Reflection: Weeks 13-14 and overall Course

In the last two weeks I have learned quite a bit! I enjoyed taking the tour of goodwill, I'd never been there before this so it was a good learning experience. I had no idea how big of a facility it actually was! I feel as though many people benefit from goodwill and can reuse many of the things others deem not useful anymore. I also thought our junking projects were a fun creative way to try and reduce waste by reusing things we already have. My project consisted of an old pickle jar, left over garland from last year that we weren't using, some leftover lights, and a fabric pouch that was used to keep all my girl scout patches in. I just used them to make a simple Christmas decoration. You can't see the lights as well in this picture and the garland kept moving to cover them up but it looked better to begin with. Finally I found the learning activities to be very informative and fun! I liked how Jamie and Lauren included physical activities that allowed us to actually get up and do the activities hands on. I learned how much CO2 my vehicle emits, about waste-to-energy, and more about renewable energy.

Overall in this course I have learned so much I don't even know where to begin! I found doing our read n' seed books was very beneficial for me. I read a book about the water crisis, I didn't know much about this topic prior to reading it so it was very informative and helped me to change aspects of my lifestyle to try to help out. Although I am only one person I believe that if I do these small things others around me might be encouraged to do them as well.

I also really liked all the documentaries we watched. I was aware of some of the issues we covered but not the extent of each. Tapped really got me thinking about wanting to do something to make a difference. I started noticing people who bought bottled water, noticed myself drinking less bottled beverages because I wasn't really big on drinking bottled water to begin with. I also noticed at work there are boxes to recycle paper but none for plastic bottles. I then started to encourage people to put them in a bag and I would bring them back to the plastic's bin at the back of the store when it gets full. Some people still throw away their plastic bottles but there are also some who leave them in the bag for me.

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Dani: Waste-to-Energy Crossword Puzzle.

 This was a fun and interesting way to learn about turning waste to energy. I haven't done a crossword puzzle in quite a while so it was refreshing to do one, however it reminded me how little patience I have! haha I found it interesting that there are ten waste-to-energy facilities in Minnesota. I also found it cool that we can produce electricity from waste. There are so many things we can do to reduce our fossil fuel consumption, we just need to take the time and resources to do so. Hopefully more of these facilities will continue to spread so that we can reduce landfills altogether!

Elly: How Big is your footprint?

With my 2008 Pontiac G6 I got 19,312.128 km. = 4.12 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year. However there wasn't an option for anything newer than 2007 so I just had to select that. I know my car isn't extremely Eco-friendly but I had no idea just how much pollutants it was emitting. Some changes I can make to reduce this are to make more use of the trips I do take. When I drive into town from home make sure I am getting everything I need so another trip isn't necessary later. I have thought of switching over to a more efficient car, however I just purchased this vehicle a little over a year ago so switching now isn't very practical. Some changes I would like to see in our current environment are more bus routes and better upkeep of the sidewalks. This would help to encourage people to be more environmentally friendly when choosing methods of transportation.


Katie: Obesity and your everyday life:

My BMI came up just short of the average of 18.5. Since my weight is a little less than the average for my height. I think this is a decent way to estimate body fat however some people are taller than average or shorter than average and that can throw off your score. It was interesting to find out that being overweight can cause sleep apnea. I had no idea weight had any effect on your sleep. My Pyramid plan suggested I eat 6 ounces of grains, 2.5 cups of vegetables, 2 cups of fruits, 3 cups of milk and 5.5 ounces of meat and beans. This was based off a 2000 calorie diet. It also suggested that I am for 6 teaspoons of oils per day. From doing the calorie burning activity I learned that from doing just some of my everyday routine activities I burn 291 calories. This included 10 for brushing my teeth, 21 for doing my hair, 63 for cooking, 97 for bowling and 101 for driving my car. I wasn't quite sure how I burned the most calories from just driving my car however. My favorite activity is probably bowling. Although I'm not so good it is a fun way to burn some calories and have fun with friends. I was surprised it only burns 97 calories however.

Kara: Energy Dustbin Game!

     

      1. My score was 27 the first time I played, I tried again and got 31.

2. I had no idea that Albert Einstein was an innovator for renewable energy. It surprising to see how far back the history is on this. I was also very surprised to find out that enough sunlight touches the earth in an hour to to meet the demands of the world in just one hour! Its unfortunate that we have no way to properly obtain it like the article says. I think sunlight would be the most efficient source just because its so readily available to us.

Jamie: Get Fit! 

