042914 GOOGLE DOODLE.JPG
Fifth grade student Hannah Hu, 11, stands next to her Google Doodle that was named as the Michigan winner in Google's annual contest. Far left is her teacher, Dante Watson, and on the right are Google employees Becky Evans and Justin Yang who made the announcement Tuesday before an assembly of Hannah's classmates at Logan Elementary School in Ann Arbor.
(Amy Biolchini | The Ann Arbor News)
An Ann Arbor Public Schools elementary student is a contender in an annual national contest among student artists in grades K-12 to craft the next doodle for Google's homepage.
Tuesday, Google announced 50 finalists in the "Doodle 4 Google" contest—one from each state.
Michigan's champion is Hannah Hu, 11, is a fifth grade student at Logan Elementary School on the north side of Ann Arbor.
The theme of this year's contest is "If I Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place."
Using colored pencils, Hannah invented an "Ocean Cleaner"—an imaginary device that takes trash and pollution out of the ocean to provide a safe, healthy place for animals to live.
Hannah Hu shows off her shirt with her Google Doodle.
Hannah learned that her doodle had been chosen Tuesday morning in a school-wide assembly at Logan Elementary.
Every student had donned a white Google shirt before the assembly—many of which had Hannah's doodle printed on them.
The elementary students waited excitedly to hear the announcement from Becky Evans and Justin Yang, Google employees at the company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters that had traveled to Ann Arbor for the presentation.
After an enthusiastic drum roll Hannah's classmates yelled and clapped for her as she walked up to the stage, where a large poster of her doodle had just been unveiled.
Beaming, Hannah thanked Google for the opportunity and her parents and friends for supporting her.
"My dad looks at the news, and I saw all about water pollution and how the animals in the sea were being killed," Hannah said. "I thought I invent a machine to help them live a better live in the ocean."
The winner of the Google doodle contest will be decided after several weeks of public voting online, which begins Tuesday. Online voting closes May 9.
- View Hannah's doodle
Hannah will join the other state finalists in May for a celebration at Google's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.
Google has divided the competition into five grade level categories: K-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 and 10-12. There are 10 finalists from each grade category, spread across all 50 states.
At the celebration five grade-level winners will be announced, from which the national winner will be chosen. The five grade-level winners will receive $5,000 college scholarships.
The national winner will have their doodle featured on Google's homepage June 9 for 24 hours and will receive a $30,000 college scholarship. A $50,000 Google for Education technology grant will also be awarded to the student's school.
Amy Biolchini is the K-12 education reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at amybiolchini@mlive.com, (734) 623-2552 or on Twitter. Find all Washtenaw County K-12 education stories on MLive.com.