Reflections: Weeks 15 and 16

OH. MY. GOSH...blogging is over with for this class. Sad day..
Last reflections we'll ever have to do...I learned a lot in this class about myself and other class mates! It was really fun seeing how creative everyone got...we went from freaking out the first day because we didn't know expectations to...posts where there was creativity and everyone's personality really came out! I've enjoyed this class a lot and I think Dr. V had a good idea of adding the blogging aspect into the class...it was a good learning experience for us all, whether we want to continue blogging or be done with it...I for one have become quite the addict. I think I'll probably still be trying to think of share and voices over the summer! The fact that Sue Whitney came into our class was really awesome. It was great that she took time out of her busy schedule to travel up to the boonies just to talk to a bunch of college kids... I thought it was amazing how much passion she had for "junking".
So I'm gonna wrap it up. Keeping it short and sweet. Thanks everyone for reading the posts and leaving those comments (5 times, in 5 different ways haha) I think we've all grown from this class and left with open minds...

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

Mkaay..second to last reflection. I'll have to say I'm a little excited..ok I'm REALLY excited for summer to come! It's bizarre to think that this next week coming up is our last! Anywhos..

Week 13: We watched this eye opening video..Story of Stuff. It's definitely one of my favorite videos so far. Next we did the Advocacy Project Issue Overview. I changed my topic from the first advocacy post to reducing car emissions by 30% by the year 2016. Lastly we got to go out in the nature and navigate ourselves through the woods!

Week 14: Tuesday we had a grad student come in to talk about future things to do in Environmental Studies and wrote our Advocacy Letters. Thursday we had a "Junking" activity! It was so much fun, I love being creative! :)

I'm looking forward to this last week! Bring on the summer!! :)

Reflection: Weeks 11 & 12

(Woopsies.. sorry! I had a "scheduled post" and it didn't post for some reason..)

These reflections are dwindling down and I'm getting that Spring Fever..really bad! I just wanna play outside now that the sun is out! ...I hear there is snow coming though..typical Duluth.

Week 11-

The past week I feel wasn't too busy. We watched a film called "Unnatural Causes" and had an introduction to Healthy People 2010 and using THOMAS for our Advocacy project.

Unnatural Causes was a film about visiting 4 different neighborhoods East to West of Louisville, Kentucky. The people who lived in East area were in the top 1% of income, which was more than the bottom 90% of people's incomes combined! It was basically emphasisizing the whole "money is power" aspect. The film went into detail of showing how income, coorelates to life expectancy. The lower income, the lower life expectancy. It really was a powerful film.

Week 12-

This week we went a little more in depth on our Advocacy project. Searching, The Library of Congress: THOMAS website and Healthy People 2010. So far mine is focusing on physical education and using the resources available within the environment (environmental education).

Lastly this week we read Chapter 20: News on the Environment Isn't Always Bad. I liked it. The reading was short and to the point. I thought it was a change in things, showing that there are changes being made. Some examples of good news was, that the ozone gap is said to be closing up and that nationwide there is an improvement in air quality. Although there were some great points made in class. We need to be aware of where this source is coming from, and be aware of bias. It was said that this article was first appeared in the Christian Scienece Monitor, in 2002, which in actuallity that was 7 years ago. Maybe it's gotten better/worse?

Overall these past two weeks we've had some good discussions, readings and films in class. I look forward to the next couple weeks that seem to be wrapping up the school year!

Reflection: Weeks 9 & 10

These past two weeks have been less eventfull than the previous weeks. It was a helpful transition back from spring break! :)

Week 9:

We learned a little about advocacy which is the active promotion of a cause or principle. It is just one of our 7 Responsibilities as a Health Educator. There was an advocacy post where we found the names and contact information of our political representatives in Duluth. It was pretty interesting realizing how I am really not up to day on my political leaders. I thought it was a good learning experience for me to challenge myself and look a little deeper into political issues. We also talked a little bit about our photo essay that was due the next week and the ethics of taking pictures.

