Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Learning Activities-

Heidi:

Take childhood obesity quiz and report results/what was learned. 

I got 90% on this quiz about childhood obesity. I learned that being overweight at an early age has a lot of risks, including increased risk of hypertension and diabetes and it also makes it much more likely that an individual will be overweight later on in life. 

Mary:

Read 2 articles related to health reform and health insurance, watch a short video and play the game “bet your health”. 

I thought the article related to pros and cons of health reform was really interesting! As a health educator I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know too much of this info before doing this learning activity. I didn’t know that the new health plan would allow extended coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (I think that’s pretty cool) and I also think it’s awesome that the new plan would require free prevention and wellness benefits. I think that’s a great idea and could be so helpful in making our country healthier. 

Brier:

Watch videos and review the links provided and report 5 things learned, including reasons why you don’t smoke. 

1. Smoking costs Minnesota 3 billion dollars in health care costs

2. Tobacco causes 5,500 deaths in Minnesota annually

3. Smoking accounts for almost 1 in every 5 deaths in the United States annually

4. The tobacco industry spends over 100 million dollars a year just to market to Minnesota

5. Smoking is responsible for the leading cause of death in the United States- Coronary heart disease

I don’t smoke cigarettes because my parents smoked them when I was growing up and it set a great example of what NOT to do. 

Molly:

Read the articles provided and post a short reflection regarding chemical (BPA) regulation. 

I am definitely in favor of more rigid regulations for chemical use, especially in products and packaging that babies are exposed to! I’m amazed that babies can be exposed to levels of BPA that were higher than levels that caused serious side effects in animal studies. These babies are our future, yet we’re knowingly exposing them to harmful chemicals on a daily basis in infant formulas. It’s time to re-evaluate our chemical regulations. 

Kristen:

Read the articles posted on her blog then complete the crossword puzzle provided in a link.

Answers:

1. Air Quality Index

2.Air Toxics

3.Mobile Sources

4.asthma

5. carbon monoxide

6.EPA

Alicia

Read the following article and identify 3 myths and why they are myths about emergency contraception. List 3 places you can find emergency contraception.

1.Myth: Emergency contraception is the abortion pill. In reality, emergency contraception is a form of birth control that stops pregnancy before it occurs. In fact, emergency contraception does not work if conception has occurred.

2.Myth: Emergency contraception will harm my health. Emergency contraception is less hazardous than regular combination birth control methods.

3. Myth: I’m underage and I can’t get my parent’s consent. In reality, in most areas birth control can be provided to individuals under age. It is not required to obtain parental consent. 

Places where one can find emergency contraception:

Planned Parenthood

Women’s Health Center

Essentia

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For this eye-opener, I decided to document my coffee drinking habits and my shift from one behavior to another. All photos were taken by Yours Truly.

This is the coffee shop here at UMD. Although I occasionally make my own, this is where I tend to buy most of my coffee, especially if I'm in a hurry or really tired.

I like buying coffee from school because they sell Peace Coffee! For those of you who don't know, Peace Coffee sells only organic/fair trade coffee and operates out of Minneapolis MN. They even have people deliver coffee on bikes! Needless to say I feel good about supporting this brand. But I could still be a bit more eco-friendly with my coffee-drinking habits.

This is an example of a disposable cup I buy and then throw away (or recycle) each time I buy coffee at school. Although you'll notice the cup says it's eco-friendly, it would still be better not to use these at all.

I noticed the school has a great selection of reusable coffee mugs in the school store. This seemed like it could help me on my quest to be a more eco-friendly coffee drinker.

Here's my nice new (sort of dirty) reusable coffee mug! This way, I'm not generating all the waste I was before each time I drank coffee from a disposable cup. This was a very environmentally conscious choice, if I do say so myself.

Thanks for checking out my photo essay! I hope it was eye-opening and informative. 

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part I

Antiquing: Antiquing is a process of seeking out, shopping for, buying, selling, or trading antiques. This can be done at garage sales, estate sales, etc. Antiques themselves are older decorative objects or household items.

Junk: Any old or discarded material such as metal, paper, rags, etc.

Flea Market: A flea market is a place where a collection of used or inexpensive goods can be sold or traded.

Thrift Shop: A retail store that sells used or secondhand products at bargain prices.

Upcycling: A process that attempts to convert older useless or damaged products into higher quality more environmentally friendly products.

Resale shops: A store or shop (consignment shops, resale stores, or thrift shops) that sells gently used clothing or goods.

Part II

The terms listed above describe different ways of shopping that have less of an impact on the environment and on your wallet. By purchasing antiques, junking, or checking out a thrift store, you're helping eliminate waste that could possibly accrue if these products were not re-used. Reusing or upgrading old products is also a great way to shop more cost effectively.

To partake in this sort of shopping, here's a few options:

Antiquing: Father Time Antiques- 395 S Lake Ave #1 Duluth, MN 

(218) 625-2379

Junking: Andy’s Auto Recycling- 1040 State highway 45 Old, Carlton, MN 

(218) 384-3930

Flea Market: Hinckley Flea Market- 701 Fire Monument Road Hinckley, MN

(320) 282-6096

Thrift Shop: Savers- 1740 Mall Dr, Duluth, MN 

(218) 722-1894

Upcycling: Unable to find an upcycling resource for Duluth, MN

Resale Shop: Dannie Duluth- 932 East 4th street, Duluth, MN

(218)724-8507






Of the resources I listed I've only personally been to Savers and Dannie Duluth. Savers is great if you're looking for halloween costumes, for example, or need to dress up for any other occasions. It's also great for finding furniture and other odds and ends. Dannie Duluth is a pretty nice store for finding every day clothes at a great price. I've found lots of great brand name clothes there for fairly cheap and I highly recommend it.






