judges, and one of the eight chosen from Pennsylvania. He is in the seventh grade at the Pen Ryn School in Fairless Hills.
Head of School Liz Morton explained that students in the upper grades at the school had the option to draw for Google. Teachers voted on the six to send in for the contest and chose Alan’s among them.
Alan said he was surprised to find out he was a state finalist.
“It was shocking because this is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” he said, adding that while he has won sports competitions, he has never won a contest like “Doodle 4 Google” before.
Alan’s doodle, “Sea Life Alive,” features an aquatic world, including a shark, eel and other marine life. Alan, a scuba diver, said the idea “just came from my imagination.” He added that he worked on the doodle for about two or three weeks.
Alan’s wish for the world is for man not to hurt any marine animals, he said, adding that water life would be boring if marine life was extinct. He said the point he would like to make is that “marine life won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt it.” Alan said he also wishes for a cleaner environment and world peace, but chose not to do his doodle on two topics he thought many people would choose.
Although choosing his one favorite animal is a tough call, Alan said he likes an extinct one — the Megalodon shark. While scuba diving, his dad found a tooth of the prehistoric creature. According to Alan, the tooth is longer than his hand, and if the shark was still around today, a person could fit inside its jaw.
While he would like to do art as a hobby when he grows up, Alan’s goal is to be a doctor or an engineer.
Courtney Bodine, age 11, is one of the 40 regional winners. She is in the sixth grade at Moorestown Upper Elementary School in New Jersey.
Courtney said she likes to enter a lot of contests, and thought “Doodle 4 Google” would be fun — not to mention cool if she won. She said she didn’t believe it at first when she found out she was a regional winner, but she was really excited and her class cheered for her when they heard the news.
“I put a lot of effort into the drawing and I’m really happy that I made it into the finals,” she said.
Courtney said she had a few different ideas for her doodle before she decided on endangered animals.
“I really like animals and I think it’s tragic that they’re going extinct,” she said. She added that her favorite wild animal is the African elephant. While she probably cares about the animals the most, she also wishes for world peace and “that everybody would treat each other fairly,” she said. She added that she also hopes people will stop cutting down trees and start recycling more.
To vote for your favorite doodle or to learn more about the contest, visit www.google.com/doodle4google.
Nicky Lipartito can be reached at monkeybrains@thebulletin.us
This is the second year Google offered the contest, which received a 70 percent increase in responses over last year, with more than 28,000 doodles. Students in public, private and home schools were all eligible to participate.
Voting for the four national finalists has been open to the public this week, but the polls will close at midnight Pacific Time on Monday. Voters can select their favorite doodle in each grade group — kindergarten to grade 3, grade 4 to grade 6, grade 7 to grade 9 and grade 10 to grade 12 — on the “Doodle 4 Google” Web site: www.google.com/doodle4google.
The four national finalists, one of whom will be the overall national winner, will be announced in an awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City on May 20.
All 40 regional winners will have their doodles showcased in an exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from May 21 to July 5, but the overall winner’s doodle will also be featured on the Google homepage on May 21. This student will also win a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for his or her school.
This year, Google added a “District Quality Participation Prize” of a $10,000 technology grant “to the school district that most encourages high-quality participation from its schools,” according to the Web site. School districts were allowed to submit up to six doodles each to be given an overall quality score, with those making it to the finalist rounds given additional points. The highest scoring school will receive the grant.
Alan Asriants, age 12, is one of the approximately 400 state finalists chosen by a panel of Google judges, and one of the eight chosen from Pennsylvania. He is in the seventh grade at the Pen Ryn School in Fairless Hills.
Head of School Liz Morton explained that students in the upper grades at the school had the option to draw for Google. Teachers voted on the six to send in for the contest and chose Alan’s among them.
Alan said he was surprised to find out he was a state finalist.
“It was shocking because this is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” he said, adding that while he has won sports competitions, he has never won a contest like “Doodle 4 Google” before.
Alan’s doodle, “Sea Life Alive,” features an aquatic world, including a shark, eel and other marine life. Alan, a scuba diver, said the idea “just came from my imagination.” He added that he worked on the doodle for about two or three weeks.
Alan’s wish for the world is for man not to hurt any marine animals, he said, adding that water life would be boring if marine life was extinct. He said the point he would like to make is that “marine life won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt it.” Alan said he also wishes for a cleaner environment and world peace, but chose not to do his doodle on two topics he thought many people would choose.
Although choosing his one favorite animal is a tough call, Alan said he likes an extinct one — the Megalodon shark. While scuba diving, his dad found a tooth of the prehistoric creature. According to Alan, the tooth is longer than his hand, and if the shark was still around today, a person could fit inside its jaw.
While he would like to do art as a hobby when he grows up, Alan’s goal is to be a doctor or an engineer.
Courtney Bodine, age 11, is one of the 40 regional winners. She is in the sixth grade at Moorestown Upper Elementary School in New Jersey.
Courtney said she likes to enter a lot of contests, and thought “Doodle 4 Google” would be fun — not to mention cool if she won. She said she didn’t believe it at first when she found out she was a regional winner, but she was really excited and her class cheered for her when they heard the news.
“I put a lot of effort into the drawing and I’m really happy that I made it into the finals,” she said.
Courtney said she had a few different ideas for her doodle before she decided on endangered animals.
“I really like animals and I think it’s tragic that they’re going extinct,” she said. She added that her favorite wild animal is the African elephant. While she probably cares about the animals the most, she also wishes for world peace and “that everybody would treat each other fairly,” she said. She added that she also hopes people will stop cutting down trees and start recycling more.
To vote for your favorite doodle or to learn more about the contest, visit www.google.com/doodle4google.
Nicky Lipartito can be reached at monkeybrains@thebulletin.us
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