Reflection: Weeks 15 & 16

Hey again everybody. So the class is over, and it has definitely been an eye opening class. So after I reflect on these past couple of weeks, I'm going to reflect on the whole class.

Weeks 15 started out with Sue Whitney, Professional Junker, coming into our class and talking to us about all things junk. This was a nice little treat for a couple of reasons. Reason the first, she was an interesting lady. Just hearing her story, and hearing what she thinks about junking was cool. Reason the second, she gave us one of her awesome books. It worked out perfect because my mom is an avid junker, and later that day I was sending my Mother's Day gift. So when we received the book from Ms. Whitney, I put the book right in the package along with my original gift. I talked with my mom on the phone a couple of days later and she loved it.

Next class period, we reflected on the class as a whole. It was a nice relaxing day outside.

But our main online activity was to do a blog post on an online learning activity to educate our Blogging Groups on our main issue in our advocacy project. I created Name That Phobia. We then had to go into our each person blog and complete their learning activity. I enjoyed each and everyone one that I completed.

But now to look back and reflect on this past semester.

• Our first activity - Where we had to stand inside the rope circles, and Dr V kept taking them away. Good times
• All of our readings due. Not always exciting to read, but they were still essential to the course.
  
• Watching 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Our first huge eye opener.
  
• Cosmanics
• Water Privatization - No one started out wanting to talk about it a whole lot, but then we all realized how big of a deal it really was.
• All of the different Photo Essays. All equally awesome
• Story of Stuff, which talked about what all it takes to make a product and sell it.
• Our nature hike
• Junking. From hammerhead shaped cookie cutters, to ship in a bottle, to an M shaped yard decoration for Ms. Marquette.

So overall, this was an awesome class, and I am glad I had the opportunity to take it. Have a good summer everybody! Steve out!

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

To quote the shark in Toy Story, Howdy Howdy Howdy! (If anybody knows what I'm talking about, you are officially awesome. If not, here is the clip. Such a good movie)




I'm wondering if there is such a thing as Super-Senioritis...if there is, I may have it. Either way, lets take a look back at the past couple of weeks.

WEEK 13
13 started off with the Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard. It was about how the things we use on a daily basis go through a chain of events that effect the environment. It mentioned the extraction of the goods needed to make a product, then the actual production of it, then onto the distribution, then when consumers consume/use the product, then the disposal. When I was watching the video, I simplified it to 'Take it...Make it...Sell it...Use it...Throw it...'

Then on Thursday we ended up at Bagley Nature Area. At first I thought we were just going to go on a little hike, but we ended up using compasses and having to navigate around in the woods. Honestly I had a lot of fun trying to get around. I was half expecting me to get lost out there, but it all worked out.

WEEK 14
This week started off with a guest speaker from the Civil Engagements Office. He mainly talked about some career options in Environmental Health. He did get me thinking about whether or not I could like having a career in EH. Honestly, I don't know if I could or not. That's another conversation in itself.

Then Thursday comes along. Dr. V brought it some junk, and we had to figure out ways to make the items useful. It was a heck of a lot of fun. My mom likes to do stuff like this, so I had some minor experience with it prior to the class period.

Another thing we had to do these past couple weeks was blog about our Advocacy Projects. We had to look into our issues, and then write a letter to our public official. A lot of political stuff. I am not good at it. I realize how important all of this stuff is, but its hard for me to pay attention to this type of stuff.

Onward to week 15!

Reflection: Weeks 11 & 12

Hey again everybody.

So as the weeks fly by, the end of the semester is in sight. But thankfully, the classes are still interesting (Except for Human Physiology). Week 11 started with a movie titled Unnatural Causes. Due to me being sick, I only got to see the first half, but from what I saw, it was an eye opening movie. It showed how people with more money have better health than people who don't have as much money. But thinking about it, yah, it makes sense. If you have money, you have more resources at the palm of your hand, i.e. the ability to go to the doctor, or go to the drug store and get medicine.

Week 12 began with an eye opener on Healthy People 2010. We did some research and looked into some important topics. Mine had to do with Mental Health and Mental Disorders. Once we found which topic we wanted to research, we looked at the Goals of the program, objectives, what kind of progress they are making, and what challenges may lie ahead. Then we had to look into what type of Bills are attempting to get passed in our subject. I unfortunately didn't find any that we closely related to my subject in Mental Health. And then good ol' Shar ran the class on Thursday, and she did a wonderful job!

Reflection: Weeks 9 & 10

•Hey again everybody. So it seems like we haven't actually had to be in class for a long long time! I know it's only been a week, but the time is flying by. Week 9 started off with us checking out some things about advocacy. This is a pretty important issue for us health educators, considering advocacy is pretty much what we do.

•The week then moved on to us doing a blog post on our political representatives. Not the coolest thing ever, but it's still important for obvious reasons. I know we are going to have to use this information later on in the class, and I'm kind of intrigued as to how though.

•Then week 10 comes along. I feel that this week was the busiest I've been so far this semester. Due largely in part to the Photo Essay. I chose to do mine on different was to go green, but did so with my cartoon(check the blog post below for that). It took me around 15-20 hours to complete. Of course I usually had the TV on when working on it, and it was usually Minnesota Wild games on. So I'm sure that slowed me down a bit. And honestly, I'm attempting to try all of the different ways I suggest, with the exception of a garden.

•So that is the past couple of weeks in review, and I will see everyone in class!

Reflection: Weeks: 7 & 8

Hey everyone. Alright so this has been a struggle. My mind went blank, and I completely forgot to do this by last Friday. So I apologize for the tardiness.

