Time to Doodle 4 Google!

Children across Meath are once again being challenged to get doodling for this year's Doodle 4 Google competition. This year, Google is hoping to inspire the next generation of great Irish inventors with the theme "My Invention". The winning doodle will be seen by millions of Internet users when it appears on the Google Ireland homepage Google.ie for a day in April 2013. For the first time the winning student will receive a scholarship of €5,000 to go towards their college studies. The winning teacher and student will also receive a Chromebook laptop each and their school will receive a €10,000 technology grant. The five class group winners and their teachers will also receive Chromebooks. Last year's winner, 18 year old Patrick Horan from St. Munchin's College Limerick said: "Winning the Doodle 4 Google competition was such a wonderful experience. I always wanted to be an artist and winning helped me qualify for Art College. On top of that my school was able to buy brand new interactive white boards for the classrooms, new laptops for the Art department, as well as innovative graphics tablets." John Herlihy, Head of Google Ireland said, "At Google we are always trying to encourage young people to be as creative and inventive as possible and I'm really looking forward to seeing how they interpret this year's theme of "My Invention". I am always blown away by the caliber of the entries across all the age categories." A panel of judges including Gary Granville, Professor of Education at the National College of Art and Design and Marianne Kelly, former Assistant Curator at the Irish Museum of Modern Art will narrow down the thousands of entrants to 75 finalists, 15 from each class group. There are five class groups in the competition: Class Group 1 - Junior Infants, Senior Infants Class Group 2 - 1st Class, 2nd Class Class Group 3 - 3rd Class, 4th Class, 5th Class, 6th Class Class Group 4 - 1st Year, 2nd Year, 3rd Year Class Group 5 - Transition Year, 5th Year, 6th Year The 75 finalists will then be displayed on the Doodle 4 Google website and the general public will vote for their favorite doodle. The top five doodles, one from each class group, will then be judged by the official Google doodle team, who will select the overall winner. The deadline for entries is December 10th 2012. For more information on the competition visit www.google.ie/doodle4google/ . Doodle 4 Google lesson guides are available to help guide students and assist teachers in integrating the competition into their art classes. Examples of Google doodles for reprint can be downloaded at: www.google.ie/logos