Reflection: Weeks 15 &16

Week 15:

During this week was one of the worst weeks of my life! I was unable to attend class due to that I was in the hospital because of an cyst on left ovary bursting. It was one of the worst pains in my life and I had my appendix taken out too. I was really happy to receive flowers and a card from my thoughtful classmates in Environmental Issues! I would just like to thank everyone for their thoughtfulness because it really meant a lot to me and it really did brighten my day and just to let you all know "I am back jumping around now.", so THANK YOU! 

I was really bummed too that I miss class because Sue Whitney was coming to talk about junking and Lauren and I had put our heads together and created a pretty cool glass tree ( I really wanted to see what Sue and Dr. V thought of it). I also did a post on an environmental online learning activity that was linked to my advocacy project on  safe water access. I put some good work into finding something that was for the age group that it was for and something that had to do with water but I managed to find some pretty cool ones.

Week 16:

This week I did an eye opener on my group members online learning activity. It was really cool to see what everyone else did for activity and some of them were really cool and others were gross but good. Great job to everyone and we all made it to the last week of class...yeah now what...no more blogging, I think not I plan on to still post blogs during the summer just for fun just to see if anyone will reply to them so when you have nothing to do check my blog out! I am going to miss you all, I will have to come to class just for fun!

Good luck on finals and Good luck with the rest of your college lives!!

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Dining Decisions by Autumn

For my dining decisions I picked:

1. apple

2. sandwich

3. cereal bar

4. yogurt

5. salad

I got everything but protein which I need to build bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood. It's also needed to repair injuries and make body chemicals like hormones. So I should look for lean meats, fish, beans, and nuts.

Little D The Dragon Exercise by Katie

For my score on feeding the monster I score 100 on my second try. While I was feeding the monster I learned about interesting facts about each item I feed him like how the plants grow, what kind of source of nutrients it is and much more.

Build your own virtual "green" house by Ben

For my climate I picked: seasonal

For construction I picked: recycled

For energy I picked: solar panels/heating and geothermal heating

For efficiency I picked: energy efficient lighting, energy star appliances, efficient heating/cooling, materials recycling, water recycling, and smart home technology

Conclusions: I spent $96,500 and my home's efficiency rating is 180%

Tobacco Facts Puke Page by Sara

After viewing the puke page and I think there should be a complete smoking/tobacco ban in public schools. I don't think it will prevent youth from using tobacco completely because there are other factors like families but knowledge is power and it might make kids think twice before using. I personal think that those pictures were gross but hopefully it helps kids choose the right decision before they use tobacco.

Bobbie's Foot-O-Meter by Abbey

After completing the questions asked during the activities I score a 6.5 acres on my carbon footprint and would also take 1 and 1/2 earths to support my Bobbie's habits. A good insight on things that I could change that can reduce my footprint like opening a window instead of using the AC and eat more local foods.

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Share and Voice: Eco-Fina

So after doing my advocacy project and watching the video on prioritizing water I got thinking on what is going on with water now...and I ran across this find on the Aquafina site.  They are using 35% less plastic than their 2002 bottle. This good that they are using less plastic but I still feel that we really don't need bottle water. It is good to see that they are using less plastic which is a good step for them!

To find out more about these bottles go to: Eco-Fina

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Advocacy Project: Environmental Learning Activity "Water Calculator"

Title: Water Calculator

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is show how much water that you use everyday and people in other countries don't even get the chance to have safe access to this amount of water.

Background/Reasoning/Evidence: After doing your calculations for your own water usage you can see how much water is needed for life. According to the Department for International Development, one billion people do not have an access to safe and affordable drinking water, and 2.4 billion people live in conditions lacking adequate sanitation. Each year about 4 million people die of waterborne diseases, including 2 million children who die of diarrhoeal. More than 800 million people , 15 % of the world population is malnourished, due in part of insufficient water for crops. Now think again how much water you use... Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) is an extremely painful parasitic infection spread through contaminated drinking water. Infection occurs among people living in impoverished communities in remote parts of Africa that do not have safe water to drink. According to the CDC, over 9,500 cases of Guinea Worm Disease were reported in 2007. Now think of what those people in Africa and what they could do with that amount of water you use... According to the WHO, over 40 billion work hours are lost in Africa to the need to fetch drinking water.  Now think if you had to over 40 billion hours to fetch your water...would you still be using the same amount of water?

Instructions: Just go to Water Calculator and type in your numbers then at then end hit the "update total" button. 

Other Activities:

During my search I found some other activities that I thought were good but not really suitable for the age group that I was aiming for. But I still wanted to share it with you because they are good.

Pani the handpump

Water Game

Water Sense

Water Alert

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Share and Voice: Green Weddings

So I was once again just thinking where else could you go green? Then my good friend from high school called me up to tell me that my bridesmaid's dress came in...and then it hit what about green weddings? What do you know I found a book and site for brides that want to have an eco-friendly wedding.

To find out more about having a green wedding check out: Green Wedding

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Share and Voice: Eco-Friendly plates, bowls and cups

Looking around through my kitchen I got the idea...is there some throwaway dish ware that is good for the environment instead of the plastic and paper ones? What do you there is some biodegradable ones...how cool is this!! Now the next time you have a party like a grad party you can use these ones!!

To find out more about these cool dish ware go to: Eco-Friendly plates, bowls, and cups

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

Week 13:

During this week we watched the movie the "Story of Stuff", which was about the process that everything goes through that we use as consumers. It was a pretty big eye opener to see how items are made to just last a short amount of time just so that we go out and buy more. I can see this to be so true because I have had to buy a DVD player 2x in the last 2 years because the they just kept breaking.

We also had a nice adventure in Bagley, where we got to learn how to properly use a compass. It was pretty cool to get a chance to be outdoors and learn some useful information that we can possible use later in life!

Week 14:

During this week we had a guest speaker come in from the Civic Engagement office at UMD to talk about his experiences with environment. He also talked about some other opportunities for after college. It was really good to hear about his experiences and gave some of us other choices when graduating.

We also completed our advocacy project by writing our letter to elected officials or editors. This really made me open my eyes on how significant it is to do something by advocating it to some one that can do something about it. I do have say too that we all did pretty good on it!!

We also did a junking activity in class and it was pretty funny to see what we all came up with. In this activity we were all in our groups and were given an object that and we were suppose to come up with a different purpose for it. After doing this active I got some good ideas and I think I could take this up as a hobby. I can't wait to see what Sue Whitney has in store for us.

"It's not easy to be Green."-Kermit