Reflection: The last 2 weeks 15 & 16

Wow, I can't believe it is all over....a month ago I thought we'd never see the end but looking back on everything we have done in this class time really flew by!

WEEK 15

During week 15 we all had to find an online learning activity that either related to our advocacy topic or something health related that we were interested in. I found fun activity for kids dealing with learning how to eat healthy and what foods belonged in what food groups. On Tuesday, Dr. V had Sue Whitney come to class and teach us all how to become JUNKERS! Sue gave us all a copy of her book Junk Beautiful which was really generous and useful! Dr. V also gave us a challenge to make something creative out of something else to show in class. On Thursday, we found out the winners of the challenge who got Sue's other book. We finished up the class outside in the courtyard at UMD with everyone telling what their favorite part of the class was. It was a beautiful day and a great way to end the class.

WEEK 16

Our class didn't meet during week 16 but we still had postings to do. We had to try out our web groups online learning activities and post a eye opener about each one. My group found some really good activities that were fun to try out. This week was a little stressful for me because of the finals and all the end of semester stuff that was due, but I am glad it's all over. I really enjoyed this class, it was unlike any other class I've taken which is good :) I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and keep up the good work~!

Reflection: Weeks 13 and 14

Hello Everyone, these past two weeks flew by and were a lot of fun!

WEEK 13

During week 13 we all met up at Bagley Nature Area and learned how to use a compass and navigate our way through the woods. There were 14 different stations, we split up into groups and used the markings on the trees and our compasses to find all the different stations. It was a beautiful day and it was really nice to get out of the classroom.

WEEK 14

During week 14 we had someone currently working for Americorp come talk to us. This was really cool because he was actually working at UMD and he was in Grad school, he seemed really driven and was an inspiration. During the end of week 14 Dr. V brought a bag full of "stuff" to class, we broke up into our web groups, and came up with different ways we could use the different items. I really enjoyed this activity because it made everyone think out of the box and there were a lot of great ideas!

I can't believe we are almost done....keep up the good work everyone!!~Thanks for reading

Reflection: Weeks 11 and 12

I can't believe that week 12 is come and gone! These past two weeks like all the others have gone by really fast but were fully loaded with an interesting documentary, reading, assignment, and discussions.

During week 11 we watched the documentary Unnatural Causes...is inequality making us sick?which was a very powerful film for me. The film was about people from various parts of Kentucky and the environmental factors that people in different social classes deal with and the effects it has on their health. The film introduced four different people which I thought was a good way for us to relate to the issue. During the last part of week 11 Dr. V walked us through the Healthy People 2010 website and explained how to do the research needed to do our Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS project that was due on Tuesday of week 12.

In the beginning of week 12 our Healthy People/THOMAS assignment was due. For this assignment we had to find an environmentally related issue that we were interested in and find the goal in Healthy People 2010. We also had to talk about the progress of the goal, the emerging issues, disparities, and opportunities & challenges. After we did that we needed to find a related bill within THOMAS and report on the last major action taken, the political representative for the bill, and state whether we wanted to our representative to vote yes or no on the bill. I chose to do mine on goal 19 nutrition and overweight. This assignment was interesting and it was cool to read all of the other postings that people in class wrote.

Overall the past two weeks were very informational and I enjoyed the documentary and our advocacy project. We will be doing more with our advocacy projects later on which I am looking forward to. Thanks for reading hope you all have a good weekend!

Reflection: Weeks 9 and 10

Well...two more weeks have come and gone. These past two weeks were a little different than the previous weeks but it was a nice change!

During week 9 we learned about advocacy and the 7th responsibility as health educators which is to advocate for health education. For our first part of the advocacy project we were assigned to post about our local political leaders, their names, and contact information. Also during week 9 we learned tips on how to take good pictures for our photo essay that was due during week 10.

During week 10 we didn't meet for class because Dr. V was in Florida for the APPHERD convention-lucky gal! It was nice to have one less class for a week and it gave me more time to focus on other classes and my photo essay. Our directions for the photo essay was to find something that interested you and had something to do with the environment. When this was first assigned I thought this was going to be quite a challenge. I thought about what I was going to do for about a week and my first idea was to compare the pollution in west and east Duluth. Unfortunately we had a snow storm during week 10 even though its APRIL ~ all the snow covered the ground and I needed to find a plan B. I decided to look for all the different recycling bins around school and the city. This was fun and opened my eyes to how many places there are to recycle.

The last two weeks were fun and out of the ordinary so I am looking forward whats to come in the next couple weeks! Thanks for reading...have a good week!!

