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SCMP Reporter

A number of US students are acquiring extra skills as a result of the 1996 Olympic Games.

  This year the Games will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, from July 19 to August 4. It is expected to draw more than 1.4 million people to Atlanta.

  The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) has, since its set-up, annually selected a diverse group of 100 of Georgia's brightest teenagers to represent the Games in their communities. This group is known as the Dream Team.

  These teenagers have led service projects in their hometowns, shared their experiences with younger students as hosts of ACOG functions, and studied world history using the Games as a base.

  ACOG spokesperson Dyan Matthews said the Dream Team helped to enrich the Olympic experience for others.

  'Members of the Dream Team were given opportunities to meet and learn from visitors around the world,' Ms Matthews said.

  The Atlanta Olympic Band has created opportunities to involve Georgia's best student musicians in this year's Games.

  With more than 300 students selected each year, the band has played an important role in spreading enthusiasm for the Games, like the Dream Team.

  In terms of academic activities, Ms Matthews said three curriculum guides were developed by a team of Georgia educators for use by teachers statewide.

  'The first guide helped middle school teachers instruct students about the Olympic movement so that they could more fully participate in the Olympic preparations,' she said.

  Such creative guides were well received by school teachers. More than 80 per cent of Georgia's schools employed these guides in their programmes.

  'With these guides, students learned about the sports in the Games, the history of the movement, and selected their own countries and athletes to follow as the Games approached,' said Chris Dale, a school teacher.

  Later editions of the guides offered more in-class activities that allowed teachers to use the topic of the Games to teach other subjects, such as geography, social studies, mathematics and history.



Dream Team spreads word