Mary Kienstra

“Going Green with Public Service Announcements” is Kienstra’s winning project where students at Beebe Elementary School will create a video Public Service Announcement to persuade their audience to take action regarding an issue in ecology for Earth Day 2012. Each student will choose a topic in ecology, write a persuasive essay and produce a multi-media presentation to persuade the audience to take action. The final public service announcements will be shown to the class, uploaded to the class website for sharing with parents and friends, showcased on the computer station kiosks located throughout the district and maybe even shown on the local public access TV channel. Students will write a script and produce a story board for their multi-media presentation. They will review other successful public service announcements for reference, and will discuss themes, graphics, music, voice, character and how all of those contribute to the persuasive message. Kienstra, who lives in Naperville, says 50 fourth and fifth-grade students in the gifted reading classes will benefit directly from this ING grant funded project.