Students love watching videos…they also love making them too and with the ubiquity of smart phones, it has never been easier for them to create their own.  This Personal Finance PSA WebQuest is a great way to introduce students to the concept of a Public Service Announcement (PSA) before asking them to complete their own PSA as a group project.

This activity asks students to go out on the web and find three personal finance related PSAs that motivate them to take a certain action.  Students complete a chart and fill in the title, producer, web address and a brief description of it.  Students then reflect on the PSA that they found most impactful and asked to list the reasons why.  Finally, students are asked to generate ideas that may have made that PSA even more compelling.

This activity can be combined with the NGPF Lesson on How To Make A PSA (Resources 8-10 would be a good place to start after this activity).

Good luck!

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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