Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

The three different online learning activities I participated in were Keiths, Jakes and Amandas.

KEITH'S ACTIVITY:
Childhood Obesity Lesson:

Children as young as 8 years old are being diagnosed with diabetes? TRUE
Can some of these illnesses “actually” kill these children? TRUE
The doctors had to purchase 2 scales to weight children that were over 200 lbs? FALSE - 350 pounds
Daves dad died at age 52 from a stroke? TRUE
John Marx is in shape and healthy? FALSE - But he's getting there
Parents are not to blame for childhood obesity? FALSE -  parents need to be a good example. Lead a healthy life themselves.

JAKES ACTIVITY:
Stopping Childhood Obesity in Schools:

1. What % of children worldwide are either obese or overweight?

10%

2. True or False? Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing.

TRUE

3. What are some early effects in the psychosocial system of childhood obesity?

Poor self esteem, Anxiety

4. The current generation of children has consumed higher levels of ______ and _________ than ever before.

Soft Drinks and Fast Food

5. True or False? Diet and Genetics are the two largest factors leading towards childhood obesity.

FALSE 

AMANDA'S ACTIVITY: 

FITNESS QUIZ:

I got a 62 on the quiz

You're standing just outside the ranks of 'fitness buff', so don't stop now. Your score indicates that you've got a good general knowledge of fitness, but are a little hazy on the details. With the recent fitness craze, you should easily be able to find the information necessary to fine-tune your fitness knowledge. With the proper knowledge, you will not only be able to optimize your fitness routine, but you'll also be prepared to avoid injury.   

These quizzes were a lot of fun to complete :) I learned a lot!!! 

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For my photo essay I decided to take some pictures around campus of the different trash and recycling bins. I wanted to see if the students on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus were using the bins appropriately. I found it somewhat discouraging that when I looked in some of the trash bins I would see aluminum cans and plastic bottles and there would be a recycling bin right next to the trash. It is unfortunate that some people are just too lazy to put a little bit more effort into helping the environment and recycle.

Take a look at some of the pictures I took when going around the UMD campus.

These are some of the recycling bins that can be found in the Kirby Student Center on campus. As you can see there are places to recycle aluminum, plastic and paper right next to the trash so it shouldn't be to hard for anyone to put their items in the appropriate bins.

I actually found out when doing this project that although the bins say CANS ONLY you can now deposit plastic in them as well. I think signs should be changed so students know this. I can't tell you how many times I have walked around campus with my plastic bottle looking for a bin.

This is one of the CANS ONLY bins. I am wondering if some students know that you can put plastic in these bins now whereas others don't, or if they just disregard the signs.

This is an example of another cans only bins. We have to make sure that they are getting emptied regularly because as you can see this bin is overflowing. It is keeping some people from recycling :(

This is another example of the bins that are provided for trash, paper, aluminum and plastic. Another interesting component of the device above is the fact that all the bins surrounding the 3 larger bins (alum, plas, paper and trash) are provided to students to charge there computer throughout the day. This is yet another thing I found when looking around campus.

This is a bag of trash I found on the second floor of Bohannon hall. As you can see there are many recyclable items that have been thrown in the trash. We need to stop trashing things that are recylable to stop the rapid filling of landfills.

The following two pictures were found in one of the bathrooms on campus. I just found it interesting to see that there are more efforts being made for going green on campus than just recycling.

This label was found on the soap dispenser. Stating that "This dispenser contains Green Seal Certified Hand Soap."

This label was found on the dryer. There were no paper towels available for use in this bathroom. Just the dryer. Again it is refreshing to see that efforts are being made to cut down on the amount of trash we produce on campus.

I hope you enjoyed my photo essay and learned a few things along the way.

    

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part I:

Antiques: an old collectible item. It is collected or desirable because of its age, rarity, condition, utility, or other unique features. It is an object that represents a previous era in human society.

Junk: waste, any undesired thing or substance.

Flea Market: a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. It may be indoors, such as in a warehouse or school gymnasium; or it may be outdoors, such as in a field or under a tent.

Thrift Shop: A shop that sells used articles, especially clothing, as to benefit a charitable organization.

Upcycling: involves processing used materials into new products, or the re-use of a product with crippled functionality for alternative purposes, to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production, with the intent of creating a product of higher quality design and artistic value.

Resale Shop: The selling of a good to another party after having purchased it.

PART 2: Answer the following questions:

1.What do the terms above have to do with environmental health?

These terms identify with environmental health because they all have to do with reusing things. Antiques are reusing furniture, thrift shops are usually reselling clothing etc.

2.Identify at least one local resource for each of the terms above...provide name, location, contact info, and link to website or blog.

