REFLECTION: WEEKS 15 & 16

Week 15

This week we did our final eye opener on an online learning activity for our group members to do. I thought this was fun, and a great way to cover many different topics! We also had a guest speaker Sue Whitney come to our class to talk to us about junking and her life background. I thought she was a great speaker, junker, and very intelligent as well! She gave us all a free copy of one of her junking books, so I was very thankful for that. This week was also had class outside and sat in a big circle and shared to everyone what our most significant learning was. Although it was fun and nice to be outside, it was somewhat sad because we all knew that it was the last day of class! I think it's clear that we all learned so much from this class, not only about the environment, but also about ourselves and everyone around us...

Week 16

This week all we had to do is comment on everyones eye opener post. This is officially the last week of blogging, but I know I will still check my blog over the summer and even post things when I'm bored! Also this week we have to do our very last reflection, which I am doing right now...(sniff sniff)

What I have learned overall

Overall, I have learned so much in this class. Here is a brief list of things I learned or got more familiar with from being in Environment Health Issues:

-blogging (duh)

-junking

-using a compass

-be nice to people when approaching them about the smoking policy, lol

-water privatization

-corporations can patent seeds (still angry about that topic!!!!)

-you can easily make an eye-gouger out of a sprinkler

-how to take good photos

-Subways cookies are AMAZING

-health equals wealth

-eat less meat!

-Dr. V is the fastest speed walker in the world!

-the ozone is closing

-group 3 is hilarious!

-this class was filled with good quality people!

Well that about does it. Last post (for class) ever! As Dr. Martin Luther King once said in his infamous I Have A Dream speech, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Hope everyone has an amazing summer break! Don't work too hard now, and keep in touch. This class may be over, but its spirit will live on....(in health 4000)!

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Tobacco Facts Puke Page - Sara

This website had many gruesome pictures of the long-term effect of cigarette smoking. I have always known smoking can harm our bodies, but these pictures really took it to the extreme and definitely reinforced me to never smoke! I think a smoking policy should be enforced in every school nationwide, and if possible, worldwide (since the effects of tobacco aren't prejudice towards different races)! This was a highly effective eye opener!

Water Calculator - Ingrid

This activity was a great way to see how many gallons of water I use each day, and how much money and water I could save if I changed a couple habits. After answering the questions I found that I use about 107 gallons of water every day! I know this is just a rough estimate and hopefully it's inaccurate in my favor. My favorite part of this activity is how it tells you what behaviors you can specifically change to save the most water. For me, if I lower my shower time by 2 minutes, I could save 36 gallons of water each day! I'm glad I got to do this activity, and now I just need to work on taking faster showers =)

Little D the Dragon Exercise - Katie

I thought this game was really fun, and the music was super catchy! The main point of this game was to feed the monster at least one item from each food group. Once you fed the monster some food, it would give you information about that type of food and the group it belongs to on the food pyramid. This was a great way to educate kids about healthy eating and it was also fun to play!

Foot-O-Meter - Abbey

This activity was very informational and great for kids to learn how to lower their eco-footprint! After answering the questions for Bobbie, I found out that his footprint would be 7.7 acres. If everyone lived like him, we would need 1.7 earths, which is a lot better than mine was for our eye opener we did in the past! I thought this activity was very informative and fun. Schools should definitely use this activity to help students become more aware about our environment.

Dining Decisions - Autumn

This activity was a great way to learn about the foods you like to eat, and how healthy they really are. To play this game all you had to do is click and drag food items onto your tray that you would like to eat. Once you ate, you would receive tray feedback which tells you some facts about the foods you chose. I honestly chose foods that I would eat in real life and according to the tray feedback I did alright =)

Well congratulations to group 3 for being the coolest group in the blog world! These activities were a great way to kill time and not study for my finals =) Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

SHARE & VOICE: How to be an eco-friendly beer drinker

Hey Guys!

Well believe it or not, summer is FINALLY here! After finals, most of us will be working hard but hopefully partying harder! Well why not take what we learned from class and directly apply it to our crazy lives? Here are 10 great tips to drink beer in a more "green" manner...

10 Green Beer Drinking Tips

Advocacy Project: Environmental Learning Activity

Purpose

To become more aware of eco-friendly materials by building your own virtual "green" house!

Instructions

Click on this link. Then click on "start building." Choose a climate where you will build your house. Then click "construction" and choose the type of material you want to build your house with (keep in mind you only have $100,000 to work with, so choose wisely!). Once you've chosen your material, click on "energy." Choose what source of energy you want to run your house (you can choose more than one way!). Finally, click on "efficiency" and choose the types of efficiency materials you would like in your home. When you are finished, click on the "check efficiency" button on the top right (next to your budget). See how much money you spent and also see how efficient your home is based on an efficiency scale!

Having a clean environment is very important for physical activity and overall health in general. No matter where you live, it is important to get outside and get moving! For more information on this topic, you can check out these links:

21 tips to making your home more ecofriendly

Environmentally friendly furnishing

Eco-friendly parks

REFLECTION: WEEKS 13 & 14

Week 13

This week we watched a short video called "Story of Stuff." It was a bit one-sided but it was entertaining and a fast-paced way to show how manufacturing works, so I enjoyed it. We also did the second half to our advocacy project, the Issue Overview. Towards the end of the week we went out to Bagley Nature Area and engaged in a navigation activity using compasses. Since barely anyone knew how to properly use a compass, I think we all had a good time, and learned something new!

Week 14

During this week we had a speaker come in and talk to us about opportunities after graduation. We learned about the Americorps and how it is a great way to gain experience and pay off loans. We also wrote letters to our political representatives regarding our advocacy topic. I thought everyone did a great job with their letters, especially since it was probably the first time for many writing a letter like that. On Thursday we got to do a junking activity which I thought was hilarious! It was really fun getting into groups and coming up with crazy ideas to repurpose certain items!

What I learned about myself

Over the past two weeks I learned that I can successfully navigate through the woods with a compass. I also learned that I should try to repurpose more things in my life because it's actually pretty fun. Although having an eye-gouger or ninja star in my house may scare my friends away...

What I learned about the environment

I learned that although there are millions of ways to harm the environment, it is counter-balanced with ways to help. There's always a pro to every con. For example, buying a lot of junk essentially hurts the environment because of all the manufacturing it has to go through, and all the space it takes up in landfills. However, junking is a way to counter-act this problem. But sadly, even though there may be a pro for every con, it seems as though everyone these days engages in the "con" activities without balancing it with a "pro." This may be why we are coming up short when it comes to sustaining our resources.

What I learned about blogging

Once again, I haven't really learned too much about blogger itself, but I have come to realize that my blog group is pretty much AWESOME! I'm thankful to have been in such a sweet group this semester, and will miss blogging on a regular basis when this semester is over =/

That's about it, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! DON'T GET THE SWINE FLU!!!!