Reflection: Weeks 7&8

Another two weeks have come and gone! These past two weeks in Environmental Health have been very interesting and informative.  During week 7 we watched a documentary called GREEN which was made by graduate student Laura Dunn.  This film was about the landfills in Louisiana. The stories that were told in this film broke my heart.  Some people lived on top of landfills that had been covered up and they were getting poisoned by the toxins coming up through the ground. This sounds like a story that we would hear happening in a different country, not in the US! 

During week 8 we watched half of another film  called Thirst and had a day of discussion which was a little out of the ordinary and cool to hear everyone's thoughts. We talked about water privatization which is when a group or someone "owns" the water in a specific section. I have never heard of this before and it doesn't sound right at all. Nobody owns the water... it's all of ours! This got me thinking, you know how when talking about the United States or whenever something really tragic happens in our country everyone always says united we stand divided we fall? Well, these films about companies owning water and seeds and filing law suites against honest hard working people trying to make a living makes me sick.  Were not united, it's everyone for themselves. Most people with money and power are just trying to make more money and get more power, they don't care about anyone or anything else. I feel like the only time people will realize that we need to take care of each other and our earth is when it's too late.  Anyway, enough venting, I learned a lot in this class over the past two weeks and I'm excited to not have school for a week! Hope you all have a fun and safe break!!

Reflection: Weeks 5&6

End of week 6 already? Wow time really flew by! These past two weeks have been eye opening for me, there have been a lot of great share and voices, and I feel like I learned a lot.

During week 5 we watched a documentary called "Diet For a New America" with John Robbins. It was about the meat industry and it was really interesting. If you click on the link above it will bring you to come clips of the film. I missed the last half of it because I was gone sick but I wish I could have seen the rest. I was sick for about a week and I fell behind in all of my classes. I didn't have any Internet access for a couple days which made me go crazy. Who knew that by the fifth week of class all I could think about was logging into Blogger and checking out what was going on.

During week 6 we watched another documentary called "The Future of Food." I found myself shaking my head throughout the whole film. The sad stories of the farmers and the lawsuits that were brought against them my Monsanto were insane! I couldn't believe some of the stories that were being told. The thing that made me most upset was that these big companies have so much power and so much money they can do almost anything they want. I don't think that's how it should be and I disagree with their views but it seems almost impossible to stop them, which is very unfortunate. These people of power need to have compassion and a genuine desire to help people instead of just trying to make money.

Overall these past two weeks have made me realize more of the problems that we have going on right now. It is heart breaking and not fair but it give me and I'm sure many others more of a reason to try and make a difference. Hope the last two weeks went well for all of you too!

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

Hello again! These last two weeks have gone a lot smoother than the first two. I think I pretty much got the hand of this whole blogging thing! In the past two weeks I have learned a lot of new things. I have posted a share and voice, an eye opener, and became more familiar with Google Reader.

The last three class periods we watched Al Gore's documentry An Inconvienent Truth which I found very informational. The film was about global warming and it explained that the world is in our hands and what were doing to it is going to have devistating effects very soon. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about this issue and what was going on with our government and our environment. Some of the pictures and stories he had were shocking.
I also had the chance to take an ecological footprint quiz to see how my lifestyle affects our environment. This definately open my eyes to the way I live and the things I need to change. Since taking the quiz I am proud to say that I have bought energy efficent light bulbs and switched out the old ones all through my house. I know this is a small step but I am taking it one step at a time and every little bit helps! We have also had readings from our textbook that people have written responses to which is cool beacuse I got to read about what the readings meant to them.

I think everyone in class is really getting good at going green with blogger and no paper assingments. I am looking forward to what Dr. V has in store for us in the next couple weeks. I am curious to see what else we'll learn!

Reflection: Weeks 1 & 2

We have now been in Environmental Health for two weeks/four class periods. So far we have gotten an overview of what to expect from this course and learned how to set up a blog. I have never been introduced to blogging before so this has all been new for me. I have learned how to create my blog, how to subscribe to others blogs, how to add gadgets, how to use Google Reader, and many other exciting things.

Our first week of class we got the basics down of creating our blog and also did a "Star Wars" activity which got us to think out of the box and compromise with our classmates. This past week has been all about refining our blogs. We have had to meet the requirements that our professor, Dr. V., has set for us which has taken me quite sometime. I am starting to become more familiar with the blogging process and more confident in what I am doing.

We haven't had much time to learn about the environment in these last two weeks but now that most of us are more familiar with what we are doing I think we will start getting into the health aspect of our environment. It was frustrating when we first started but I know that I am getting better and I have already learned a lot. I'm looking forward to learning more about our environment and becoming a pro at blogging.

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

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."