Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

Keith's Activity:

Title: Childhood Obesity Lesson!

Quiz:
1.Children as young as 8 years old are being diagnosed with diabetes?

Answer: True
2.Can some of these illnesses “actually” kill these children?

Answer: True
3.The doctors had to purchase 2 scales to weight children that were over 200 lbs?

Answer: False, for children 350 pounds
4.Dave's dad died at age 52 from a stroke?

Answer: True
5.John Marx is in shape and healthy?

Answer: False, but working his way there
6.Parents are not to blame for childhood obesity?

Answer:  False, I think in some instances parents are but there are other issues. Example: School lunches.

Childhood obesity seems to be getting out of control, this video aired in 2003 and the issue only seems to be getting worse. I hope that others will get educated on the subject and realize the issue at hand.

Kristin's Activity:

Title: Quit Smoking Quiz

I took Kristin's smoking quiz and was able to score a 90/100. The only question I got wrong was regarding which ethnic group smoked the most. I feel that I am well educated on the issue of smoking. For me, it may be because I have watched family members smoke and have noticed some of the issues associated with smoking.

Jake's Activity:

Questions
1. What % of children worldwide are either obese or overweight?
Answer: 10%
2. True or False? Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing.
Answer: True
3. What are some early effects in the psychosocial system of childhood obesity?
Answer: poor self esteem, anxiety, depression 

4. The current generation of children has consumed higher levels of ______ and _________ than ever before.
Answer: soft drinks and fast food.
5. True or False? Diet and Genetics are the two largest factors leading towards childhood obesity.

Answer:  False, TV and video games 

All of these activities were a really cool way to learn more about childhood obesity and smoking. These activities really should the current issues facing children and adults.  Hopefully there will be something done about childhood obesity and the number of people that smoke. However, until then we can only continue to educate others on the subject. By making people more knowledgeable they will better understand the importance of these issues.

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

With the holidays just around the corner some of us might be looking for that last minute gift. This year, as I am a college student without a lot of money, I decided to look for ways to save money on gifts this year. There are many ways to give gifts everyone will love without spending a lot of money. The following are gifts I have come up with in order to save money this holiday season. The items include homemade trail mix, knit hats and scarves, calendar pictures, plants, and water bottles.

My first gift that I made to give to friends and family this holiday season was homemade trail mix. This is a very inexpensive gift, as some items you may even be able to find around the house. The items I included in my homemade trail mix were: raisins, Reese's pieces, milk chocolate M&M's, Cheez-its, sunflower seeds, almonds, and pecans. All seeds and nuts were unsalted which makes these things better for you even though other items in the mix may not be. I would also recommend adding pretzels to your trail mix, however I did not have any when making my trail mix.

Here is a look at the final product. I did not measure anything as I just put in the amount that I thought would work and added more as needed. It is also fun to personalize trail mix according to who you are giving it to and what items they like.

My second gift suggestions is learning how to knit and making a scarf or a hat for someone you know. I recently learned how to knit hats and now everyone I know will be receiving them for a gift this year. For this item purchasing yarn is the main cost. I was able to borrow the tools to knit the hats from a friend. If you do not know anyone with this kind of stuff there is the added cost of purchasing the kit. Here are some of the hats that I have made for this holiday season. 

The third gift item is a picture calendar and one that you can typically find around your house. For this gift a person can simply take their old calendar and use a picture from the previous years calendar and frame it. Some pictures you may have to cut in order to fit it to your frame. These pictures can be used as decorations around your recipients place.

The fourth gift is the simple gift of a plant. Plants are a great environmentally friendly gift that always brighten up a home. Plants that can be inside this season but need to be by a window are usually available at a reasonable rate. I recently purchased a plant that looks like a mini palm tree for $6.99 at Home Depot. If you choose to go with a small plant and need a holder for the plant, you can always use a milk carton that has been cut in half. This not only saves money but it is also fun to decorate these in order to make them look fun.

