Google announced this morning on the The Today Show that they are starting up the fifth annual U.S. Doodle 4 Google contest. They want K-12 students to draw their own rendition of the Google logo. The winner will see their doodle on the frontpage of Google for a day. The winner will also receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 technology grant for their school.

The theme for this year is “If I could travel in time, I’d visit…” They don’t care which direction in time kids want to go. They can even stay in the present and draw a doodle about Google telling them to draw a doodle about time travel.

Last year, Google saw 107,000 entries to the contest. They’re making a few changes this year to better accommodate more winners. Each state will have five finalists and one winner so each state will have a doodle champion to cheer on. From those 50 state winners, they will select five national finalists from which the doodle champion will emerge.

They are also partnering with Crayola this year to bring the winning doodle to a special edition of their 64-crayon box. Remember kids, draw your doodles with Roseart crayons for the ultimate irony.

They have also eliminated the registration step so parents or teachers just have to submit the artwork by March 20 with a signed and completed entry form.

Contest judging will start with Google employees and a panel of celebrity guest judges. Katy Perry, creator of Phineas and Ferb Jeff Marsh and Jordin Sparks have graciously agreed to judge the artwork alongside other unnamed, but guaranteed to be great, illustrators and artists. They will pick the state finalists and winners, then the national finalists and winners will be up to a public vote.

The doodles by the 50 state winners will be displayed at the New York Public Library and then at museums around the country so parents can take their children to see why they didn’t win.

For all the details, parents can head here to get the entry form and learn how they can get their child’s 15 minutes of Internet fame.*

*Fifteen minutes of Internet fame is equatable to 20 seconds in real time.

Doodle 4 Google is a nationwide contest that asks K-12 students to submit their own Google-inspired doodles. This year, the theme was “what I’d like to do someday.”

Last year, the contest received 33,000 entries. This year, the contest grew to over 107,000 applicants. Last year, students had to submit through their schools, but this year Google allowed parents to register their kids directly and submit doodles on their behalf.

Here’s the way the contest was judged: A panel of Google execs and guest judges narrowed down the 107,000 submissions to 400 state finalists across grade groups. The “guest judges” included celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, Garfield creator Jim Davis, Michael Phelps and Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney.

Those 400 state finalists were then narrowed down to 40 regional finalists. Online voting, open to the public, narrowed that down to the final four, one per age group. The winner was selected by Google.

So what did Matteo win for all this? A lot, actually. He will receive a $15,000 scholarship to the college of his choice, a trip to NYC, and new laptop and a digital design tablet. Matteo’s school with also get a $25,000 dollar grant for the establishment of a computer lab or other tech services.

Matteo won the whole thing coming out of the K-3 field. Here are the 3 winners from the other age groups- 4-6 (My Galaxy by Joseph Miller), 7-9 (The Majestic Sea by Justas Varpucanskis) and 10-12 (Illustration by Hannah Newsom) respectively:

State winner from Kentucky for the grades 10-12 “Google Tattoo” is probably my favorite of the state finalists. Come on, this one is awesome:

The competition drew over 33,000 submissions, so Melton’s achievement is a rather big deal.  Google will give her a netbook and a $15,000 college scholarship by way of congratulations, and you can see her doodle (called "Rainforest Habitat") for yourself a little early below.

This competition was designed to be a positive experience for a number of children, and not just Melton, though.  In an email to WebProNews, a Google representative explained that 40 regional finalists got to attend an awards ceremony where "[t]he students heard from some of this year’s expert jurors who are well-known illustrators, cartoonists, and animators from organizations such as Disney, The Sesame Street Workshop, Charles Schulz/The Peanuts Gang, and Barbie/Mattel."

The representative also wrote, "The students then visited the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City, where the 40 finalists’ doodles will be showcased in a national exhibit which will run from May 27 to August 15, 2010."

Finally, Google intends to give Melton’s school in El Dorado Springs, Missouri a $25,000 technology grant to cap off the competition.

Engelberth’s doodle can be seen below.  In accordance with the official theme "What I Wish for the World," she titled it "A New Beginning" and expressed hope that, "out of the current crisis, discoveries will be found to help the Earth prosper once more."

 

This optimism will net Engelberth a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school.  And that’s in addition to the trip to a New York museum she’s already gotten to take.

Other national finalists – Miriam Elizabeth Lowery, Blakely Linz, and Emerald Lu – were able to visit the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, as well.  All of their work will be on display from tomorrow through July 5th.

One last little feel-good note: although none of the national finalists hailed from it, Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada, will receive a $10,000 technology grant "for having the greatest quality participation."

As for the other side of things, over six million votes were cast online as part of this year’s Doodle 4 Google contest.

The Doodle 4 Google challenge has reached a point at which there are only 40 regional winners left.  All of their designs will be shown in the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum between May 21st and July 5th, which is neat.

 

In the meantime, a public vote ending May 18th will finish off process of picking a winner, and said winner will get a $15,000 scholarship along with a few other prizes.

As for the photography contest, entrants are supposed to supply five photos that will make up an iGoogle theme, and a post on the Google Photos Blog explained, "Winning submissions will be available for millions of Google users . . . and will also be part of a special exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London.  The overall winner will also receive 5,000 ($7,500) and an invitation to spend a day with renowned photographer Martin Parr."

“We’ve had an amazing response, with over 1,300 Australian schools registering,” writes Ashley Gorringe of the Doodle 4 Google Team.  And procrastinators haven’t even weighed in yet, as “[r]egistrations close in a little over a week.”

Gorringe goes on to point out the media attention this contest has received; B&T, iTWire, The Sydney Morning Herald, Softpedia, Frontiering Talk, the Art Forum, the Arts Hub, and Googlified have all made note of it, as have two departments of education.

Gorringe also notes an article appearing in the Brisbane Times, and it’s a duplicate of the SMH piece, but that’s still a pretty impressive collection.

Wondering what all the fuss is about?  You can read our old coverage, or, to summarize, Doodle 4 Google is a chance for Australian children to win prizes for themselves and their schools.  They just need to design a “Google doodle” that represents the Australian way of life.  It’s a nice idea, and as it turns out, it’s pretty popular.