Reflection: Week 15 & 16

IT'S FINALLY SUMMER

Im gonna keep my last reflection short and sweet.

Week 15:

It was our final week of class and I think one of the best ones! We had our last advocacy projects. We had to find a game or activity for our group members to complete related to our advocacy project topic. I think that this assignment was one of the best that we were assigned. On the last day of class we all went outside and reflected on the semester. It was kinda bittersweet. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this class! Everyone had the opportunity to say what they learned in the class or what they liked most about the class.

Finals week.

Obviously we didnt meet this week, but we were assigned a couple of last minute blogging assignments. Which I would take over a final any day!!!

Its sad to see the class come to an end. I have learned a lot reguarding the environment and I how I can help improve the environment and the earth. I look forward to making a positive difference!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activites

My Groups Activities:

Jeff's activity define the following terms:
Pre-op-Before an operation
Post-op- After an operation
Out-patient- Not hospitalized overnight, but has made a visit to the hospital
In-patient- Staying overnight at the hospital
Receptionist-Administrative Assistant
Doctor- Medical Practioner, practices medicine
Nurse- responsible for the treatment, safety, and recovery of patients
Pharmacist- distribute prescription drugs
Anesthesiologist- Is responsible for putting individuals under before a procedure and "waking" them up
Radiology - Does imaging technology. For example, X-Rays



Lauren's- The Salmon Challenge
A Bird came and ate my poor fish Jessica after only 5 questions!! She didnt even live that long
:(


Hannah's-Biking Barriers
I was trying to think of a bicycle-motorist accident, and I couldnt really think of one that involved a motorist. So I decided to mention one with just a bicyclist. In middle school a boy from my grade was doing jumps/going down hills on his bike. He came to school a week later from being in the hospital. During one of his jumps he flu over the handle bars and landed on his head. He wasnt wearing a helmet so he was injured pretty bad. He had a broken nose, lost his front teeth and had a head injury. I never thought a great deal about bike safety until that incident. That accident could have been avoided by simply wearing a helmet and not being so careless on a bike. Now I know just how important it is for you to wear a helmet and be aware of the kinds of things that can go wrong while riding a bike.

Erika's-Test your WaterSense
My final score was 980, I answered 8 out of 12 questions correctly. There was some interesting facts in the game that I didnt know prior to the activity.

Overall I really liked completing everyones activities I learned a lot of new and interesting facts!!

GOOD JOB GROUP MEMBERS!!

Advocacy Project: Online Peer Environmental Health Learning Activity

Advocacy Project: I don't want to clean my room!

Hello group! I had a bit of trouble finding an activity that matched perfectly with my topic, so I went with an activity that fit close to my topic. The game that I choose teaches kids how to recycle and promote a healthier environment which in a way goes with my advocacy project topic. Enjoy playing the game!

Help Anita clean her room and learn about how to recycle items in the house.
Play Game -Anita's ROOM

Reference for game: http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/index.cfm

Purpose: To teach and promote kids to maintain an overall healthier environment, by keeping their room/house clean and showing them how to recycle and where things can be recycled.

Instructions: Read the comic about Anita and her room, then complete the actitivy. There is 24 object in Anita's room that has to place them in the correct recycling bin. There are four different bins. They include a composting bucket, bottle and can recycling bin, paper and cardboard recycling bin and a garbage.

Its important for kids to learn how to recycle for numerous reasons. One reason is that it helps maintain a healthy environment which my advocacy project talks about. Another reason would be for kids to learn the importance of recycling and the positive effects that it has on the environment.

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

WEEK 13:
On Tuesday we watched a little video called the story of stuff. It talked about the process that the things we use goes through to get to us and where it goes when we are done with it. It was really interesting I had no idea that there were so many processes that go into making some of the things we use . The video took us through the extraction to sale, when we use it and when we throw it away or dispose of it. It also informed us on what is hidden from our view such as how all the stuff in our lives affects the communities in our towns and abroad. It really opened my eyes up to the process of making things, and how it affects not only where we live but other countries. Some of the terms that were mentioned in the video included:

Extraction: taking the planets resources--wood, minerals, coal, fossil fuel, water, plants, animals, and soil out of the earth and starting their journey through the materials economy.
Production: In the production stage, we use energy to add toxic chemicals to the natural resources to make toxic products.
Distribution: involves transporting and selling all the stuff quickly and cheaply.
Consumption: our choices at the supermarkets, are pre-determined and limited by political and institutional forces beyond the store.
Disposal: Virtually all the resources flowing through the materials economy eventually end up as waste to be disposed somewhere, usually dumped or burned or recovered for recycling. Recycling can solve the growing volume and toxicity that our environment is experiencing.

We also had a Advocacy Project due this day, in which we were to take our issue that we choose and conduct an overview on it. It was interesting to reflect and research all the information that was related to your topic and learn more about it.

