Environmental Public Science Announcement Competition for Michigan Students
Building Excellence in Science and Technology (BEST Early) and the Benton Spirit Community Newspaper are partnering with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate and Honor Credit Union to promote environmental education and awareness through the Environmental Fridays Public Science Announcement (PSA) Video Contest.
The Environmental Fridays PSA video contest is open to all high school and college students in the state of Michigan. BEST Early and Environmental Fridays are nonprofit science educational organizations founded by Andrews University Chemistry Professor Dr. Desmond Hartwell Murray. Environmental Fridays is a guest speaker lecture series that convenes on Zoom every Friday morning at 9:30 am (EST). Speakers come from across the United States and the Caribbean. Season III episodes can be viewed on YouTube.
Benton Spirit is a local community newspaper located in Benton Harbor and was founded 21 years ago by Princella Tobias. Feature stories and updates about the contest will be covered and published in the Benton Spirit. The sponsorship was made possible through collaboration with Community Assistant Vice President Ms. Karol Behrle, of Honor Credit Union, and Ms. Regina Strong, Michigan’s Environmental Justice Public Advocate.
The contest requires that participating students create a two-minute PSA video on an environmental topic relevant to Michigan. Entries can be submitted by individual students or teams of students and will be judged in two categories: high school and college. Videos will be evaluated by the following criteria: science content and accuracy, persuasiveness, critical thinking, originality and creativity, video length, and video organization, flow, and clarity. The top three videos in each category will be awarded $250, $150, and $100 at the end of each Environmental Fridays Season IV. The application deadline is March 24, 2023, and videos are due by April 21, 2023. The top videos will be announced and played exclusively during end-of-semester Environmental Fridays episodes on May 5, 2023. These videos will be uploaded to Environmental Fridays YouTube playlists, featured on Michigan EGLE’s Classroom website, and used in EGLE’s Environmental Education programs.
It is anticipated that the Environmental Fridays video contest and the guest speaker series will supplement and contextualize classroom science courses in relevant and real-world environmental topics and concerns. It is our hope that the contest and guest speaker series will inspire, inform, engage, and encourage reflection and action by youth and adults, students, and the public, on environmental issues, such as, pollution (air, water, soil), climate change, biodiversity, conservation, environmental health, environmental justice and inequities, and sustainable development. Previous PSA videos can be viewed here: 2019 PSA and 2020 PSA.
The season IV schedule and the poster for episode 1 on this upcoming Friday, January 13, 2023, can be found here.
Plans and discussions are ongoing to expand the Environmental Fridays PSA video contest beyond Michigan to across the United States and Caribbean.
For more information about the Environmental Fridays PSA video contest and possible involvement with the Environmental Fridays Guest Lecture Series contact Professor Desmond Hartwell Murray at murrayd@andrews.edu.