Reflection, Weeks 8-14!

Overview: In this second half of the semester I have really learned how I can better help the environment through abilities I've acquired though this class. In this first half of the class I learned about what was going on and how I could avoid contributing negatively to the environment. In this half of the course I learned what it meant to be an advocate and to actually work towards change and not just prevention. While the first half of the class felt like a lot of "knowing", the second half dealt with a lot of "doing".

Posts: The first series of posts that we introduced this semester was the advocacy project posts. In these posts we found an environmental issue/bill that was currently on the government table and researched it. All of the work we did on find officials, facts, and a stance culminated in the writing of a letter to a government official asking them to vote in a particular direction on the bills we each researched. I found this project to be rather difficult at times with information not always being the easiest to find. That said, I thought this was a great learning experience for me on how to get in contact with my political representatives.

The second type of posts we did this semester were Share and Voice posts. For these posts we would write about some environmental site, blog, video, book, etc. that we found interesting. These post were really fun to do because they gave me more freedom to look into things that I was interested in. It was fun to look at the posts that others put on their blogs and compair them to what I was doing. From what I gathered, everyone in the class had a good idea about what they enjoy about the environment and were able to convey their interests through their Share and Voices.

The third post type we did was our Photo Essay Project. For this we were to put together a collection of photos that conveyed an understanding and appreciation of the environment or recycling. For this project I took pictures of various objects around the UMD campus that promoted recycling and being green. I was pleasantly surprised by how much UMD currently offers in the way of recycling options and green technology. That said, I feel we still have a long ways to go.

Conclusion: All in all, I found this semester to be eye opening and fun. My background knowledge of being environmental was greatly supplemented by this class, and my interest in advocacy has been established. I look forward to utilizing my gains from this class in the near future by working with my friends and family to help improve my environment around me.