Using Keynote and iMovie to Make Public Service Announcements

In preparation for our Black History Month class project, my class voted on who to study as a class and complete a project on for our school's Black History Month celebrations. They had decided on President Barack Obama. While discussing some of President Obama's achievements as President, many students brought up that they saw "Affordable Care Act" and "Obamacare" listed.

That began our deep dive into Obamacare and the PSA.

Students were shocked to know the cost of many medical services, like ambulances, emergency room visits, medications, etc. They came to the conclusion that health insurance isn't something that is taught in schools typically, and they never really heard much about it in their communities. That's when they came up with doing a Public Service Announcement.

To plan for this project, I had to break down what parts of understanding health care and insurance to a 5th grade level. I taught one new concept a day - from understanding what a premium is, to understanding Medicaid, health care marketplaces.

Next, we broke down parts of production. Some students did not want to be in front of of the green screen; they wanted to animate drawings. We decided, then, to have part animation and part "live coverage." Another group of students specialized on creating the script.

To this day, this is my favorite project and one that makes me so proud of my students.