Difficulty: Explorer (Level 1)

One of the biggest honours for an athlete is winning an Olympic medal. First-place winners receive a gold medal, and second-place winners receive silver. Third-place winners receive bronze.

The look of the medals changes for each Olympic Games. An artist from the host country makes the design.

You may be surprised to learn that gold medals are required to be at least 92.5 per cent silver! They are then plated with six grams of gold, worth about USD$758 (HK$5,922). The medals used to be made of pure gold. This changed after World War I.

The silver medals are actually made of silver. But the bronze medals are a mix of copper, zinc and tin. These materials are worth very little money. Medals at the recent Tokyo Olympics were made from recycled electronic devices that Japanese people had donated.

You might see photos of Olympians biting their gold medals. Historically, people would bite down on gold to check whether it was real. This is because gold tends to be softer than other metals.

Athletes can be sure their medals are real gold. However, it still makes for a very popular picture!

Make your own medals

Materials

• cup

• pencil

• cardboard

• white construction paper

• scissors

• crayons

• glue

• hole puncher

• ribbons

Instructions

1. Place the cup upside down on the cardboard and use your pencil to trace three circles. Cut them out.

2. Use one of the cardboard circles to trace six more circles onto the construction paper and cut them out.

3. Colour two circles for each medal. Use gold-coloured crayons for the first place medal, silver for the second place, and brown or beige for the third place medal.

4. Glue the coloured circles onto the cardboard pieces. Place one on the front and one on the back. Make sure both sides are the same colour.

5. Once the glue is dry, ask an adult to help you punch a hole near the top of each medal.

6. Determine how long you want your medals to be and cut three strips of ribbon. Thread one through the hole in each medal and tie them together.

Olympic cleaning competition

Materials

• family members to do the activity with

• a chore that needs to be completed

• pen and paper

• (optional) the Olympic medals that you made in the first activity

Instructions

1. Add an element of competition to make chores fun! Gather a few family members and decide on a chore that needs to be completed. Maybe it’s doing the dishes or folding laundry.

2. Once you have decided on a chore, discuss how people can win. Perhaps it is based on speed: who can wash the most dishes or fold the most clothes in one minute? Agree on a few rules ahead of time, such as how clean a dish needs to be or how neatly the clothes should be folded.

3. Each person takes turns completing the chore. Use a smartphone to time the activity.

4. At the end of the round, the other contestants will give points based on each person’s performance, such as counting how many dishes were washed or how many clothes were folded. Whoever has the most points wins the gold medal for the day!