Reflection: Weeks 13-14 & Overall Course

I cant believe that the semester is already behind us.  I literally watched myself grow as a health educator over the course of this semester, and I have to say that this class contributed a huge part to that.  Here is a recap of the past two weeks of this course as well as my overall reflection.

Week 13
We began this week by having an Advocacy Project due where we wrote a letter to an elected official about the bill we had chosen earlier, and also created a fact sheet to support our argument.  This was a very unique experience for myself because I had never done anything like this before.  Also, we met as a class at Goodwill Industries to learn about their mission and how things were really operated there.  It was interesting to learn how they are not about production, instead they are about placing their employees within the community and providing the with steady work.  To finish up this day of class we all participated in a wedding activity at Goodwill and were given time to look for items for our upcoming junking projects.  The final item on the agenda for this week was our final weekly reflection and overall reflection of our Eco-Chic Lifestyle change.  It was very interesting to see how everyone progressed through their goal and their success along the way.

Week 14
To begin our final week of class, we had yet another Advocacy Project due.  This was an online lesson created individually regarding the bill we had previously chosen.  My project was based primarily around educating our class about automobile emissions and how to reduce our impact.  Later in the week we completed each online lesson for all of the members of our blog group, it was pretty cool to see the interesting things everyone came up with.  Also during class on monday we all presented our "Junking" projects, this was an extremely neat way to end the class.  It was great to see everyones wonderful ideas and how much time and effort they had put into their personal projects.  The creativity of our class never ceases to amaze me, and these projects definitely impressed me more than I thought.

My Junking Project was an old oil heater that i had found laying around at my grandparents.

My Junking Project

My Junking Project

Overall Course
Where can I really start with this course, I never imagined that I would take so much away from this class.  This class opened up my eyes so much to issues that I never even realized existed.  An example of this would be the terrible things that go into processing the meat we buy in the U.S.  I guess you could say I was a bit sheltered with that because I have always eaten beef directly from our family farm, wild turkey we have harvested, pork and chicken from the farms of family friends, and wild game like venison and bear that we harvest ourselves.  Seeing the terrible things they do to these animals and the ways they cut corners just to increase production and make a bit more money make me pretty sick.

I could go on all day talking about things that greatly impacted me throughout this class, such as "Tapped," "Fresh," "Future of Food," our lifestyle changes, junking, and even blogging.  I would like to take a second however to discuss how much this class has made me grow and mature.  I honestly think this class has made a huge impact on me as a health educator and opened my eyes to so many more issues than I ever even knew about.  Going into this class I had no idea what to really expect, but walking away from it I know that the information and knowledge I am taking away will stick with me forever. The amount of information and experience that I gained from this class definitely made me much more well rounded as both a student and a professional.

Reflection: Weeks 9-12

With only a couple of weeks left in this semester (I cant believe this) here is a recap of the last 4 weeks throughout our journey in Environmental Health.

Week 9: I completed an advocacy project identifying all of my political representatives ranging from the president, to state and local legislature, and even my hometown mayor.  We then discussed the meaning of advocacy and participated in an exercise with the whole class.  The final portion of class was devoted to developing our own personal Eco-chic lifestyle change that we will be monitoring and reporting on for the remainder for the semester and developed a SMART Goal for this change.

Week 10: This week began with an assignment identifying a particular bill that interested us and doing a bit of research of on it as part of our advocacy project.  We then watched a video titled "Unnatural Causes" and described the bill we had chosen to the class.  To round out class we discusses a what entailed a photo essay as an intro to an upcoming assignment.  Finally we had our first weekly update on our Eco-chic lifestyle change, mine being that I will eat at least 4 servings (1/2 cup) of fruits or vegetables (or a mix) every day for the next 10 weeks.

Week 11: We once again had another advocacy project due, this time we did an issue overview of our bill and how it impacts different populations and different types of people.  In class we watched a video called "Story of Stuff" and discussed our upcoming junking projects.  To round out this week we had another weekly update on our lifestyle goal due, where we once again monitored our progress of attaining our goal.

Week 12: To begin class this week we each presented our photo essays briefly to the class and discussed   our reasons for doing them, we then were introduced to Blog Hops and how they work.  We then discussed how to communicate with decision makers and the media.  Also we lead in to our letter & fact sheet assignment for our advocacy project due the following week.  To finish up this week we posted another weekly update on our lifestyle change and discussed our next class meeting at Goodwill.

With only a couple weeks left in this semester I can't believe the amount I have leaned, I can't wait to see what is to come in these next few weeks and I am looking forward to my junking project.

