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.

Reflection: Weeks 9-12

Over weeks 9-12 I have learned quite a few valuable things. I found doing the THOMAS search and looking at bills for my healthy people goal was very interesting. I'm really interested in seeing the progress of improving the air quality because I think its such an important issue that affects us all. Many other people in my web group had similar goals so it showed the extent of this problem among many of us. Also starting our SMART goals has been very beneficial to me over the last few weeks. I have been able to increase my green vegetable intake by quite a significant amount and actually enjoy doing so.

Watching the video "Unnatural Causes" really made me think about how many people have insufficient healthcare. It was really upsetting to see the problems that many people face everyday. The woman who couldn't even get a job because if she did she would lose her benefits. That seems totally wrong to me, and just goes to show how much we need to reconstruct our system. We need to start creating more awareness and advocate to others so we can make a change. Many of the healthy wealthier people are the ones benefiting from healthcare not the ones who truly need it.

I enjoyed doing the photo essay, it helped me to look at my diet and SMART goal as a whole. I did my essay on what I ate the past week and how environmentally friendly some of these things were. It made me really see that I am increasing the amount of vegetables I'm eating but I'm not reducing the amount of bad fast foods that I eat when I'm in a hurry.

Overall the past few weeks have been very beneficial and knowledgeable. I feel as though doing some of these activities has really helped me not only in the classroom but also in my life outside of class.

Reflection: Weeks 5-8

The past few weeks have informed me of a lot of issues I wasn't really aware of. Specifically, how terrible water bottles are for our environment. I'm not a big bottled water drinker, but I do however drink plenty of bottled sodas and juices. It makes me want to never buy anything bottled in plastic again! Knowing that these bottles aren't all being recycled and are killing animals due to the pollution is very disheartening. Also, I've heard about dangerous chemicals are leaching into our water from these plastics and can cause harmful effects.

In addition, reflecting from the movie "Green", seeing how much the refineries affect the famillies that have no choice in living there, made me feel really selfish. We all complain how high gas is getting and how we want all other products as low as we can get them, but all this comes at a cost. A cost were not paying for. The ones paying for it are the low income families that are developing cancer, asthma and other medical ailments because of these dangerous petrochemicals in the air they breathe. We need to find a way to get past this and fix it, human life is not worth cheap gas or any product for that matter.

On another note, I also found learning how to use Picnik not only fun but quite useful. I've used this program one or twice before a few years ago but I had kind of forgotten about it. Making our own headers for our blogs is just another way to personalize them and make them a little more interesting for other readers. 

From the cosmetic eye opener we did it really opened my eyes to looking into the ingredients in the products I am using. I found that my shampoo and face wash have been correlated with cancer and other diseases.Knowing products I apply directing to my skin, and seeps into my pores, can be so harmful for me makes me want to run home and throw them straight in the trash. I liked how the website gave examples of healthier alternatives.

Reflection Weeks: 1-4

So far in the past few weeks I have learned quite a lot of information. One of the most interesting things was using all the cool things on blogger. I've used Blogger once before in one of my high school history classes but it was just the basic posting and commenting. We never learned about all the gadgets and extra things you could use or place on your site. Also, learning about how the government is trying to hide important information about global warming from its people. I think this is a serious issue and we deserve to know whats going on and what we should be expecting. If people understood how serious this is, we might be more willing to change the way we live to prevent it.

I've also learned a lot about being more energy efficient and realizing how much more I can do to decrease my ecological footprint on the earth. After taking the earth day quiz, about how many planets my lifestyle would need to support everyone on earth if they lived the same was as I do, I realized I need to seriously find ways to help the environment rather than hurt it. To do this I have been trying to reduce my shower times, watching that I'm turning off the water between brushing my teeth, putting on a sweatshirt rather than turning up the heat, opening windows rather than turning on a fan, etc. I think people need to start taking care of the environment before we don't have the chance anymore and are regretting that we never did.

Welcome to Ashley's Fresh Air Atmmosphere!

My name is Ashley Roske. My blog is going to be about all the things I'm learning in my Environmental Health Class.

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

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
3. Eye Openers
4. Read n' Seed
5. Reflections
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 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 categories above.

The members of my group are

1.  Kristen@KristensAtmosphere
2. Calista@Eco-Friendly With Calista
3. Casey@Casey'sGreenDaydream
4. Heidi@Heidi'sHealthyEnvironment
5. Kara@Kara'sComingClean 
6. Dani@TreeHuggingWithDani
7. Sonny@SonnyDaysAhead

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."

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