The fifth gift item is the gift of a water bottle. This a great way to promote healthy living to friends and family. Some water bottle are a little more expensive but there are some places where nice water bottles are about $5.00. Some others run for about $10.00, which usually have some kind of design or special feature. This gift is also environmentally friendly as it friends and family will not be using plastic water bottles, which end up in landfills. Water bottles are great gifts that everyone can use.

These gift item are great ways to save money and promote healthy living. Homemade trail mix, knit hats and scarves, calendar pictures, plants, and water bottles are all great gift items for someone with a budget this holiday season. I hope these items have given everyone an idea for a holiday or birthday present this season.

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part I:
Antiques: a work of art, piece of furniture, or decorative object made at an earlier period, and according to many customs laws, at least 100 years ago.
Antiquing: Producing a rich glow on the surface of a leather by applying stain, wax, or oil, allowing it to set, and rubbing or brushing the leather.
Junk: any old or discarded material, as metal, paper, or rags.
Flea Market: a market, often outdoors, consisting of a number of individual stalls selling old or used articles, curios and antiques, cut-rate merchandise, etc.
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 and water pollution 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 II:
1.What do the terms above have to do with environmental health?
      The terms above have to do with environmental health because they all have to do with some for or reusing or continuing the use of items that some people might normally throw away.
2. Identify at least one local resource for each of the terms above...provide name, location, contact info, and link to website or blog.
Antiques: Father Time Antiques
395 S Lake Ave
Duluth, MN 55802 
(218)625-2379

Junk: Jadco Special Haulers

4011 Rehbein Rd, Duluth, MN

(218) 724-5538‎

Products and Services: Recycling, Scrap Materials, Waste Materials

Flea Market: Lake Superior College
2101 Trinity Road
Duluth, MN 55811

Thrift Shop: Dannie Duluth
932 E 4th St
Duluth, MN 55805-2150
(218) 724-8507

Upcycling: I couldn't find anything in Duluth, I did find this from definition and a bit more information from about.com.Upcycling is "The practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value" From the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Resale Shop: Plato's Closet
5115 Burning Tree Road
Suite 315C
Duluth, MN 55811
218-733-9455

3. Identify whether you do any or use any of these things. Why or why not?
I honestly am not currently using any of these places. I have in the past been to Plato's closet to sell my clothes and then while I was there looked around to see if there was anything I might want to buy. I tend to go to some of these places to search for Halloween costumes. I don't know why I don't use these places, especially if I am willing to sell them my clothes for others to use. I think as I get older I like to spend my money on things that look nicer. I would buy from these places but I guess with all the big stores out there and being able to save money through sales, I never really thought about looking at second hand items such as clothes.

Part III:
Paris Themed Necklace
This one grabbed my attention because I really like to wear necklaces and having been to Paris, I found this to be really cool and something I would wear myself and would be interested in learning how to make it.
  Simple Monday
This caught my attention because deer hunting season is starting soon and its amazing what you can do with a few things you find outside.
Sometimes its okay to break a dish
I absolutely love this one because once in a high school art class we used broken tiles and made them into a picture (this is called mosaic art). Ever since then I have wanted to do another one but to buy all the materials would be expensive. I think mosaic art is something I want to pick up as a hobby when I am done with college, until then I will just buy mosaic art pieces that I see.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

This week it was assigned to go to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database and search one product that we use. I decided to search for the mascara I use, called Maybelline full n' soft mascara black. The mascara I use is rated at a six out of 10 on the scale, a six is indicated as moderate hazard. Research studies indicated that this mascara is not linked to cancer, but is linked to developmental/reproductive toxicity, violations, restrictions, and warnings, and allergies/immunotoxicity. The website also gave the ingredients, directions, and warnings from packaging.The ingredients were also listed and gave their hazardous rating. This is good to know because then you can look at the 10's and see which ingredients you should for sure stay away from and what they can do to be hazardous to your body.