Well, the movies 'Green' and 'Thirst' were definitely two eye opening movies(The parts we got to see). Green was more of the emotional one however. It showed how bad things can be for some people in America. It was hard to watch and think about how much life would suck--pardon my french-- if I had to live in those conditions. One part that really caught my eye was when the man was saying he used to garden every year, but the ground is so polluted that it wouldn't be safe to plant and eat food from his garden anymore.

Thirst, from the little that we got to see unfortunately, talked about water privatization. While it isn't the most fascinating subject ever, it is still an important one. If water gets privately owned, it'll cost us even more. And being a college student, paying more for water isn't something I'd be happy to do.

The Eye Opener we did through the Environmental Working Group's website was kind of a fun thing to do however. We took whatever cosmetics, or if you are a guy, cosmanics, we use and we found out how hazardous that item is to the environment and to us as well. The item I decided to check out was only a 2 out of 10 in the hazard scale, so it's good, but it still could be better of course.

So that is the past couple of weeks in review! Hope everybody's spring break has gone well thus far, and continues to do so!

Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

&


- - -Hey again everybody. So Weeks 5 and 6 were a little bit different than normal, but it was still a nice change.

- - -We started out with the movie Diet for a New America, created by John Robbins. It went over a lot of ways of how our current diets are killing us. Whether it be Heart Disease or Diabetes.But they also went over our current methods of using animals for food. How we keep cattle in confined areas just so they taste a little bit better. One other big thing they mentioned was the size of American's food portions. How one of our meals would feed 5 people in another country. Crazy to think about it like that.

- - -Another thing we did in the first week was a CSPI eye opener. We could choose from three different quizzes and things like that, and most of us chose the Eating Green Calculator. It really opened everybody's eyes and showed us each of our impacts on the environment. With my current diet, I 'create' more than 10,000 lbs of manure, through cattle and pigs and such. Ugh. Don't like to think about that either.

- - -Moving on to week 6, we started out with having an assigned reading due, each person having a different reading. While mine wasn't the most interesting, it was still an important topic. Global warming isn't just affecting humans, it's also throwing the birds off of their normal habits. When it gets hotter earlier in the year, birds migrate earlier, moving to places that don't have their food just yet, meaning they could die off because they don't have the food they like. You can read more about it in my post below.

- - -Another week 6 topic was the movie The Future of Food. This was another movie that really made ya think. The main topic it talked about was a company by the name of Monsanto, that were farmers enemies. After making a 'Round Up ready' seed (one that can't be killed by the weed killer round up), Monsanto was involved in quite a bit of lawsuits. The one that stuck out to me was when some Monsanto seeds flew off of a Monsanto truck, into a farmers field. The Farmer didn't know this happened, so when he noticed that some of his foliage wasn't dieing when RoundUp was sprayed on it, Monsanto took notice and sued him for using their patented seeds. Pardon my french, but that really sucks for the farmer. He didn't do anything wrong, but because the seeds were patented, he gets screwed.

- - -So that is my reflection on the past couple weeks, and I see that we have a couple movies the next couple of weeks as well, so we'll see how they go!

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

Helllllloooooooo Everybody. Sorry for chit-chatting, so onto the Reflection!



An Inconvenient Truth
This movie was definitely an eye opener. While I knew Al Gore was really into the whole Global Warming thing, I never realized how serious it was, and how serious he is about it.

Mr. Gore showed a lot of interesting facts and figures. Like what he showed with the Auto industry and how all the American manufacturers were going under, and the International manufacturers were on the rise. Another interesting thing he showed was if Greenland or Antarctica broke apart. How it showed how all the coasts around the world would rise up, creating entire cities to go under.

Its amazing to think that the U.S. is doing so little, even when these figures are brought to their attention. Maybe things will be a little bit different with President Obama in office. But who knows, maybe it's too late...

Ecological Footprint

This was another very useful eye opener. While yes I had some trouble with the websites, the one that I was able to complete was nice to look at. According to the Sustain Our Planet website, if everyone lived like I do, it would take 4 earths to be able to stay up and running. While I know I could be better, I still think I'm doing alright. I conserve, recycle, all that. But I'm sure there are still things that I don't even think about, which is something I need to look into.

That's it for me, and I'll talk to everyone later!

Reflection: Weeks 1 & 2

Hello again everybody! So two weeks of classes have come and gone and it's time to reflect. I think that this is going to be one of the more interesting classes I've taken thus far.

The blog's will definitely be intriguing to say the least. Although I already know a lot about them because I do a different blog on my own, it will be nice to learn even more about them.

Google Reader will also be nice to get to know how to use. I've had an account for a while, but I haven't had any reason to use it, so it will be nice to be able to finally use it now.

I am curious though as to what we are going to go over in the class. Yes, it'll be the environment, but what parts exactly? One thing I will be looking forward to hopefully learn about is ways to save energy. It's obviously a big deal, and would be a great thing to learn more about. Another topic I'd like to go over is recycling, specifically where the recyclables actually go when they get picked up on the street, and how much it actually helps.

First post

Hello everybody! My name is Steve Anderson, and I am a super senior here at UMD! After switching majors a couple of times, I have finally settled on Community Health, and am liking it alot. I am writing this blog for Hlth 3305, Environmental Health.
There are 5 different types of posts for this blog...

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Reviews
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post 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...

1. Shar
2. Christen
3. Heather
4. Kathy
5. Kaileigh

Want to subscribe and/or follow my blog? 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." .