Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Hey everyone! Last week we had to find a fun online activity to go along with our advocacy project or something that was important to us. This is a summary of what my

web group found for learning activities!

Noah: Health IT Puzzle

Noah choose to have us do a crossword puzzle, which I thought was a great idea. Even though am not the best crossword puzzler, I attempt a couple crosswords a week. It was cool to try doing one in a different format it was was also challenging which added to the experience!

Sara: Stop Smoking Quiz

Sara had us take a stop smoking quiz which I thought was perfect because she seems passionate about this issue. The quiz had shocking statistics as questions that I felt really got the point across to STOP smoking!

Valerie: Health Care Wheel of Fortune

Valerie had a Wheel of Fortune game that was a lot like hang man and forced us to brush up on our health terminology! This game was also fun and challenging, I also found out that it's a little difficult to think of all those different words during the game.

Samantha: Open Door to a Healthy Heart

Sam's game related to mine which focuses on kids eating healthy. This was a cute game that allowed kids to learn more about eating healthy, also I thought it was good that it allowed you to re-do the quiz if you got something wrong.

Good Job Everyone!

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

Hey Everyone! For my photo Essay I decided to go on a hunt to find all the different ways people choose to recycle. I found many different types of recycling bins on campus and around Duluth. We all know how important it is to recycle and I think these pictures prove how easy it is.

This is a recycle bin for cans and inkjets, in the Humanities building

These are 2 bins to recycle paper located in the Writing Dept. at UMD, the smaller one is for mixed paper.

These are a couple different containers in front of the library at UMD. The bins are for paper, cans, and plastic bottles.

This is another variety of

recycle bin in a hall at UMD.

Two other types of bins in the library at UMD.

This is a hallway in the Humanities Dept. showing three different bins.

This one is totally different from the rest but I seriously found this in my neighborhood.

Unfortunately, some people have recycle bins but do not put them to use :(

I never noticed how many recycling containers there are around us but after this Photo Essay, I see them everywhere. Like these pictures show, it is really easy to find a place to recycle, even if you don't have access to a fancy blue container for your recyclables you can make your own. The sad thing is to see some of these containers not in use. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the pictures and keep on recycling!

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

For my product I choose my contact lens cleaner. Opti Free Express Lasting Comfort No Rub, Multi Purpose Disinfecting Solution. It scored a 2 which i thought was pretty good but when I started reading on I realized even though it is only a 2 its still harmful. The ingredients in my product are linked to Cancer and Developmental/reproductive toxicity. What? Why didn't I know this? Also the company who makes this product did not sign the compact for safe cosmetics which would mean that the ingredients they use in their products are not harmful or carry any health risks to consumers. Skin Deep's website also had a ? next to the "conducts testing on animals" I am shocked that companies may still test their products on animals...that is HORRIBLE! Another thing I noticed was the website said that 62% of contact lens cleaners have lower health concerns. Finally some good news! I found a better solution called Pure Eyes that scored a 0 and has no health concerns and its cheaper than what I was paying for my old solution!! I am definitely buying Pure Eyes from now on! This was a shocking eye opener for me, I am going to check out some other products I use and see if there are some better alternatives!

Eye Opener: CSPI

For this Eye Opener I chose to take the eating green calculator. It started off asking me how much servings of beef, chicken, pork, milk and yogurt, hard cheese, and eggs I eat each week. It took me a little while to think of all of these because I guess I have never really thought about how many servings I consume in a weeks time. After I entered in my servings I clicked the calculate impact button. I was surprised when I saw the results. It stated that because of my diet I use up 0.6 acres of grain and grass needed to feed the animals I eat, 20.8 pounds of fertilizer and .02 pounds of pesticides needed to grow the food these animals eat, and the most shocking number is the animals I eat create 3890 pounds of manure! GROSS

After reading my results it asked me if I was able to cut down my servings of animal products I eat each week. I don't think it would be too hard to cut down on some servings so I re-took the quiz, imputing fewer servings and got better results. After the second time the quiz stated that with the changes that I made I would be consuming 13% less fat, 23% less saturated fat, and 44% less cholesterol each week and I only cut my beef, chicken and milk servings down by one.

At the end of the quiz it asked me if I was willing to take a pledge to eat less meat and dairy products and I took it. I think I can reduce my impact just by adding more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains to my diet. I am looking forward to starting to be more concious of the food I consume and making a better impact on our earth.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

I just took the Ecological Footprint quiz and if everyone lived the way I did, we would need 5.28 earths! My first reaction was what am I doing?? After I read some other blog posts I realized I am not the only one which made me feel a little better but I was still shocked. To the right is a graph showing what my usage is compared to the country's average. This graph also made things look a little better and it was interesting to see it all broken down. I live in a small apartment which is why my housing footprint is a lot lower than the country's average, but in every other category I am pretty much even.

This quiz really opened my eyes. The quiz asked questions that I never really took the time to think about and now I see how much even the little things effect the environment. I do some little things like recycle, trying not to take long showers, and my roommate and I pretty much always have slippers, sweatshirts, and sweatpants on because we keep our apartment between 60-65 degrees.

After seeing what my lifestyle is doing to the earth I plan to make some changes. I am going to start off slowly by trying to remember to unplug our small things when were not using them, and buying some new lightbulbs...anythng will help right?

Hi everyone and welcome to Keepin it green with Shannon! My name is Shannon and I am a Community Health Education major at UMD. I am using this blog for a class I am taking this semester called Environmental Health. Our goal this semester is to have no paper assignments, our class will keep in contact and use our enviornmental blogs to do our assignments.

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

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 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.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. Noah
2. Brenda
3. Sara H.
4. Samantha
5. Valerie

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