Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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

Monday, May 11, 2009

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!!!