KEY INFORMATION

Recommended age group: 11–14
Time required: one 45–60 minute session
Equipment: Paralympic heroes resources, Paralympic heroes advanced assembly (optional), Get Set to be a Paralympic Champion resources (optional).


ACTIVITY IDEA

Use the Paralympic Heroes poster profile presentation to introduce the lesson objective and explain how the students are going to find out about one of the successful medal-winning athletes from a previous Paralympic Games to create an exciting visual profile: a single page printed sheet which could act as an inspiration to others.

  • The aim is to use ICT for both research and to design the profile so that it looks exciting. It will contain basic facts about the athlete plus images and quotes where possible. The pdf download of Paralympic athlete profiles contains lots of ideas but it will be up to students to design the page.
  • An important part of the task is to understand that athletes do not achieve success by themselves so students need to try and find out about training and the teams behind their chosen Paralympian. The Get Set Google Hangout on Sports Science will be useful for this purpose.
  • Text should be kept brief and punchy and should be incorporated into lively visual formats so that the profile looks appealing. There are suggestions for how to do this on the pdf activity sheet to accompany this activity.
  • When complete students should share something interesting about their athletes and say why they think this person could inspire others.

DIFFERENTIATION

Younger and less able students can be given a reduced task, for example to research and record basic facts about their chosen athlete.
Older and more able students can include the extension tasks of finding out about the team behind their chosen athlete and also to state how their Paralympian is living out the Paralympic Values.

EXTENSION

  • Students can research the team behind their chosen athlete and also to state how their Paralympian is living the Paralympic Values of determination, inspiration, courage and equality
  • Students can also create labels for a wall display of the profiles, coming up with ideas which might draw other people towards looking at the display.
  • Students can take a photograph of their display and submit a showcase to Get Set. Their display will be available for the whole of the Get Set community to view.
  • The school could tweet the athletes they have chosen to profile an image of the wall display.