Reflection: Weeks 5-8

It is hard to believe that we are already over half way through this semester, and I can honestly say that I have learned a ton and never thought that I would be so into environmental health.

Week 5: I completed an eye opener called, Eating Green Calculator. Following the completion of the eye opener I took a deeper look at my results and realized they were based upon the consumption of purchased meat and such products. However all of the beef I consume is from my family farm and all other meat product I harvest by hunting. It was very alarming though to see what purchasing meat form the store can amount to, actually it was rather scary.

Week 6: We watched a film called “FRESH” which I found really alarming and eye opening. Also, we created a graphical header for our blog using Picnik. It was really neat to see how easy it is to create a very professional looking blog heading. Throughout this week I also completed the ‘Read n’ Seed’ for the third quarter of my book "Exposed."

Week 7: This week was almost overwhelming to me; it began by researching a cosmetic product we use on a daily basis on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Guide. This database provides a ranking from one to ten of how hazardous specific cosmetic products are, it was incredible how many items people in the class had looked up that claimed to be ‘natural’ that actually contained some very hazardous ingredients. Also, we finished up our books and it was extremely interesting to read everyone’s final take on their book.

Week 8: We watched a movie called “Tapped” which was all about the problems that bottled water have caused in the United States along with the toxicity of the plastic in the bottles themselves. We also had to do an eye opener called “Junk on the Brain” it took a look at junking, antiquing, thrift stores, flea markets, and upcycling. We were instructed to investigate the Junk Market Style website and find interesting things that other people had junked. Soon we will be completing our own junking project!

Well, that is weeks 5-8 in a nutshell, I cant wait to see what else is in store for the upcoming weeks. Also, we have been split into new blog groups and I can not wait to see what my new group members have to say!

Reflection: Weeks 1-4

Through these first four weeks of Environmental Health I can honestly say that I have learned way more than I through I ever could in this short of time.  I would like to start out by saying that I never in my life envisioned I would have or use a blog, and now it is part of my everyday life.  When we first learned how to develop a blog we learned multiple things regarding blogging, from blog etiquette to how to create an avatar (an animated version of yourself).  Also within our blogging we learned how to comment on the blogs of our group members.  Commenting is helpful because it provides you with input from your group members on your blog and the things you post on it.  We learned how to manage our blogs by using Google Reader, a website where you can subscribe to your group members blogs as well as any other information you desire that is on the Internet. 

During the third week of class we chose our Read 'n' Seed books, we will be reading these over the course of the next few weeks to inform our classmates (via blog) of the issues and topics our books cover.  The book I chose is Exposed by Mark Schapiro, it is an overview of how the European Union (EU) is addressing the toxic chemicals that are put into everyday products used by people all over the world.  It touches on a set of guidelines that the EU is putting into place to ban these negative substances from use in products throughout Europe.  The catch is that throughout the United States we are doing noting to regulate the ingredients that are impacting us daily, and this book points out the reasons why we continue to cut corners.

At the beginning of this week (week 4) we has class at the new Bagly Outdoor Classroom, where we discussed our ecological footprint quizzes and learned the "ins" and "outs" of the classroom.  Our ecological footprint quizzes were a true 'eye-opener' because it put into perspective how wasteful we really are as a society.  My ecological footprint being almost 4 earths really made me realize how I can do my best to make sure to preserve our earths resources and educate my peer on these issues as well.

This overview once again covers just the first four weeks of this class, and I am extremely excited to see what the remainder of this semester has to offer!

Welcome to Adam's Outdoor Connection

I am a 21 year old senior at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and I was born and raised in a town of about 1,500 people in West Central Wisconsin (Whitehall). At a very young age I developed an extreme passion for the outdoors and everything that encompasses it. I grew up hunting and fishing all of my life, and I since coming to college I have really started to enjoy just being in nature in general and discovering all that it has to offer. My blog will be a broad view of my journey through the outdoors along with anyone that chooses to join me.

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Reed 'n' Seed
6. Share & 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 group are:

1. http://samanthagreenwithenvi.blogspot.com/
2. http://treeifictimewithalyssa.blogspot.com/
3. http://eco-questwithemily.blogspot.com/
4. http://kristenscoralreef.blogspot.com/
5. http://throughgreeneyeswithkatie.blogspot.com/
6. http://gobluetoowithcarly.blogspot.com/

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."

I would just like to end by saying how much I look forward to seeing what exciting information and experiences other people will share throughout this blog. I am excited to see the different activities and different endeavors that we are all either involved in or participate in within our everyday lives. Enjoy!!