Reflection: Weeks 15 and 16

We are finally done with this class! WOOHOO!!!! I am both excited and a little bit sad about this. This class has probably been one of my favorite classes. I have learned so much about the environment, and have really grown as a person. I have really loved having all of you in my web group, and have really enjoyed getting to know all of you.

Now on to the reflection...

During week 15 we had our last Advocacy assignment. We were assigned to make an online learning activity for the rest of our web group to complete in order for them to learn more about our topics. I found this assignment to be kind of challenging. It was harder then I thought to find interactive activities online. I now appreciate what teacher do more than I did before. This week we also had Sue Whitney come in to talk to us about junking. Sue seemed like a really great, down to earth women. On the last day of class we got to go outside and reflect on the class. This was a really fun way to end the class.

Week 16 was finals week so we didn't meet in class, but we still had assignments. We had to complete our last Eye Opener assignment, which was just doing all of the interactive activities that our web group made for us, and then writing a little bit about each one. This Eye Opener was really easy for me because I accidentally did all of the activities for the last Advocacy post instead of waiting until this week. Oh well...this way I got to do them twice. This week was just a wrap up week. I finished all of my Share and Voices and caught up on all of my commenting. Overall, it was a very relaxing week.

Well thanks for reading.

Have a Great Day!!!

Share and Voice: Recycle Caps With Aveda

I am really excited about this last share and voice for a couple of reasons. Of course I am excited about it because I feel like it is an interesting topic, but I am even more excited about this environmental issue because it came from an unlikely source, Aveda Salons.

They are choosing to do something about a serious recycling issue. Currently, most plastic bottle caps are not able to be recycled so they end up in landfills. Contents of the landfills often spill into our water supplies which then harms the animals that live in that area. Due to this problem, they "are building a new recycling program for plastic bottle caps in which caps are collected at stores and schools and then sent by Aveda to their recycler where the material is recycled into new caps and containers. Aveda has been able to work closely with their suppliers to develop ways to make new caps and containers from the recycled caps." Go to the website to read more about the type of plastic tops they are collecting. You can bring them to any Aveda Store/Salon and they will be repurposed into Aveda packaging. How cool!

To read the article go to: http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

Have a Great Day!!!

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activites

Valerie:Health Care Wheel of Fortune
For her game you needed to guess different letters to make up basic health care words. I did horribly on her game, but had a lot of fun doing it. It was really fun to go back to the basics, and try to figure out fun medical words. I think that this game would be a fun way for kids to start learning about health care.

Shannon: The Food Groups Game
Her quiz was focused on teaching kids the food groups. This went along well with her Advocacy topic. The object of the quiz was to drag and drop different foods into their correct food groups. I got 100% on her quiz and had a lot of fun taking it. I really enjoyed the "happy dance" that the food groups did after their servings were full. I think that young children would have a blast with this quiz.

Sam:Healthy Kids Quiz
Her quiz was also made for kids, and was focused on teaching them the importance of a healthy diet. After each question you answered you got some more information on each question, and if you got a question wrong, that you were able to go back and try again. I think that it is really important for children to get a second try. I feel that children would learn a lot from this quiz.

Noah: Health IT Puzzle
His activity was on Health Care Information Technology. He decided to create a crossword puzzle about this subject. I think that that was really creative him, and I am very impressed with his work. I was unfortunately unable to get his link to work on my computer. I think that you need some special software to download his crossword, but I bet it was really interesting and informative. I think that Noah's topic is one that I would like to learn more about, because it is something that could really affect our future.


Great Job to Everyone! All of your activities were FUN!


Have a Great Day!!!

Share and Voice: How Eau Claire is Going GREEN

So I went to Eau Claire, WI this weekend to visit my best friend and my sister. I told them about the stuff that we are learning in class, and asked if there was anything environmentally cool that was going on at their school.

I found out that Eau Claire is going completely tray free at all of their dining locations starting this fall. Christian Wise, one of the leaders of this movement was interviewed for this news article and shared some really interesting facts. Wise shared that, "trays account for a significant portion of our dishwashing — more than 6,000 are cleaned each day on campus, resulting in more than 396,000 gallons of water being used for this one purpose only." "Going trayless lessens the environmental impact we generate here on campus. A significant amount of water and electricity is saved, food waste is diverted from landfills and, above all, we make a small dent in reducing carbon emissions."

The best part is that students are really supportive of this movement. The article ended with a list of other things that Eau Claire is doing to be environmentally friedly. So please check out this article and read more about what Eau Claire is doing to help the environment.

Please go to this link to read the news article. This article is really interesting and pretty short: http://www.uwec.edu/newsreleases/09/apr/0403trayless.htm The article also includes contact information for Christian Wise if you have any questions.

I find this really inspirational. I hope that UMD can follow in Eau Claire's footsteps. What a great idea!
I hope you enjoyed reading!!!

Have a Great Day!!!