Week 10:

There was no class this week due to the AAPHERD conference held in Florida (I so wish I could be in Florida!!) Although we did have a photo essay that was talked about the week before due. I think this was one of my favorite assignments. I chose to do the Appalachian trails and the volunteer efforts that are put forth to keep the trails maintained. I went there for spring break so I knew ahead of time to find things that might work well with the photo essay. I really wanted to find the similarities and differences between the trails around Duluth..but unfortunately due to the nice weather that was dropped on us I just decided to do the Appalachian trails.

Once again these weeks flew by! The end of the school year is creeping up..it sure doesn't feel like it with all this snow we keep getting though!

Reflection: Weeks 7 & 8

Wow these weeks are just rolling on by!

Week 7-

There was a reading on Chapter 16: Ill Winds: The Chemical Plants Nextdoor. It is about a girl named Becky Bradway who writes about her life in a small town of Buffalo, Illinois. I liked it simply because she wrote it in story form. The story told her life story from age 8 explaining how she viewed her town as a child. She went on to talk about all the pollutions and rare cancers that she didn't realize were being caused by the air she thought was so safe to breath as a child.

We also watched the film "Green". What I thought was great is that it was written and directed by a graduate student, Laura Dunn. The documentary is based off of the 100 mile stretch of the Mississippi. It has the highest amount of chemical useser, disposers, and industries. It is an area with an abundance of jobs but safety and health are of no concerns. It is what the nation calls Cancer Alley. There were a lot of touching stories from people living near by with all these rare forms of cancer. It was a really powerful film.

We had an eye opener of Environmental Working Groups Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. It was really interesting! We picked one product that we use every day to type it into this database. I chose my Ponds face lotion (that I literally use at least 2 times a day). What was interesting was I got to see the hazard level of it and what kinds of chemicals were inside of it. My hazard score was a 6, so after this runs out I think I may turn to another type of face lotion that is less hazardous.

Week 8-

We had a reading (that I did a review on) of Chaper 31: Privatizing Water. I was a little lost at first, because I honestly had no idea what privatizing water was! Basically what I got out of it, is that our world leaders are taking something that I feel is a persons right and turning it into an "economic good". The intentions of the giving back to the public are not what is focused on, it's money. Privatizing water is seen as a way to help countries in debt to lure investments. The real question is are they really trying to help?! This was a reading that really challenged my thinking. Something needs to be done for these 36 plus developing countries with inadequate amounts of fresh waters, but is privatizing water the answer?

Lastly, we watched "Thirst". This film was also about privatizing water. It showed issues of privatizing water all around the world. A main focus was Stockton, California. The mayor wanted to privatize water to save the government money, but gave no vote to the citizens living there! We didn't catch the end, but I found that eventually there was a vote and it was decided to keep local control of water. We had a great discussion after about all this. In my opinion, it sounds like privatizing water is sort of like GM foods, the intentions were to help these developing countries, but is that really what they are doing?

These past two weeks were pretty stressful with the amount of work in each of my classes loading up. I actually enjoy the films and readings we do in this class, it's a nice change from my other classes! I'm just looking forward to my backpacking trip to the Smokey Mountains over spring break, I'll make sure to tell you all about it when I get back! :)

Reflections: Weeks 5 & 6

Wow I can't believe we're already on week 5& 6 review! Feels just like yesterday when we were babies at this blogging thing. Now I feel like we're well on our way to becoming professional bloggers ;)

Week 5

A few things we did in week 5 were reading Chapter 15: Feeding the World, completed another Eye Opener called CSIP and watched a film, "Diet for a New America" for which I wrote my first review on. Feeding the World was quite an interseting chapter that was eye opening and even a little shocking to me. It focused on the environment, population and the food supply of our earth. I found it alarming that at some point, not too far away, our future demand of food will pass our food supply! I chose to visit the CSPI website where I did a Tour of the Food Supply. I learned quite a bit on the food factories, farm animals, grains, and a lot more. If you haven't been there yet I recommend checking it out! The film, Diet for a New America was really interesting. I feel that by doing a review on it, I got into it a bit more. It was based on John Robbins talking about how the food choices we make every day effect our health, happiness, and the future of life on earth. Check out my review for more details on it!

