Reflection: Week 15 & 16

I can't believe this is going to be my last reflection for this class. I can definitely say that I really enjoyed this class, and learned so much. I never was really into the environment, so before this class started I thought it would be about saving animals and hugging trees or something.. but I was definitely wrong. This class taught me to notice the little things that we can do to help our earth, and I think I'm going to even make a new hobby of gardening and junking :)


THE PAST TWO WEEKS..

Sue Whitney came to our class to talk to us about junking. I thought she was so cute! I hope I look like that when I'm 50, haha. I absolutely love her book she gave us. What she does is so unique and creative, and I definitely want to try to do some junking on my own this summer.

On our last day of class (saaaad) we got to sit outside in the beautiful weather and all talk about what we have learned from this class. I definitely think we can all say that we have learned so much from this class. I seriously don't think I have ever been in a class that has interested me so much as this one.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF...

I've learned to appreciate and care about our earth a lot more. I'm constantly un-plugging appliances, recycling, trying to use less water, etc. I now hate and feel terrible using plastic too. I went to Super One and forgot my green bag, and I was seriously disappointed in myself. I also have started buying mostly organic foods. Before I would never want to spend the extra money, but I definitely think it's worth it for my health. As I said in class, growing up, my dad would always put food in the "compost pile" and I just thought he was weird for having a pile of nasty food in our background... but now I'm proud of my dad and appreciate that he does this. I've also learned that I'm more of a grandma than I thought, and want to start planting vegetables/gardening :) Lastly, I love anything to do with art, and junking is definitely a unique art.. so I really want to try to make some cool things out of junk for my new apartment.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT..

I learned that we really need to take care of our earth. There's so many little things we can all do to help out, so why not just do it? When my roomies put recyclable things in the garbage, it just annoys me and makes me think how instead of those things being recycled, they are going to end up in the land fields. Sometimes I've even picked out the stuff in the garbage, but when it's covered in other stuff I just have to say sorry to our earth because I'm not digging through the disgusting garbage...

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT BLOGGING..

Well, at the beginning I was like "uhh.. how am I going to blog all the time when it's so confusing?!" but it's really not! It's quite fun actually. I really think blogging is a great learning tool, and definitely a great way to be environmentally friendly! It's going to feel so weird when I no longer have to check my blog, or post a reflection..

I'm trying to hold back my tears right now.. (just kidding) but seriously, I've really enjoyed this class a lot. I also have enjoyed reading all my group members posts. This class has definitely brought us all closer, so all I have to say is that I will miss you all and we better have a million community health parties this summer! (Katie we need to have more KARE4KIDS $5 margarita nights too)


I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL SUMMER! Come ride on the Vista Fleet boats if you're ever bored! (that's where I'll be slaving away all summer)

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

So after playing all the learning activities of my wonderful group members, these are the results..

Abbey E's Environmental Endeavors - FOOT-O-METER

I played the Bobby's Foot-O-Meter game, which is used in schools to help students understand the concept of their Eco- footprint. For the game, I had to help Bobbie choose what to do that day (such as what to eat, transportation, etc) and then watch my eco-footprint get bigger or smaller. My footprint was 6.3 acres


Ben's Virtual Ecosystem

I had $100,000 to build a house and determine how efficient it was. I built a house by the climate I wanted, construction, energy sources, and efficiency materials. Then I got to see how much money I spent and also how efficient my home was on an efficiency scale. I definitely thought this was a cool activity to see how efficient a house could be!

Katie Kares 4 Environment-Do You? - LITTLE D THE DRAGON EXERCISE

The goal of this game was to feed the monster a good from each food group. When every food group was covered, I advanced to the next level. There was also bonus questions that I got asked, which was fun and informative! This was definitely a great way to learn all the different food groups!

Ingrid's Al Fresco - WATER CALCULATOR

For this activity, I had to answer the questions it asked about my water consumption. Ex: How many showers do you take each day? I found out that on average I consume 107 gallons of water per day, when the state average per person is 71. Looks like I need to watch my water consumption! :/

A Leaf of Sara's Life - TOBACCO FACTS PUKE PAGE

I clicked on each picture to read about how smoking and secondhand smoke can affect my body. This was definitely very eye-opening for me! I already hate smoking but this definitely made me even more grossed out.


