Reflections: Week 13 & 14 and Overall Course Reflection

Week 13
This week I wrote my advocacy letter to Representative Joe Hoppe about why school lunch subsidies should be increased. Class also met at GoodWill Industries today. We went on a tour, which was really interesting. I couldn't believe how BIG it was! It's awesome that they employ people who may have trouble finding jobs because of certain disabilities they may have.  I also thought the machine that crushed mattresses was awesome; so cool that someone from Duluth invented that! Once we were in the actualy store of the GoodWill we split into groups for an activity. My group and I put together an outfit that would be appropriate attire for a job interview for only $20.

Week 14
This week I put together an 'eye-opener' for my group to complete that I had to do with my advocacy project. I also, completed the eye-openers that my group members had created. It was really funn to see what everyone came up with! During class we had a discussion about the class, and what we had learned. We also had a fun conversation about fast/slow drivers and why it is that people may do that.


Overall Course Reflection
I have learned SO much throughout this course. The documentaries that we watched during class were my favorite part!  Everyone one that we watched I found to be so interesting, and just packed with information that I has never heard before. I also really enjoyed doing my eco-chic lifestyle change. I pretty much always use my re-usable bags now, and I don't think it would have become such a habbit if I hadn't written about it each week. I also find myself telling people stuff that I have learned in this class ALL the time. Or making little comments if someone is doing something that I know isn't environmentally friendly. It was also really beneficial for me for learn how to blog. Now matter what job I end up with, I can probably somehow incorporate it.
I really enjoyed this class, and got A LOT out of it!

Here's my Junking project! I made the hat from the sleve of an oversized sweater.

I folded up the bottom part, and applied a little fabric glue. Then I bunched the top

part together, added some fabric glue and a clear rubber band, and added

a cotton ball on the top!

Reflection: Weeks 11 and 12

Week 11

I wasn't in class for this week. However, I watched the video off the calendar called The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. This was an incredibly informative video! I can't believe that 1/3 of the planets natural resources have been consumed, and 40% of the water ways in the U.S. have become undrinkable. If every country in the the World used resources like we do, it would tale 3 to 5 planets to support us, that's disgusting. Actually almost everything from this video completely disgusting, such as that man that decided after WWII to try and change the economy to basically just be revolved around buying, buying, and more buying. And then throwing away almost everything we do buy with in 6 months of purchasing it.

I also posted for my eco-chic lifestyle change which went really well for me that week! Posted about my Advocacy project, which is about increasing the amount of money reimbursed to schools from the state for lunch programs. And I also finished up the book I was reading; Under a Green Sky. 


Week 12
This week we started off talking about our photo essays, and learned about MckLinky blog hops. I really liked seeing everyone's topics that they chose to take pictures of! We also talked about writing a letter to a politcal representative or editor.

Reflections: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

Starting week 5 off I  two of the the CSPI eye openers, both of the quizes involed learning about how what I am eating affects the environment, my health, and in the 'score your diet quiz' it also showed my animal welfare score. I also took a look at the 'tour of the food supply' website which had lots of information about slaughter houses, restaurants, etc. It was a great site!
In class we watched, the movie, Future of Food. This video sparked a lof of great conversation, and questions from the class. I couldn't believe how that farmer and his wife lost their farm of 50 years just because they had a few GMO crops in their field that they didn't even know were there! And I also really dislike the fact that manufactures who use GMO foods in their products don't have to tell us!! It raises the question in my mind about what if a seemingly vegetarian food really has parts of genes from animals, would it still be vegetarian? Being vegetarian, I know that I would be really upset to find out there were parts of animal products being used in some of the food I'm eating. Like the mentioned in the movie, a company manufactured a tomato that has part flounder gene in it.

Week 6
I was actually unfortunately sick this past Monday and wasn't able to make it to class. However, I did watch the video 'Diet for a New America.' The part of the movie that showed a tube of blood with a ton of fat in it after a man had eaten a cheese burgur was distgusting!  I also found it interesting that in China only about  %10 of their diet comes from meat, and in America it's about %70. Sick. The section of the video about baby cows and how they are raised in tiny little crates so they can't move so their meat is tender made me so sad.

Reflection: Weeks 3 and 4

These last two weeks have been really informational. I started by meeting with Steve which was so helpful, because I was struggling with learning on this blogging stuff! I'm becoming much more confident in learning how to blog. I also picked my book for the my Read 'N' Seed posts, which is now "Under a Green Sky," by Peter Ward. I've started reading it and it seems like it's going to have a lot of good information in it.  I really liked the movie An Inconvenient Truth that we watched this last week. It was so eye-opening and scary! It makes me really want to start pay attention to my actions and how they may affect the environment. The same goes for the Earth Day Footprint quiz I took on monday. My results we're surprising so I'm excited to start with my Eco-Chic lifestyle change of using a reusable bag every time I go grocery shopping. I went grocery shopping for the first time today and remembered my bags! I hope I can everytime!

Reflections Weeks 1 and 2

Week 1
The first day of class was really hot! We did a rope activity and decided to do it outside. Each student in the class had to fit both of their feet inside a circle of rope that varied in sizes that were scattered around. Each time we switched Dr. V removed one circle of rope. By the end of the activity there was only one circle of rope left for the entire class to fir their feet in to. We had to problem-solve ways for it to work, eventually realizing that all of our bodies don’t have to fit inside the rope just our feet. This lead into our discussion about critical thinking, and why it’s important to always look at problems with an open mind. We then started to learn the basics of blogging and going over what’s to be expected for the rest of the semester.

Week 2
The sencond day of that class we watched a really interesting video clip off of a 60 minutes episode. It was about global warming and how when Bush was in office the government was censoring what information could be told to the public; trying to make things look better than they really were. I thought that was really interesting. We also learned about putting gadgets into our blog.

Introductory Post

Welcome to my Maggie's Environmental Lifestyle page! I'm a new community health major, and I'm not completely sure what I want to do with my major when I graduate. I have worked with children for a long time, and am interested in nutricion, so I could see doing some kind of combination of the two.


This is my first class that is environment related, and I'm already finding it really interesting. Blogging isn't coming too easily for me, but I'm working at it!

My blog will cover a variety of topics; listed below:

*Advocacy project
*Eye-openers

*Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change

*Read 'N' Seed

*Share and Voice



Each blog posted after this one, will be under one these topics.

My group members are listed below:

http://maggiesenvironmentallifestyle.blogspot.com/

http://jordannesjungle.blogspot.com/

http://karlyskaringhabitat.blogspot.com/

http://www.haileyshealthyenvironment.blogspot.com/

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscibe gadget in my gadget column. If you'd like to follow my blog you can click "Follow this Blog" in the gadget section. If you'd like to see all the blogs I'm following and my complete porfile click on "See Complete Profile."

Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by http://ecochicwithamy.blogspot.com/

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Maggie@Maggie's Environmental Style