Reflections: Week 13 & 14

Week 13

On Tuesday during the week, we had watched "The Story of Stuff". It was a short, independent film that was actually pretty interesting. It had discussed 5 main topics: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, disposal. The video hit on how all these different areas, effect our environment and what we can do to change the effects.

On Thursday we had done a navigation activity in the Bagley Nature Area. I really enjoyed this project because it got us outside as a class, and we were doing a class "bonding" activity. I really enjoy the friendships I have made because of this class!

During this week we also had an advocacy project due. This advocacy project was an overview of the issue we had selected because it affected us somehow, or we were interested in the idea of it and wanted others in the class to know more. I liked doing this project because it caused me to do a lot of critical thinking and play my own devil's advocate.

Week 14

Tuesday we had a man named Brian come into our class who is a a graduate student in UMD's Environmental Health and Safety Master's Program. He had talked to us about the sustainability events that his office is currently putting on throughout campus, becoming an AmeriCorp member, and how is classes are currently working because they're online. Overall, it was neat to hear about other options that we have after graduation and it got me to think more about whether I want to go to grad school right away or not!

Thursday was our "junking" day! :) This day was a lot of fun! Dr. V had brought in different, somewhat strange, items for groups to think of ways to "revamp" them and put them to use again! Listening to all of the ideas some groups came up with were a little ridiculous, but humorous none the less! I'm looking forward to our speaker on "junking" next week!

... Sadly, there's only one more week of this class left! I think this class joins the rankings of "Top 5" at UMD! :)