Reflection Post: Week 13 & 14

Week 13:

In the thirteenth week of Environmental Health we went on a class field trip to Goodwill. We were really lucky to be able to go on a tour of the Duluth Goodwill. We were able to see the entire process of items at goodwill. It all starts when a person comes a donates items, the items are then brought to be sorted into different bins. Some of the donations go to other goodwill stores depending on if they are running low on any items. Goodwill also has a very cool mattress process that we learned about. They will be starting with a new machine that will allow them to put in three mattress and in one hour it will compact it into one heavy block. We then had an activity where each group got $20 (not really money) to create a room, find family gifts, get ready for an interview, or get ready for the prom. My groups job was to find an outfit to get ready for the prom in under $20. We were able to do it with only spending $18.50. With this much money we were able to find a yellow dress, white shoes, a clutch, a necklace, and earrings. It was a really eye opening to experience this and I felt I learned a lot. This experience really changed how I look at Goodwill as a company and as a store.

Week 14: 

In the fourteenth week of Environmental Health we continued our education on junking. Sue Whitney was supposed to be our guest speaker, she is the author and owner of JunkMarket. As a class we shared our junking projects with the class. It was really fun to see what everyone came up with. We then had a class discussion of what we learned from the class. It was really interesting to hear what everyone had to say. It looks like everyone was able to take away a lot of important topics from this class. We also had  really fun snacks, chocolate covered strawberries and puppy chow. It was a great way to end the semester! 

This is my junk project. I took two magazines that I had in my apartment and folded the pages. I did this to make it look like a Christmas tree. My goal was not to spend any money on this project. If I was going to spend money though, I would have painted it and then put glitter on it to make it look more like a Christmas tree. Although, it turned out really cool with the different colored pages. 

Overall Course Reflection:

Wow I can't believe I am doing an overall reflection of this course. It seems as though there is no way 15 weeks have already gone by. It seems as if it was just yesterday I was sitting in the classroom thinking I would never be able to understand blogging. Dr. V told us all that by the end of the class we would be pros at this. I of course didn't believe her then. Now look at all of us we are blogging like pros. Who would have thought; Dr. V.

This semester has been a lot of fun! I have learned everything from how to blog to be a junker. Over the course of the semester we have watched documentaries that are amazing, opening my eyes to things I never knew. We have also learned more about ourselves by setting lifestyle changes to complete over the semester. We have done numerous activities that have opened our eyes to the ways we affect the environment. We learned how to stand up and show our voices on a project we truly believe in. We were able to pick a book of our choice that related to the environment or society in some way and reflect on the impact it has on society. We were able to go on a field trip to Goodwill and learn more about their business and working environment. Lastly, we have shared topics with our classmates that are interesting to us.

I have truly enjoyed this class and feel that I have gained a lot from environmental health. i really think it helped having the smaller class size, with this everyone was able to share their opinions. It was the small class size that really made this class work. I feel this class is unlike any other class I have taken. I think that leaving this class has actually changed me for the better. I have learned a lot of real world knowledge that I will be able to take with me for the rest of my life. I hope that I will be able to influence others and help then to take action to protect out environment. I would recommend this class to other students as I feel you not only learn about the environment but you also learn a lot about yourself.

Thanks everyone for making this such a great class!