Reflection: Week 15 & 16

I would have to say that Dr. V's class has opened my mind to new ways of thinking about the environment and how I focus my contributions to benefit where I live. The finals two weeks of class were more about reflecting on what we have learned.

Week 15

This week started of with Sue Johnson coming in and speaking to us about junk. But talking about ways that junk can be reused and make beautiful, hence her book she put out Junk Beautiful. Sue seems to have the natural touch when it comes to re-purposing junk. I was amazed at home some of the junk she used in her book looks like it could have been bought from an antique store. The next day of class was probably the most relaxing of all. We got to go outside, sit in the sun, and discuss what we learned from environmental health.

Week 16

Definitely one of the easiest weeks of the whole semester for this class. We didn't meet this week because of it being finals week but we still had assignments to do. The eye opener assignment was fun to do, especially to play the games everyone posted on there blog.

I wasn't sure how well using this blog thing would work when Dr. V described it at the beginning of the semester but I feel it was a good idea. I allows you to open your mind and sort of describe things in different ways that you wouldn't do the same when putting pen to paper. Thanks to Dr. V for getting me more in touch with our environment so that I can do my part to improve our planet.

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

Share and Voice: Green Up The Slopes

One of the key reasons I decided to attend UMD (besides the quality education program) was to live in a place where snowboarding is one of winters best past times. The other day I was just sitting around with not much to do and I realized I missed the winter just a little bit but more of all I miss snowboarding. Then I started to think about snowboarding and if by any chance there has been a push towards making snowboarding more beneficial to the environment. I stumbled upon Arbor, a surf, skate, and snowboard company committed to providing environmentally friendly products. Many snowboard manufactures use a combination of wood cores, stainless steel edges, fiberglass, resin and occasionally Kevlar. Arbor does not use any fiberglass, stainless steel edges, or Kevlar in production. Most of the boards they manufacture are made out of a variety of wood. Some a combination of poplar, solid bamboo, and paulownia. I know some may think "well, it doesn't seem like they are environmentally friendly if they may be harvesting trees to produce snowboards," but Arbor is not marketing a product made of chemicals that harm the environment like steel, fiberglass and Kevlar. I feel that Arbor is starting a big push towards going green in extreme sports and others will follow. Good thing I'm about due for a new snowboard!

Check out there site if your a fan of boarding! Arbor Snowboarding

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activity

Okay, Sooo I thought this was a fun eye opener, I mean playing games while building your knowledge about health issues. Sounds like a fairly easy learning assignment to me.

The first game I played was...
Valerie's Health Care Wheel of Fortune!

I will be honest, I am not very bright when it comes to wheel of fortune. For some reason I can watch it on TV and guess the words from time to time but the problem I have is getting the word started. I did have luck at guessing a few of the words in this game. Thanks for the Challenge Valerie!



Second I played...
Sara H's Quit Smoking Quiz!

I got a A! Yup, 90 out of 100 points was my score. I got the question wrong about smoking affecting reproductive health in only women because I happen to read it wrong. This quiz was quite interesting...over 4000 chemicals packed into a cigarette! Are you kidding me! How would that not get people to not smoke along with the fact that over 420,000 people die each year from them.

The third game I played was...
Sam's Open Door To A Healthy Heart!

Honestly I took this quiz twice. The first time was after Sam had posted it. So I would have to say I did pretty good on it. Quite interesting to know that your heart beats over 100,000 times a day. That's a lot of work for that little guy.

Lastly, I played...
Shannon's Food Groups Game!

Ha...That was very fun! Cool how the groups started dancing once you complete sorting them out. This game started to make me hungry. Sorting those foods helped me remember what I need to buy for groceries.

I learned more than what I thought I would in completing all these activities. Nice work webgroup!!!

Share and Voice: A Green Greenhouse

Hey Everyone!