Part III

I thought this was a really cool project I found on the website junkmarketstyle. I always wear hats and I also love gardening, so using old garden trowels to make a hat hanger seemed like an awesome idea to me!

I also really like this picture frame/ window project. I have a lot of photos and finding frames or thinking of clever ways to hang them up is always a challenge for me. I thought this was very creative and I plan to spice up my photos using similar framing techniques. 

Lastly, I thought this was a really cool idea for a coffee table. Having the old buckets built right in seems like a good plan to me. Coffee table + storage is great and I love the bright colors. 

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

For this week's eye opener I went to the Environmental Working Group's website. This site allows your to see how potentially hazardous many every day cosmetics can be. By typing in the product name, the site calculates a list of products that match it and then gives you information about the ingredients and how hazardous they could possibly be.

I decided to investigate how bad (or good) my daily moisturizer is. These were my results:


Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion with Sunscreen SPF 15

- This product ranked a 4 out of 10 on the hazard scale

- This product was also linked to a variety of health concerns

I found these results to be a bit alarming. Nowhere on the packaging of this product does it list or describe any of these potential health problems! I use this moisturizer nearly every day because I've been told it's healthy to moisturize daily, yet the information provided here leads me to believe I should probably stop using this product ASAP.

 I also find this to be really shady because I know Aveeno products are distributed by Johnson & Johnson: A company that appears to be forward thinking if you look at their website, yet judging by their product ingredients, is anything but.

I definitely feel like my eyes have been opened here. I'm not sure if I'll throw my moisturizer away just yet but I definitely plan on searching for a better one. In fact, I plan on checking most of my cosmetics to learn about the hazards I never would have known about otherwise. 

Eye Opener: CSPI

For this week's eye-opener I took a "Score your diet" quiz which calculates how nutritious, environmentally friendly, and considerate to animals my current diet is. This quiz asked a series of questions about how many servings per week I eat of beef, chicken, eggs, and other animal products as well as fruits, veggies and whole grains. There were more detailed questions as well, asking whether the fruit and veggies are organic, whether the dairy products are fat free, and whether eggs and chicken are free-range, just to name a few. The quiz then gives your diet a score in three categories: Health Score, Environmental Score, and Animal Welfare Score.

Although my overall score on this quiz was 46 which is classified as "good", my results for the environmental and animal welfare scores apparently need help. I was surprised by this, because I'm not a very big meat eater and I've recently cut back on other animal products like dairy, yet according to this quiz I desperately need to help the animals more (my score was -13). I also make an effort to buy local fruits and vegetables to minimize my environmental impact. I even buy bread that's made locally (but my score here was -26)! I feel bad for scoring so low in both of these categories and I'd like to learn more about how I can change this for the better. I don't really want to become a vegetarian but I will do my best to buy free-range animal products and to eat grass fed beef whenever possible.

On the bright side, according to this quiz my diet is a very healthy one. I was happy to read that part because I try my best to eat well most of the time and I was hoping this quiz would reflect that.

Before taking this quiz I thought I had a pretty environmentally friendly and animal friendly diet. I was really surprised to learn that, according to this quiz, my regular diet is actually really harmful to the environment and to the welfare of animals! This quiz opened my eyes to the fact that I could probably do with making a few more changes to my food choices. I would recommend taking this quiz just to see how good your diet is and to become aware of areas that need improvement.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

After taking a quiz to calculate my Ecological footprint I feel inspired to make changes in the way I live on a daily basis. According to this quiz, it would take approximately 4.1 earths to support humanity if everyone lived the same lifestyle I do. This quiz broke it down into a pie chart to describe the areas in which I leave the biggest footprint. According to the pie chart, 49% of my footprint goes towards energy, 15% goes towards food, 16% goes to shelter, 16% goes to goods and 5% goes to mobility.

This ecological footprint quiz was quite a reality check, and I think it has made me more mindful of the impact of many of my consumer habits. These habits, which include the food I tend to eat, my method of transportation, how and when I choose to recycle, and even the clothes I buy all have an impact on my ecological footprint and I plan on attempting to minimize my footprint starting now, after this eye-opening activity.

To take the quiz yourself just visit this link: Ecological Footprint Calculator

Welcome to Eco-Quest with Emily

Hey there! Welcome to my blog. My name is Emily and  I'm a senior at The University of Minnesota-Duluth pursuing a degree in Health Education (Community) with a minor in Spanish. I've created this blog for my Environmental Health course and I will be updating it periodically as I explore and learn more about the environment.

There will be 6 possible types of  posts in my blog:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the catergories will be listed as labels. This post 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 catergories above.

The members of my group are: 

1. Samantha B.http://samanthagreenwithenvi.blogspot.com/
2. Adam http://adamsoutdoorconnection.blogspot.com/
3. Alyssa http://treeifictimewithalyssa@blogspot.com/
4. Kristen G. http://kristenscoralreef.blogspot.com/
5. Katie http://throughgreeneyeswithkatie.blogspot.com/
6. Carly 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'll be blogging here throughout the semester about a variety of environmental issues and topics, I hope you'll join me on my quest!