My Personal Interest Blog

One of my personal interest within public health is centered around one of the nation's biggest problem, literally. Obesity is a problem that America has dealt with for a while, but over the past few years the obesity rate has dramatically increased in adults but even worse within kids. According to the CDC, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 30 years! I became interested in this problem after working at a local summer camp for more than 5 years where I had the chance to watch my students grow up. At the camp we did both education and recreation to try to keep the children active. I began to notice how the times have changed since I was younger. Back in the day we as children loved to play games, like tags or have relay races and many other things, but the new generation is more interested in watching tv, playing on their cell phones, iPods, iPads,along with video and computer games. This problem truly hit home when two of my students from the camp parents came to me because they had to inform me that they had developed type 2 diabetes. After hearing that I had a talk with the staff and directors of the camp and we all collaborated and agreed to have more physical activities to keep the children active. Knowing the damage and harm that can result from being obese, I want to try to help reduce while preventing the prevalence of childhood obesity.   

A Not So 'Silent Spring' - Rachel Carson

            Rachel Carson is considered to be a significant figure in both the environment and human health movements, with great reasons. After the release of her well known book, Silent Spring, in 1962, the public was informed about the dangers of pesticides. Within the pages of her book, Carson exposed the government and the chemical industries about the harmful effects that these pesticides and DDT’s are having not only on the wildlife but humans as well. Though Carson’s courage to stand up for what was right, an issue that the government tried to sweep under the rug was now out in the open forcing, both the government and industries to take up the responsibility for their faults and correct the hazardous problems through the banning of DDTs. Through the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, there has been a significant increase in public awareness of pesticides to help improve the health of our wildlife and humans.

The Second Blog "Special Maps"

Choropleth Map

A choropleth map is a map that uses different shadowing, coloring, and symbols within a area to show an average. This choropleth map displays the percentage of obesity ( Body mass index over 30) within the population of each state from the 1995 through 2008.

Dot Density Map

 

A dot density map is a thematic map that displays information through a large amount of tiny dots, where each dot represents a unit of quantity. This dot density map displays the location of people living within a nonmetro  area, where each dot represents 200 people.

Proportional Symbol Map

 A proportional symbol map is a thematic map that displays certain areas with shapes and symbols that all vary  in size to represent  a unit of measurement. This particular map shows where oil is located within the world. 

Topographic Map

  A topographic map is a map that displays three-denominational images of surfaces through vertical and horizontal positions as well as color differentiation to display the difference in elevation levels . In this map displays the  areas of wild land fires. 

Environmental Sensitivity Index Map

   A environmental  sensitivity index map shows a summary of coastal resources that are more likely to be at risk if a  oil spill was to occur.

Taking a look at Ellenwood,Ga with a little help from Google Earth

For our first blog assignment we were asked to pick a place that I believe has a environmental , or health concern that needed to be addressed, well I selected.Ellenwood, Ga. There are a few reasons as to what made me select this particular place , the first reason is because it is the area that I grew up in, and the second reason is because I've had the opportunity to view the changes that this particular area has gone through over the years. Just like majority of America at the time, childhood obesity was not nearly  the problem that it is today. After working at a summer camp located in the area of Ellenwood for the past 6 summers I have noticed the increasing numbers of overweight children and the lack of recreational or extra curricular activities to help keep the kids health and in shape. This problem has gotten out of had with this community as well as the entire United States, which is why the summer camp as well as myself, structured the camp around education as well as physical fitness.

As far as utilizing the use of Google Earth, I must admit I struggled (and still is struggling, but not as bad..yay!) but it is slowly coming together, and as far as blogging I have no problem what so ever doing that!!