Antique Shop:

Canal Park Antique Center

310 S Lake Ave, Duluth, MN

(218) 720-3940‎

Junk:

Old Town Antiques & Books

102 E Superior St, Duluth, MN

(218) 722-5426‎

Flea Market:

Trader's Market Inc

10675 260th St E, Elko, MN

(952) 461-2400‎

Thrift Shop:

St Michael's Used-A-Bit Shop

16 N 1st Ave W, Duluth, MN

(218) 722-2171‎

Upcycling:
I could not find anything specific on upcycling in Duluth, MN or close by. 

Resale Shop:

Plato's Closet

5115 Burning Tree Rd, Duluth, MN

(218) 733-9455‎

3.Identify whether you do any or use any of these things. Why or why not?

I have donated clothes and items I no longer use to the Goodwill. I also have gotten some money from donating clothes to Plato's closet. In the past I have often gone to thrift stores like Ragstock. 

PART 3: Get your junk on!

From Card Table to Wall Art:
I thought this was an awesome, cheap way to decorate. It looks good too!!

Vintage Redesign Jewelry - From Raw Elements to Fun:
Just thought this piece of jewelry looked cool. Not something I would wear but I think that it is very artistic and interesting. 

 End of Summer Retro Picnic:

This seemed like an interesting concept to me. Picnic's are fun but a retro picnic would be even better!!!

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

For this weeks eye opener we visited the site Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. Once I located this site I picked one cosmetic item that I use and looked it up to determine how harazrdous it is to my health. I decided to look up the Clearasil Deep Cleaning Pads that I use after I wash my face. I was very surprised to see some of the results that showed up. This product was rated a 6/10 which is "moderatly hazardous" to our health. The ingredients in this product can be linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations, restrictions and warnings, allergies and immunotoxicity and finally  neurotoxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), miscellaneous, multiple, addictive exposure sources, enhanced skin absorption, contamination concerns, occupational hazards.

I was most shocked to see that this products ingredients could be linked to cancer. However, the skeptic in me says that a lot of things we are exposted to cause cancer and like most things if you are exposed to these ingredients in moderation it doesn't matter.

I did spend a little extra time on this site looking at what products have a lower number on the hazardous scale and will consider using some of those products in place of what I use now.

Eye Opener: CSIP

For this weeks eye opener I took the Score Your Diet test. This test scores how your diet rates as far as nutrition, the environment and animal welfare. I was surprised by my results because I scored well in the health category but poorly in the environmental and animal welfare categories.

I scored the highest with my fruit and vegetable intake. I was somewhat surprised that this was my highest score (14, 27 respectfully) because I do not meet the daily requirements for either of these categories. I do however meet the requirements for bread and chicken/turkey (9, -8 respectfully). Obviously a lot more importance is placed on eating fruits and vegetables then it is some of the other categories that can be found on the score your diet check-list.

I scored the lowest on my cheese and milk/dairy intake. According to this test I am eating way to many dairy products and that is consequently more harsh on the environment and animal welfare than foods like fruit and bread.

The category that I need the most improvement in is environmental health. In this category I scored a -34 which is in the uh oh category. To improve this number I will make a few subtle changes that will hopefully improve my environmental score. A small change that I would like to make is to start purchasing low-fat dairy items (especially cheese) as well as cut down on the amount of dairy I am taking in each week. I think that if I do both of these and stick with it my overall environmental score will go down.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

This assignment was extremely interesting and scary at the same time. We are using up the earths resources faster than it can produce them. I have known for awhile now that the United States as a whole uses more resources than most other countries. However, I never really put myself in the category of being one of "those people" that heavily contributes the eventual running out of Earths resources.

Boy was I wrong!!!

I took a quiz called the Redefining Progress and was alarmed by my results. I thought that I would be about average when it comes to the ecological footprint that I leave (1.5 earths on average). Again I couldn't have been more mistaken my quiz results were very upsetting as I found that if everyone lived my lifestyle we would need 5.32 Earths. I definitely want to change my behaviors in order to change this number. I already have a few ideas as to how I can start living more environmentally friendly. First I will start carpooling more often to school in order to reduce CO2 emissions. I will also start recycling in order to reduce the amount of trash I create. I look forward to finding more ways I can live green in the books I will be reading throughout the semester.

Welcome to Kristin's Green World!

Hello! I'm Kristin Danielson and my blog is going to be about making subtle changes in everyday life to make our earth a greener, more environmentally safe place.The picture above is of an uncontaminated, clean park. Unfortunately not all parks look like this anymore. Making people aware of the changes they can make to help keep our environment safe is the goal of Kristin's Green World.

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

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 categories will be listed as labels. This post is has been labeled with all six 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 categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Amanda@AmandasWaterBottleWatch
2. Kristin@KristinsGreenWorld
3. Jacob@GettingGreenWithJake
4. Keith@KeithsGreenBike

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."

Thank you for visiting Kristin's Green World. Please come back and visit often!

"Blogged for the Welcome Linky Party hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy."