Reflections: Week 13 and 14; Overall Course

Week 13 we took a tour of Goodwill here in Duluth. It was so interesting to see all the things behind the scenes. They provide job opportunities for the disabled, and find a job right for them. It was so crazy to see all of the things they have in that one building that you never knew was there! The poor stuffed animals were squished to death! I thought that was funny, but sad at the same time. It was fun to see all of that. We finished up our read 'n' seeds for that week. My book was very interesting overall, and I'm glad I got to read it.

Week 14 we brought in our junk projects and then voted on who we thought had the most creative one. I thought it was really cool to see everyone else's stuff. For my project, I just took a picture holder that usually sits on my wall (that I don't even use to hang pictures) and put some cds in it which could turn it into a mirror. For the rest of the class, we just discussed what we learned and how we can apply it to our lives. The conversations were interesting, like the road rage drivers (which I am one). It was funny and interesting to listen to everyone's side of things. Super cool ideas and thoughts. We had to do our learning activities for our advocacy projects and complete the activities made by our group members. I thought it was a great way to learn about the other subjects.

Overall, this course was SUPER educational and very interesting. I don't know if I've learned more things in any class since beginning college. And this is my fourth year already. I definitely suggest this class to others in my field, and not in my major. It was a great learning opportunity and I think that everyone should take this class. I even talked about all the things I learned to my mom and how it really opened my eyes to new things that I had never known before. We learned many things, from Dr. V. and from each other. It was super interesting and I will definitely take away many things from this class.

Reflections: Week 11 and 12

We started off week 11 by getting into 3 groups and looking up different terms that had to do with environmental literacy. We had to define them in a way that a young person could understand. It was harder than I thought it would be. Then each group sent it to the next for them to make adjustments. We then watched a video called The Story of Stuff. It talks about the production of things and how they get places, and where they go. It was very interesting! Then Dr. V brought in a few things for us all to look at while in groups and we had to make a list of things that they could be used for. It was so funny to see the things that people came up with! Very creative minds! We had our fourth quarter of our read 'n' seeds. It went by really fast!
Week 12 we started out with MckLinky Blog Hops and used our photo essays for the links. Using that, we presented our photos to the class and shared our stories of what they were about. I thought some people came up with interesting things! Then we talked about our letters to editors or letters to politcal representatives and what the letters should consist of. This semester is going by so fast, I can't even believe it's almost over!!

Reflections: Week 9 and 10

We started week 9 off differently than doing just an eye opener. We began our advocacy project by looking up political representatives, what their position is, and how to contact them. It is always good to know who is representing us in Congress. During class we were assigned groups to discuss and teach about the readings that were due before class time, concerning advocacy and CHES Responsibilities. It was interesting to learn about, and to come up with an interesting way to teach about it! My SMART goal has been going good and I also read the third quarter of my book! It's going by really fast, can't believe we only have one quarter left!

For week 10, we had to have chosen a Healthy People 2010 goal and a bill that goes along with it for our advocacy project. Mine is about beach closings and reducing the number of closures due to sanitation issues. I'm interested to learn more about it! We then watched Unnatural Causes, In Sickness and in Wealth episode. It talked about how socioeconomic status and race affects resources and and opportunities for health. It was interesting to hear about, because not many people are informed about these kinds of things. Finally, we were introduced to our Photo essay eye opener. I'm still trying to think of something to come up with, but I'm excited to see everyone's final pieces!

All I can say is, this semester is going by very fast!!

Reflections: Week 7 and 8

Week 7 we started out with an eye opener from the Environmental Working Group. It's a website that you can look up different cosmetic items and see what kind of harm they can cause, to humans and the environment. I looked up a blush that I own (don't use it very often) and it had an 8 out of 10 high hazard. I was shocked that something so simple as blush could potentially be extremely hazardous to my own health!

We then watched a movie called "Green". It was about people living near the Mississippi River in Louisiana and there was a high cancer rate. They blamed it on the chemical factories in the area, for exposing them to toxic fumes and getting into their foods in the gardens through the ground. It's outstanding at how many cases they had of cancer in the area! I got to read a few more cases in my book I'm reading for my read 'n' seed. The ones I read this time were mostly about pollution and air quality in big cities. Some interesting stuff!

