Student PSAs Shed Light on the Pandemic

3/12/2021

Lights, camera, action! It was a fitting way to wrap up a life science unit on the coronavirus as seventh graders wrote, created and produced public service announcements using music, skits and animation.

Middle school science teacher Dana McNamee said her students really embraced the assignment: “They have exceeded my expectations by demonstrating what they’ve learned through our study of the coronavirus, covering everything from what a virus is and how this vaccine is different than all those of the past, to how one should properly wear a mask.”

Sarelle Ruby ’26, Allat Yussupova ’26 and Mimi Battleman ’26 combined creative acting and editing skills for their PSA on coronavirus dos and don’ts. “We selected this topic because we thought there were a lot of things that people are doing wrong without even knowing,” Ruby said.

A sense of humor was at play in a video about vaccines that Alex Pinnock ’26, Nathan Beckmann ’26 and Dexton Osherow ’26 produced. “What I learned from this project is that making a PSA isn’t all about the information,” Pinnock explained. “If it’s not interesting nobody will learn the facts you give out. That is why we made ours as entertaining as possible.”

Jimmy Fabian ’26, Alex Kritzer ’26, Malachy Green ’26 and Thomas McCallum ’26 chose to get their message across by rapping about COVID-19 symptoms. “We thought this was the most genuinely useful way for a group of people that already knew about the majority of protocols,” said Fabian, who learned a lot about COVID-19 symptoms from the project. “I definitely did not know at least half of them,” Fabian noted.

McNamee absorbed more than a few important health tips from her students, adding “I have learned quite a bit from them about filmmaking!”