Good job finding fun and informative learning activities guys! I just love our group :)

Share and Voice: Eco-Friendly Books

Well, well, well.. since summer is pretty much in a week, I thought I would look up some eco-friendly books to read when I'm not working my life away this summer.. I found some good books from Amazon Check it out :)

Also, I ordered the book Gorgeously Green in the beginning of this semester, and have yet to read it.. but since methods is no longer my life, I now will actually have time to read it :) I did read about 10 pages of it though, and so far so good.. so that's another book idea for you!

Share and Voice: Reusable Bags

Good thing Dan from Super One gave our class those reusable green bags... I found this interesting website talking benefits of using reusable bags

DID YOU KNOW?

Using reusable bags provides many benefits to the individual and the environment. As more and more plastic bags are consumed on a daily basis, more and more plastic must be produced because, at most, only 3% of plastic bags are recycled. The production of plastic, in and of itself, emits toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. Plastic bags also use oil in their production. Obviously, the more plastic bags we produce (to support our growing use of them), the more we pollute the atmosphere and the more oil we consume. Plastic also takes over 1,000 years to decompose and release toxic chemicals into the soil during decomposition. They also pollute the oceans and countryside, killing thousands of animals every year.


Dan's a good man :) haha

Advocacy Project: Environmental Learning Activity

DINING DECISIONS

Purpose: This activity could be used in schools to help children to be able to pick out a variety of foods filled with the daily nutrients you need.

Background/Reasoning/Evidence: This activity really stood out to me because although we may think we are eating healthy foods, most people are still missing many needed nutrients. Check out these sites so you can be a pro at the game before you start it! :)

Nutrition Education

A Balanced Diet

Five Important Nutrients We Should All Include in Our Diets

Instructions: Click on "Play the Game" and pick five foods off of the conveyor belt and place them on your tray. After you picked your food, click on "Eat Now" to get your "tray feedback" of all the nutrients you chose or didn't choose.


This image of the food pyramid can help you learn the different food groups that you should chose from. Remember to pick out foods from all the different groups, but go easy on the fats :)

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

These past two weeks were probably the most entertaining for me this semester. It's kind of sad that the semester is almost to an end... (note: kind of)

During week 13, we watched "the story of stuff" and went to the bagley nature area to do some navigation skills. This probably wasn't one of my favorite activities since I was really ready to go to on a nature walk, but I had fun with Sara J, Katie and Heather :) During week 14, we listed to Brian talk about his job and how it's related to the environment. We also did a repurpose/refurbish activity, which was super funny! Good times in Group 3 :) I loved hearing all the different ideas the groups came up with.

What have I learned about myself:

I learned that junking actually interests me. It's really a creative way to help out the environment. I'm really glad Dr. V. had us do that activity. Maybe I should stop spending all my money at Target, and start going to Goodwill to create something out of someone's junk!

What have I leaned about the environment:

I learned that there's so many ways to help out our environment. Even just making a a personal hobby that you enjoy (junking) can really help out our earth. I also learned to not get your summer dresses out when it's 70 degrees one day, because the next day the weather can change to 30 degrees.. good ol' Duluth..

What have I learned about blogging:

I wouldn't neccessarily say I have learned anything, but I think I've really grown into a regular blogger user. I remember at first I was like "uhh, how do I do this? what is this?!" and now blogging is practically the new facebook! haha. It will definitely feel weird when I no longer have to write these reflections, or comment on my web groups share & voices.

ONE MORE REFLECTION TO GO! have a good weekend everyone :)

Share and Voice: Littering

I think it's sad when our grounds are filled with liter, and I know it's very harmful for our environment.. but HOW harmful is it exactly? I found this article that talks about how liter trashes our environment and the affects of it. Some interesting facts I learned in this article are...

Cigarettes are a major cause of liter. First of all, it's terrible for ones health, and then our environment has to deal with the consequences as well?!

California alone spends $28 million a year cleaning up and removing litter along its roadways. What a waste of money! If everyone learned not to liter, they wouldn't need to spend millions and millions of dollars to pick up people's trash.

There's a litter prevention group is Auntie Litter, which started in 1990 in Alabama to help educate students there about the importance of a healthy and clean environment. Today the group works internationally to help students, teachers and parents eliminate litter in their communities.


Throwing away our trash is an easy task, but yet so many people still do it.. poor earth :(