I have a learned a lot in past two weeks about a variety of topics from blogging to energy efficient power grids and classrooms.
I'll start by talking about what I have learned about blogging. The first week we set up these wonderful blogs. We learned about gadgets, how to design our blog, and how to add our blog and others to our google reader. Gadgets are application you can add to a blog, such as the ability to follow others. It makes your blog sleeker and more efficient. We learned how to use google reader which is through gmail, which allows a person to keep track of all the blogs they are following in one place. We learned how to post on our blogs and comment on other's blogs. We created our profiles by creating avatars.
I have learned a lot about my lifestyle habits in the past two weeks. By taking the ecological footprint test I have learned how much power and waste I create. I found out that my lifestyle is very wasteful and if everyone lived like me we would use 4 1/2 Earths. I found that it was just an insane amount. I realize I that I have to change my lifestyle. One thing specific I want to work on is eating locally grown food. I feel that if I support local growers it will cut down on the amount of fuel that is used to transport the foods across the world and country. Eating locally will not only help the environment but also be delicious!
I am currently in the middle of reading "Citizen Powered Energy Book" which is teaching me about different renewable and non-renewable resources. This book has opened my eyes to the dire energy crisis we are currently in. The book starts off with a dramatic description of what will happen to our economy and our everyday lives if we run out of oil and the other current energy sources. This book is calling attention to the fact that we all must change our lifestyles otherwise we will be hurting in the future.
I learned about the sustainability effort on our campus. We visited the Bagely classroom which is very environmentally friendly. It uses solar energy to keep the building warm, it has large open windows and cement floor that aid in this process. A really interesting thing is that the toilets are not hooked up to the sewage system; they are compostable toilets. Finally, Bagley does require some power to heat the building in the Winter, but it requires very little. In fact, Bagley hopes to have a negative power bill in the future in which the power company actually pays Bagely for the power it has generated.
This might be silly, but I think the avatars were probably the most fun thing we got to do with the blogs. Mine doesn't look like me at all, but I tried. But making these just didn't seem like homework. It was a little more interesting to do & not have to worry about getting points for how good it looked.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how much we have learned so far? I cannot believe it because it has only been fours weeks. I feel so much more knowledgeable on the subject of environmental health and we are only one-third of the way into the class. I think we all are learning a lot from our Read N Seed books, which is why it is such a great idea to share about them, because really its like reading 7 books at once. I am looking forward to see what else we are going to learn this semester.
ReplyDeleteI agree, haha the avatars were pretty fun. I'm glad everyone is learning so much from this class. I think it's so interesting that Bagley has gotten paid from the power company, too.
ReplyDeleteYes, eating locally is not only healthy but delicious! I haven't tried out the bathroom at Bagley's but according to what was told us, it seems very cool and funny in a way because it is unusual. Keeping eco-friendly sustainable is something that is important not only to us all but to the environment in the long run.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that your learning a lot from your book. From what you've said about it, it sounds packed with good information. And I too loved going to Bagley! I never knew that buildings could be that environmentally friendly! We really have learned a lot in such a short amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI think that I am going to try and eat locally more often as well. I'm not really trying and I know that I need to start SOMEWHERE and I believe now in the time. It is unfortunate that the farmers market at UMD is over, it would have been a perfect time to begin this process!
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