I have always been interested in identifying different types of plants. I think I have acquired that knowledge because my ma happens to be a floral designer so I suppose it makes sense. Now I'm not the one to really further my education into becoming a plant taxonomist because its really just a small side hobby for me. It's really just nice to have this green piece of life by you which also happens to be beneficial by reducing CO2. Well I guess the main point of this post is that while I was sitting at my desk with my bonsai ficus tree (I encourage everyone to get one) and jade plant perched on the window sill, I was wondering if there "green homes" for them. By green homes (I'm sure you guessed it!) I mean green greenhouses. I'm not sure how many of you also own a couple different plant but this greenhouse I found would be a cool little home to make sure your plants get the right amount of sunlight. I found this miniature green house made entirely out of recycled plastic so you get to support the environment in two ways. The greenhouse was created by Daniel Schipper and is posted on his blog. Check it out --> Folding Greenhouse.

Enjoy!

Advocacy Project: Health IT Puzzle

Hi Webgroup!

So I had a little bit of trouble trying to find an interactive game that would spark your interest in Health Care Information Technology but didn't have to much luck finding anything...I then just decided to make a crossword search, guessing that a few college students may still do these so it would seem like the best alternative idea with a topic that is a bit difficult to develop an interactive game.

This will be just like any other crossword puzzle but you will first need to read a couple articles to help you in completing this activity. After reading it you simply have to answers each question to figure out what word you must fill in.

Articles to boost you Health IT Knowledge:

Interoperabilty: The Key to the Future Health Care Systems
Defining and Delivering Interoperable Health Information Technology - Sections on Adoption, Health IT 101 and Social Benefits
Health Information Technology

Click HERE to start the puzzle.

Best of luck!

If you want to check your completed puzzle click HERE.

Reflection: Week 13 & 14

And then there was one...well technically two but one week of in-class activities. It's exciting to know summer is almost here and then I can move my green thoughts to a more outdoor aspect. Maybe I'll take another compass adventure...
Week 13

I would have to say the compass expedition was the highlight of the week for me. The point of this activity was to learn the proper techniques of using a compass so that if ever it happens that you are stranded by yourself in the middle of nowhere with a compass, you just might be able to find your way out. Luckily my group (Valerie, Kathy, and Kailiegh) proved to be naturals in the arts of compass navigation. Ha. Even if we weren't Kathy's bright fuchsia shirt could have been spotted from ways away. I missed the video "Story of Stuff" but the video on the website explained to me it was about. Wish I wouldn't of missed that day. This week we had the assignment to do an overview of our issue. This assignment was pretty simple. We had to gather information about our bill and blog about it.

Week 14

The first part of this week introduced us to careers within the Environment Health field. Along with this Dr. V. brough in a guest speak to talk to the class about his career and what he does to help with environmental health. The advocacy assignmnet for this week was to compose a letter that we would send to congressional representative regarding our thoughts and how they could help out to pass our bill we chose. The second day of this week we had to get our brains thinking on the junk side of things. Dr. V. brought in an assortment of things that may be considered junk but can also be repurposed in different ways. In our web groups we had to brainstorm ways we could repupose each item.

At first I thought this advocacy proejct was goign to be stressful and a lot of work but it turned out not to be so bad. Taking it step by step made this assignment easy and quite infromative. I'm looking forward to next week's classes, especially the guest speark and pizza day!

Adios!

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

April 28, 2009
Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senate
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Klobuchar,

The proposed bill H.R. 1309 that encourages the adoption and implementation of interoperability into the health technology systems will provide the United States with improved health care quality, reduced medical errors, and increase in the efficiency of care. With your help on passing this bill not only will it improve our health systems by the actions stated above but it will also allow for greater communication between doctors, patients, nurses, and health office representatives. Improved communication can allow for improved work flow, optimal care, and a decrease in duplicated medical records caused by the standard technology systems. For future insight, the passage of this bill will enable students in college working towards a health care administrating degree's to enter their job with the confidence and assurance that they have the precise technology provided to them to advance the way hospitals operate. Not only will this bill affect the future prospects in the health care field but will affect the present citizens looking for the best possible care from their local hospitals. Because interoperability connects all systems and records into a network it will allow patients to access online medical portfolios that may contain information regarding treatments, status,and future appointments. Interoperability will aid everyone young and old is not forgotten about when it comes to health. With your help by voting "yes" to House Bill# 1309 we can revolutionize the United States health system by simply turning data into intelligence.

Thank you Senator Amy Klobuchar!

-Noah Funk