Reflections: Week 8-14

     The last six weeks have been really fun, and also challenging.  I did not quite know what to expect going into week eight, but man have I learned a lot. We started off watching a documentary called 'Green' which talked about how petroochemical plants are destroying our environment and the people who live in it.  Learning how toxic and dangerous chemicals are that are being emitted into our air on a daily basis is quite disturbing.  I was so stirred up about this that I decided to do my advocacy project on the Safe Chemical Act 2011. 

http://defensetech.org/2006/03/22/chem-plant-security-gets-serious/

     Before I go into what I learned from the advocacy project, I want to talk about the documentary 'Tapped' that we watched. Tapped talked about whether drinking water should be a basic human right, or a commodity to be sold.  Companies that sell bottled water are making a profit off of a basic human need: water.  They package water (that they steal from anywhere they want to) and put it into toxic plastic water bottles and sell them for a heavy price.  Going into this movie, I would have said water bottles companies were doing the world a favor, thinking that they actually took bad water and purified it for us. Thankfully I leared quickly by watching this documentary that water bottle companies are not something  I want to support. The good water on our earth should be free and pure for those around it.
     After these documentaries, we started advocacy projects.  Dictionary.com says an advocate is public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.  Before this project, I thought advocate meant anything from volunteering at a food shelf to speaking up on a certain issues.  But really, it means to stand up for a certain cause and get your voice heard in a public arena.  
     I chose to focus on the Safe Chemicals Act 2011 which would be a law to ensure that risks from chemicals are adequately understood and managed.  Before watching 'Green' and researching this Act, I did not know how many health problems in America were due to chemical exposure.  I really enjoyed finding out who is for and against this Act and learning how to properly advocate for an issue I believe in.  Chemicals emmitted into our air by manufacturers are not monitered or tested, which means some can be deadly.  Fighting for this Act would make it mandatory to ensure the use of safer chemicals.
     Writing a letter to congress helped me understand that we as citizens cannot blame the government for making bad decisions if we do not voice our opinion.  Advocacy is to be done in a precise and intentional way so that the party you are addressing are really impacted.  Before we did the issue overview, I was like really, we are spending that much time on one issue?!  But learning about a topic in depth (knowing who is for and against, how it affects people), is what will really make you an effective advocate when arguing your case. No one wants to hear from someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. As health educators, it is important that we learn to be good advocates.
     Last but not least, we talked a lot about junking, reusing, and repurposing items.  This was  fun because it opened my eyes to see how many things around me go unnoticed, when they could be used for something really cool.  Doing our junk projects stretched me out of my comfort zone because the word creative usually scares me.  But I learned that junking and reusing have no limit, you can do almost anything with anything!  For Christmas, I reused some old mason jars and turned them in gifts.  They are now called Christmas cookie jars and people love them. I made monster cookies in this one and used cute old cloth to make them decorative. The camera on my computer is all I have so I apologize for the quality.

     Environmental health has changed my view on a lot of issues.  I care so much more about the earth, people, and my own body because of what I have learned in this class.  It is neat to know that all of the things we talked about and did can be part of my every day life now.  

Share and Voice: Christmas Cookie Jars

Christmas Cookie Jars

http://bottosblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/mason-jar-of-different-color.html

Buying Christmas presents for people can get expensive, and also feel like a burden when you are just scraping by financially as a college student.  This year, I wanted to think of how I could make gifts all my friends and family would like that would also be affordable.  

One day, I was doing my laundry in our basement and saw a bunch of empty mason jars sitting in the corner.  Turns out they were my roommates', but she didn't plan to reuse them.  So my roommate and I bought a bunch of ingredients and stacked them on top of eachother in the jars. The recipe we made is Monster Cookies which include:
Baking soda 1/2 tsp
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Flour 1 c. flour
Oatmeal 1/2 c.
Brown sugar 1/2 c.
Sugar 1/2c.
MnMs 1/2 c.
To decorate these jars, we cut squares out of some fun cloth that my roommate was not using.  Then we placed a piece of cloth under the lid of each jar, closed the lid, and tied a cute ribbon around it.  For the wet ingredients, we made little cards to go with each jar that had the rest of the ingredients along with cooking instructions.  
Wet ingredients:

Butter 1/2 c.

Egg 1 beaten

Vanilla Extract 1 tsp.

Mix everything together, roll into 1.5 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet, then bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. 

These jars are very fun to make, very affordable, and people love them!  You can do all kinds of recipes in them, such as soup, scones, etc.  Merry Christmas!