About the Olympic Education Program

The Canadian Olympic School Program (COSP) seeks to create the excitement of the Olympic Movement in the classroom and throughout the school. The resources are aimed at sparking discussions about values, telling stories that inspire, and encouraging students to work together to find creative solutions to suggested challenges and current issues. Written by teachers, for teachers, the resources are pedagogically sound, classroom friendly and adaptable. Our developers believe that:

1. Learning is active and not passive. The learner must interact with the content to make it meaningful. This is one of the main reasons we offer our curriculum at different reading levels.
2. Students learn in different ways. Some people learn best by reading; some people learn best by listening; some people learn best by doing.
3. Applied learning engages the high school learner. Giving the students a role as they are presented with a challenge to solve is more meaningful than giving them questions to answer.
4. Learning can be both an individual and cooperative activity. Young people need opportunities to work together as well as independently. They also need to practice cooperative behaviours in order to learn respectful behaviours.
5. Successful learning occurs over time. It occurs through carefully scaffolded series of steps that connect to students’ prior understanding, actively process or practice new information, and finally transform their understandings into powerful demonstrations of learning.

The Canadian Olympic School Program (COSP) has operated since 1987, and provides teachers and students across Canada with Olympic-themed classroom and school resources.

Program Primary Objectives:

• Promote the Olympic values and inspire the application of these values in the lives of Canadian teachers and students daily
• Increase awareness of the Canadian Olympic Team amongst teachers and students nationwide (sharing stories of the Canadian Olympians journey)
• Engage Canadians in the Olympic Movement

Secondary Objectives

• Promote healthy active living at all levels
• Challenge students to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles through healthy behaviours such as: reducing screen time to less than 2 hours a day; eating 5 to 8 servings of vegetable and fruit; daily physical activity and focusing on positive thoughts that lead to a belief in self.

Leverage this excitement of the Olympic Games to engage your students in dynamic and inspiring Olympic-themed learning.