Prairie Elementary Students Help Promote Recycling in Community

Prairie Elementary Students Help Promote Recycling in Community
Shawnee Mission School District

Sixth-graders from Prairie Elementary School have been working this year to strengthen recycling practices throughout their community.

At the invitation of city officials, the students created Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to be shared with community members. Throughout the process, they collaborated regularly with city officials to address needs specific to their community. 

Take a look at some of the Prairie sixth-grader’s videos that have been shared by the City of Prairie Village:

Tips and Resources: https://bit.ly/2HnDuy4

Advice related to recycling water bottles: https://bit.ly/2WMGMjN

Tips for recycling paper: https://bit.ly/30o9UzT

Info about grease contamination: https://bit.ly/30rLXHO

About recycling plastics: https://bit.ly/2VwVGci

Pollution and how to start recycling: https://bit.ly/30p7EZg

As the project began, students met with members of the City of Prairie Village Environmental Committee and determined student videos would be a great way to help encourage better recycling practices. Students conducted research, validated their research, created and edited scripts, and ultimately filmed their informational videos.

“It’s been a fun project and it makes you feel like part of your community to work on a project like this,” noted sixth-grader Marie Ptacek.

The students first debuted their work at a City Council meeting this spring. Several students spoke at the meeting to help present the completed work. Students learned about the environment and also received valuable experience through the process of creating their PSAs, teacher Laura Moore said. Most importantly, the project helped students understand they can  play a role in improving their community she added.  

“Students were proud that the council really listened to their thoughts,” Moore said. “Overall the students felt like all their hard work paid off. The videos were a success and the council approved of their work.”