Week 6

This week we had an Eye Opener of an indivdually assigned reading and watched the film "Future of Food". My assigned reading was on Chapter 29:Growers and Greens Unite. Basically what was going on in this chapter was that in some places farmers and environmentalists are coming together to solve problems together, rather than working against each other. Something I found interesting was that Organic farms are pretty limited to about 8,000 in the US, but they're profits are improving by about 25% each year! Hopefully these other farms will catch on soon. The film we watched was almost scary to me! It was talking in depth about the very disturbing truth behind unlabled, patented, genetically engineered foods. At first the concept seemed like a good idea, great lets make more food that could (weasle word) help feed the hungry. I see that being an awesome attempt, but in reality isn't the case. I think at this point scientist have gone too far. As a consumer there is no way to know if my food has been modified and I think I have the right to!

The past two weeks I have enjoyed reading the chapters and watching these films. My eyes have yet again, become more open! I look forward to the next couple weeks.

Reflections: Week 3 & 4

These past two weeks went a little smoother with the blogging! I finally got the hang of commenting and posting on the correct days. I even figured out a fun trick to schedule an early post for a specific time and date!

Week 3

We had a couple readings from our book, Outlooks: Readings for Environmental Literacy, chapter 1, The Challenges We Face and chapter 27, Seeing Green: Knowing and Saving the Environment on Film. Both readings were interesting. Chapter 1 was pretty much an intro to the environment. It touched on topics such as population & health, food, energy & climate, and biodiversity. A quote that caught my attention right away was "The globe doesn't need to be saved by us, and we couldn't kill it if we tried". It then goes on to say that we have done a pretty good job at putting the climate, air, and water all out of balance and it is us that we are trying to save. I thought that this was a powerful and alarming statement. Chapter 27 focused on environmental films and the fact that some are educational with a powerful message while other films can often show the environment as a "fantasy". It is one thing to hear about an issue but it is another to actually see a picture and get a visual for what is going on. The meaning behind films being fantisized is when they portray the "natural" environment on screen, but hide or edit out the areas may be polluted or overpopulated.

Week 4

We had an Eye Opener assignment to get our Ecological Footprint. I found out that if everyone lived the way I do, it would take over 4 Earths! It was a good way to get a visual of just how much each of us are wasting with each day and how every little thing we do adds up. This week we also started watching "An Inconvenient Truth" featuring Al Gore. It is a powerful film that goes into detail about how our climate is changing and the effects it has on the land, water, ice, animals people, and much more. Here is a quote I thought was meaningful, "There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now." The point being, we need to do something about this serious problem fast.

The past few weeks I feel like I have taken in a lot of information about the Earth and Global Warming. I realized now is a better time then ever to take action. I look forward to what is ahead in the next couple weeks!

Reflections: Week 1 and 2

The first two weeks of Environmental Health have been mainly an introduction to the course and learning how to use Google Blogger. The first week I enjoyed when Dr. V showed us pictures of Washington, DC and brought photos into a different perspective. She used photography and quotes to show us that Environmental Health is very important and that we all can make a difference.

This second week focused more on blogging. We were taken through a step by step process on how to create and make our own blogging space. It was quite a learning experience. Some of it was complicated and other parts were really fun. I like being creative and I'm still working on my page to make it original. A few more weeks of this class and I'm sure I'll be whipping through these blogs and adding more advanced features!

I'm excited for what is to come of this class throughout the semester. I look forward to learning about specific environmental issues and continuing my blogging adventures.

Introduction

Welcome to Going Green With Jayme!





My name is Jayme. I am a Community Health major at UMD. This blog is created for Environmental Health. We will be using it for various ways to show our progress in this class and to share fun and interesting things about the Environment.

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

Advocacy Project
Eye Openers
Reflections
Reviews
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:
1. Sarah O.
2. Derek
3. Randy
4. Kevin

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." (Make sure all these gadgets are in place).

I hope you enjoy my blog!