 I scored 36 on the fitness quiz. According to the website I'm on the right track but there is always room for improvement. Most of my answers were pretty close to many other respondents that took the quiz. For the fitness section of the quiz I found I either fell within the range for my age group or somewhat above it for all the activities. I know I don't work out as much as I should, hopefully i can get into a routine of squeezing it into my schedule by setting a goal for myself and reporting on it each week like we did in class. That seemed to be very beneficial. Great activity Jamie!

Lauren: Workout Plan! 

According to the quiz I am 10% fit. I kind of expected this being I never really work out. I don't eat a specific diet because the things I eat don't have much effect on my weight. So overall I wasn't really surprised with these results.

1.Which of the following moderate activities did you do for at least 10 minutes at a time without
stopping during the last 7 days? Walking fast (3-4 mph) 
2. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do a moderate physical activity for at least 10
minutes at a time without stopping? 2 days.
3. On those days that you did moderate physical activities, how much time did you spend on average
doing the activities? About 20 minutes per day.
4. Which of the following vigorous activities did you do for at least 10 minutes at a time without stopping during the last 7 days? Running.
5. During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do a vigorous physical activity for at least 10
minutes at a time without stopping?  1 day.
6. On those days that you did vigorous physical activities, how much time did you spend on average
doing the activities? 45 minutes per day.
7. Compared to how physically active you have been over the last 3 months, how would you describe
the last 7 days:Less active
8. Yes No a.  Has your doctor ever said that you have a heart condition and that you should only do
physical activity recommended by a doctor?
Yes No b. Do you feel pain in your chest when you do physical activity?
Yes No c. In the past month, have you had chest pain when you were not doing physical
activity?
Yes No d. Do you lose your balance because of dizziness, or do you ever lose consciousness?
Yes No e. Do you have a bone or joint problem that could be made worse by a change in your
physical activity?
Yes No f. Is your doctor currently prescribing drugs (for example, water pills) for your blood
pressure or heart condition?
Yes No g. Do you know of any reason why you should not do physical activity?  
9.  I intend to become more physically active in the next 6 months.
10. What are the 3 biggest reasons why you would consider increasing your physical activity? Improve my health, lower my stress feel good about taking care of myself.
11. Would any of your family, friends, or coworkers encourage you or help you get regular physical
activity, perhaps by helping you take care of some of your other responsibilities? Yes. My family can all help me by reminding me or offering to work out with me.
12. How confident are you that you could increase your physical activity if you decided to do so? Somewhat confident.

Advocacy Project: Calculate your auto Emissions!

Calculate your auto Emissions!

The purpose of this activity is to inform us as consumers just how much emissions our personal vehicles actually release into the environment. From here you can be make better educated decisions when choosing to use alternative modes of transportation when traveling.

Background: Emissions from an individual car are generally low, but in numerous cities across the country, the personal automobile is the single greatest polluter. This is because emissions from millions of vehicles on the road add up. Driving a car is probably a typical citizen's most "polluting" daily activity.The power to move a car comes from burning fuel in an engine. Pollution from cars comes from by-products of this combustion process and from evaporation of the fuel itself.  Did you know that SUV's put out 43% more global-warming pollutants and 47% more air pollution than the average car? For these reasons alone we need to start thinking of alternative modes of transportation. Think of how many pollutants could we prevent from being released into the air. Cars not only require much more energy and product to produce than bicycles they also use less, and are in general a much healthier mode of transportation. Using a bicycle to commute four days a week for four miles saves 54 gallons of gas annually. We all are always looking for ways to save gas and our money, try biking any short distances you need to travel. Not only will you save money but you'll feel better knowing you didn't contribute to the pollution and also did something healthy for your body. Finally, just to give you a sense of how serious of an issue CO2 emissions are from transportation alone take a look at this statistic. Carbon dioxide emissions from personal vehicles in the United States equaled 314 million metric tons in 2004. That much carbon would fill a coal train 55,000 miles long, long enough to circle the earth twice!

Instructions: Use this calculator to calculate how much your vehicle emits into the atmosphere. If you don't have a personal car use your parents or even roommates. If you really wanted to go above and beyond, compare your vehicle to your parents/roommates etc. Your results will give you the total pounds of CO2 released, total CO2 MT emissions, and your total CO2 credit cost. I've included my results so you can at least compare them to mine if you have no one else to compare to. 10,426.44 lbs is how much my 2008 Pontiac G6 emits, hopefully some of you get better results than I did!