On Thursday we took a class field trip and headed over to Bagley Nature Area. While at Bagley we did a navigation activity. We learned how to use compasses (which was very useful for me to learn considering I have a slight problem with directions) and we were to find different flags that took us along a trail. I really enjoyed the activity it was a lot of fun to get out of the classroom and do something outside.

WEEK 14: On Tuesday we had a shorter class. We had a graduate student in UMD's Enviromental Health and Safety Master's Program come talk about his career and what he is currently doing in the environmental field. We also had another advocacy project due. We were to write a letter to our public representative and inform him/her on the bill we choose for our Healthy People/Thomas assignment.

On Thursday we had a "junking" day, we had strange objects that Dr. V collected from different places and we were put into our blogging groups to come up with repurposing ideas for the objects. It was interesting to see all the ideas that people came up with, some were really creative!! It was really fun to interact with out groups and get out of the normal classroom setting. Overall it was a really fun couple of weeks!!! I can't believe its almost over....

Share and Voice: Super One Foods

THANKS SUPER ONE FOODS!!!

Thank you Dr. V and Super one foods for giving us the reusable grocery bags! I am so excited to go and use mine. I dont have to decided on "paper or plastic" now:) Also thanks to Heather and Shar for their brillant idea for the thank you card!! Here are a couple interesting facts I found out about plastic bags and how we are going to help out the environment by using our eco-friendly grocery bags.

• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
  



• According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.
  



• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)



• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest

facts found on resuablebags.com

Thanks AGAIN

Share and Voice: Whole Foods Co-op

Whole Foods Co-op

Today my community health class went on a field trip and visited the whole foods co-op here in duluth. We went on a tour of the building and I learned that even the building itself is environmentally friendly! The building is made out of recycled materials. For example the art outside of the building is made from glass and hand rails from a school. The carpeting inside the store is used from recycled tires,and some of the wooden beams on the ceilings are from logs found on the bottom of lake superior. It was really interesting to find out how you can take and reuse materials that you just throw away. The building is even more "green" on the inside. It has bike racks to promote biking, and a shower inside in case you want to walk or jog to work. They also have a solar panel outside and on a sunny day it generates enough energy to keep the registers and other things going for 8 hours!!!! I really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about organic food and how the store is going green! If you haven't been there go and check it out, its pretty cool:)

Advocacy Project: Letter to a public official

April 28, 2009

Jim Oberstar
House of Representatives
Washington D.C. Office
2365 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Oberstar,

I am writing you this letter to inform you about the current bill H.R. 1031 : To promote a better health information system. I highly recommend your support for this bill. The bill would provide citizens and communities with advanced understanding of the health information system and also provide communities with the opportunity for more sanitary water supply, better hygiene and a cleaner overall healthier environment. The proposed bill will help numerous communities and third world countries become more informed and aware of the significance of a health system. It will help reduce of the number of diseases that are among third world countries and countries who are suffering from poor health systems, unsanitary water, and insufficient health information. This bill would give people information that would help them create a healthier environment and a healthier means of life.

The people and the communities that would be positively affected by this bill would have less chance of disease and sickness which in turn would give them more opportunities to work and provide for their families. If people were constantly sick because of disease or sickness obtained by an unsanitary water supply, or an unhealthy environment it would be harder for them to perform daily tasks such as going to work and providing for their families.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 13 million deaths worldwide could be prevented every year by making environments healthier. In 23 countries worlwide more than 10% of deaths are due to just two environmental risk factors: unsafe water, including poor sanitation and hygiene; and indoor air pollution due to solid fuel use for cooking. If this bill was passed those statistics would go down and the number of deaths would decrease, just by providing more information on health systems and creating a healthier environment for people to live in.

Thank you for anything in the past that you have done to ensure a healthier environment for communites. I hope that you now realize the best course of action to provide healthier environments for our citizens is to vote "YES" to the house bill H.R. 1031 and promote a better health information system.

Thank you for your time,
Jessica

Share and Voice: Happy Earth Day!!

Earth day 2009

As you may know today April 22nd is Earth day. This day was founded by Gaylord Nelson. The idea of earth day came to be evolved in 1962, but we didnt start celebrating it till 1970. Twenty Million people celebrated the first earth day! One of the purposes of earth day was to give the environment a day to be celebrated!!!

There are great crafts and projects to do in honor of earth day here are a few:

~egg carton bug mobile

~tin can herb pots

Crafts from Nature Materials:

~pet rocks

~salt art

There has been quite a bit of environmental progress made since the first earth day! If people continue to celebrate earth day, much more progress can be made to help out the earth and the environment!

SO HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!!! go out and do something good for the environment:)

Ps sorry for the formatting I dont know what happened!