This doesn't concern me because I feel this is very minimal, but it does make me wonder what other products have in them that are really dangerous that most don't know about. It is interesting how so much information is not given out to the public. There are a lot that people do not read about this and probably will never see this. It makes me wonder what else I do not know about that is potentially dangerous to me. It is important to think critically here and think about what the actual harm might be to your body. It may be that these products might not do a whole lot to your body or that these products can do a lot of damage. I think I might trust this information more if I knew a little bit more about who is putting up this information and how accurate the information is.

Eye Opener: CSPI

I chose to do the Score Your Diet test. I chose this one because I like to think that I eat healthy most of the time. I did not however have a very good environmental score, looks like I have a bit of work to do.
 1. My Health score was 46, environmental score of -27, animal welfare score of -19, and my grand total was 0. I scored in the "Uh-oh, you need help!" category.
2. I scored the highest on fruits and vegetables. I eat a lot of these types of foods to try to be healthy and because they taste good. I do not buy organic fruits or vegetables, I would be open to switching but I don't as I am use to non-organic fruits and vegetables.
3. I scored the lowest in milk and dairy. I tend to drink a glass of milk every other day but have milk everyday with my morning cereal. I had negative numbers across all categories of milk and dairy.
4. I need to improve in all categories. To do this I can make sure that I am more conscious about what I buy at the grocery store. Next time I go to the grocery store (which wont be for awhile considering I went right before I did this assignment) I want to buy a few organic fruits and see if I like them better or if they taste the same as non-organic fruits. I can also make sure that when I buy meat, I buy lean or extra lean as it is more healthy. I am good about buying some low-fat items like butter, yogurt, and crackers, but I should switch to low-fat cheese and a few other foods.
I don't think I would ever switch to eating no meat. One of my roommates is a vegan, I think it would be too hard for me considering how much I like meat. I respect that she does this because she eats really healthy and is inspiring to people and helps them make small changes in their life and diet. I know that I can improve in the things that I eat, as do most people but it is always the idea of changing, for me I always have to make change gradual.

Eye Opener- Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is the demand humans put on the earth's ecosystem. Most of what I learned about ecological footprint comes from wikipedia.com. Quizzes to inform people on their ecological footprints was developed in 2002. I read about ecological footprint progress at the redefining progress website. This gave people a chance to look at their effect on the environment and what they can do to change their ways.

I took a quiz about my ecological footprints at the Ecological Footprints Calculator website. I was asked about transportation, foods I eat, living, and recycling habits. I was able to find out my ecological footprints breakdown was mostly used by services like transportation,electricity usage, etc. When I am at school I use the bus everyday instead of driving to school. It not only saves me money but it also is better for the pollution when less people are on the roads. The least percent of my ecological footprint was mobility. I found out that if everyone lived like me, we would need 4.4 planet earths to provide enough resources to accommodate. After finding this out it is rather disappointing on my part, I need to make a effort to make sure I am doing my part to keep the planet clean. If everyone lived like me, we would need 4.9 earths to sustain life (From Ecological footprints). The travel site seems to think I travel about average. However, I do not completely agree with this. I think I travel less when I am in Duluth rather than when I am at home in the cities.

A few small things I can do to change my behavior are buy items that do not have a lot of packaging,continue to search for a recycling can instead of throwing things in the garbage, and take public transportation more often.

Intro Post to Amanda's Water Bottle Watch

TITLE: Welcome to Amanda@Amanda'sWaterBottleWatch!

PHOTO:

PARAGRAPH 1:
Hi my name is Amanda, I am a health care management major. My blog is about plastic water bottles and reusable water bottles. Plastic water bottles are a big part of waste and could easily be reduced by using reusable water bottles. Above is a picture of a reusable water bottle in nature. My blog will be about my switch to reusable water bottles and how you can do your part to change to reusable water bottles also.

FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS:
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 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 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."

LAST PARAGRAPH:
This was my first post, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for visiting, I hope you come back and learn more about water bottles!

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