Week 8 we started out with an eye opener titled "Junk on the Brain". We got to see this cool website of projects that people make out of things that seem to have no use anymore. Very creative! I liked it a lot.
Then we watched a documentary titled "Thirst". It was about privatizing water and people having to pay to use it. I thought it was outrageous. Water is a necessity for life. There shouldn't be a price on that.
After the movie we talked about our blogs, and the general things that needed to be worked on. Mine had a few things that needed improving, such as putting my longer posts into separate paragraphs so it's easier to read. It was a good discussion because it helped me notice things that I needed to work on that I didn't notice before!

Reflections: Weeks 5 and 6

To start off week 5, we had an eye opener from the CSPI website. It was amazing to see how much goes into the food industry and industrial farming and how harmful it is to the environment, and to the animals. I scored my diet using the amount of servings of animal products each week. I never knew that the things I ate were so bad for the environment, and just changing the amount of servings can be a huge impact on the environmental outcome.

We then watched "The Future of Food". It's crazy to think about the things that big corporations will do to take over everything and everyone. So many people's farms were taken over and they lost so many of their seeds and crops. I thought it was funny how they said that if things are genetically modified with their product, they own it. If a person was genetically modified with their product, would they own that person? I found that very interesting.

Week 6, we watched "Diet for a New America". I give John Robbins a lot of credit for not following in his father's footsteps and going in his own direction. He is leading people to healthier lifestyles instead of supporting an ice cream chain. Great work! We then worked on graphical headers for our blogs. I have a picture in my header, but I don't think it's a graphical header. I couldn't really find a program on my computer that can change the size of my picture so I just left it as is for now.

Reflections: Week 3 and 4

Week 3 we didn't meet for class, we just set up 15 min appointments with the TAs to make sure we had everything we needed and we were caught up in class. I thought it was very helpful, because I was doubting myself when it came to having everything I needed. Turns out I didn't and I was able to get caught up.
Week 4 we had an eye opener due and I never knew how much energy I used. Wayyyy more than I had originially thought. We started out class with a game where we each chose a question about blogging and had to answer it correctly to get a prize. The prize bag sure was interesting!! Very unpredictable! We then watched "An Inconvenient Truth". I had seen parts of it before, but not the whole thing so I was glad to see what I hadn't seen already. I really liked that he used graphs and visuals to show the changes in ways that PROVE what is happening. The pictures were shocking to see how much of the glaciers and other ice areas have melted! I sure hope the government does something about it soon, instead of trying to cover up what is happening. I sure don't want to be around to see the final consequences!!

Reflections: Week 1 and 2!!

It has been a very interesting start to the semester. I wasn't sure what to expect. The star wars activity was a great way open everyone's vision and see a whole new perspective. Getting the blogs set up was a little confusing at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I don't know many people in the class so I think this is a good way to get everyone familiar with each other. The second week, I really liked the quotes from the gardens, it was a good way to think in different ways about our environment, and what is good and bad about it, and what we can do to take our part in helping the environment. Getting our blogs up and going with gadgets and layout was a little tough at first but the more you do something, the more you get the hang of it. I'm excited to look back at the end of the semester and see all of the things we did that I had never done before taking this class. It will sure be interesting!!!

Welcome to Danielle's Dandy Environment!!

I'm Danielle and my blog is for HLTH 3500 Environmental Health. I will be blogging about things we do in class, things I do outside of class, and just other random things!



There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:



Advocacy Project

Eye Openers

Reflections

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change

Read 'n' Seed

Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all five kinds of posts.  You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.



The members of my web group are:

Carrie@Carries Environment http://carriesenvironment.blogspot.com/

Rita@Ritas Realm http://ritasrealm.blogspot.com/

Kayla@Kaylas Green Land http://kaylasgreenland.blogspot.com/



You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile."


Thanks for visiting and I look forward to any comments!

Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by http://ecochicwithamy.blogspot.com/