Resiliency: That’s the Plan!

Are you concerned, as I am, about our community’s ability to bounce back from the effects of the coronavirus? “Resiliency” is used to describe the ability to recover from a disruption like the pandemic or climate change and to plan for, adapt to, and even thrive during times of great change.

Figure 1: The Student Food Forest on Campus (photo credit: Emily Thompson)

I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2020 Higher Education Conference on Climate Leadership in Atlanta, GA. The conference was hosted by Second Nature (formerly the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), and the key point I took away was that resiliency is something for which we can plan. We can plan for resiliency in a business, a state, a country and even a community college, like the one where I teach.

Fantastic!  To plan for a resilient future for our community college, we can look at some of the dimensions of resiliency that need to be implemented.  To be effective, the plan should be made by stakeholders at our college and the surrounding communities.

The first dimension is social equity and governance.

          There are a couple of issues to address here.  Do we have strong networks between our community college and surrounding communities and is our governance inclusive of all participating groups in the community?

          If we imaging governance as a tree, the tree will only stand if the roots in the community are strong.  If they are not strong in one neighborhood, on one side, the tree will fall in a heavy wind.           

For example, what we see with regard to the coronavirus is that Blacks in our state have a higher rate of infection and death than whites, according to Thebault, Ba Tran, Williams, 2020 (more here). If we then want to create a resiliency plan that addresses the coronavirus pandemic and we’re looking at governance, we need representation from Blacks as well as white for there to be equity. 

          Additionally, our college must have strong town-gown connections that can be leveraged in times of great change. Existing networks make it far easier to share knowledge and resources when needed.  For example, in the current pandemic, the department heads at our community college donated gloves and masks to staff at nearby medical facilities.

The second dimension is health and wellness.

          The issue here is, do all groups on campus and our larger community have food, water, housing and health care?

Well, we know they don’t. In the two cities near our community college, roughly 25% or more of the residents are living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018), which leads to disparities in access to food, water, housing, healthcare and overall health.  One way to see this is in disparities in asthma prevalence.  In Washtenaw County, 19% of adults and 10% of children have asthma.  Alarmingly, the incidence of asthma is 37% for Blacks/African Americans in Washtenaw County, according to a report from Washtenaw County Public Health (2013; you can read it here).  For comparison, the CDC reports that nationally, 8% of adults and 8% of children have asthma and 11% of Blacks nationally have asthma (Centers for Disease Control, Asthma Surveillance, 2018; read it here).

          Some studies have hinted at better health outcomes among populations of asthma patients receiving better food. Wood et al. (2012) did a randomized clinical trial of the effects of diet on asthma, finding that patients eating 5 servings of vegetables and two of fruit each day had the best relief of asthma symptoms (more here ). Going back to the tree analogy, even trees feed one another through their roots in times of stress (read it here).  We will need to work on getting high quality, locally grown food on campus and into the surrounding communities in order to ensure better health that may fight asthma.  Additional actions can be taken to provide additional resiliency in the dimension of health and wellness. 

Figure 1 shows the Student Food Forest at the community college and Figure 2 shows a Farmer's Market in the community. These are both examples of ways to increase the health and wellness of members of the community.

Figure 2.  Healthy Food (Photo Credit: a2gov.org)

The third dimension is infrastructure.

          The question to answer here is, in the event of another pandemic or a climate change disaster, are our communication and transportation systems resilient?  Using the tree analogy, the roots of trees provide conduits for both chemical communication and transport of nutrients. (Read about it here ). If the root system is not well-developed, the tree will receive less information and fewer goods in times of stress.  So it is in our community.

In terms of communication during the current coronavirus situation, the faculty at our community college worked tremendously hard to put their classes online in one week . However, not all students have computers or internet access. To plan for resiliency, we need to find ways to make computers and the Internet accessible to all.

We do have pretty good public transportation to our community college, although it is not especially convenient or timely.  Looking to the immediate future with the coronavirus, if we decide to have on campus classes in the fall, we will have to find a way to get students to campus.  Because students may not be able to afford gas for their cars during the expected economic downturn, we could consider running an electric bus service (less polluting!) into the nearby neighborhoods.  We’ll have to study this dimension to find ways to build resiliency into both our community's communication and transportation systems.

         

In summary, the community college and surrounding communities need to work together on Social Equity and Governance, Health and Wellness, and Infrastructure.  In doing so, they can plan for resiliency for the future.

This blogpost was written for the benefit of students at Washtenaw Community College and the community as part of my sabbatical activities for winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Environmental Secrets Uncovered in Museum Bird Collections

I had the good fortune recently to accompany members of the local Audubon Society on a behind-the-scenes tour of the bird collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. The Audubon Society, according to their website, has a mission “to protect birds and the places they need, now and tomorrow.”  You can find more about the Audubon Society, here. 

Figure 1. Bird skins, UM Museum of Natural History.  Photo Credit: Emily Thompson.

You might wonder, then, what is in a museum bird collection?  Surprisingly, the things collected and saved since the late 1800's are not just birds, but nests, eggs, wings, skeletons and the skins of whole birds. Other things collected and saved include stomach contents and parasites. Specimens used to be collected by shooting the birds. Now, however, specimens are usually added to the collection after they're killed accidentally, perhaps by hitting a window or being hit by a car.  

Figure 2.  Bird Nest, UM Museum of Natural History. Photo Credit: Emily Thompson.

Why would birders, who love living birds, be interested in a collection of dead birds?  One reason is the collections are used for important conservation research.  For example, bird collections were used in the study of the effects of DDT on eggshell strength that helped lead to the publication of Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking book, Silent Spring. This book in turn lead to a ban on the use of DDT in the U.S. Bird collections are also used in forensic research to determine which bird species caused a specific airplane crash.  What follows are two examples of the benefits of bird collections.  

From the Egg Collections: Conservation Studies

Figure 3.  Bird Eggs, UM Museum of Natural History.  Photo Credit: Emily Thompson.

According to John Bates at the Field Museum i nChicago, Illinois, the most important study arising from bird collections was published in October of 1968 by Hickey and Anderson in the journal Science. Their paper is considered to be one of the most important scientific papers of all times, and it describes the effect of the pesticide DDT on eggshell thickness compared with no-DDT control eggs. At the time, DDT was being widely sprayed to kill the mosquitoes that spread diseases like malaria.  These scientists studied the peregrine falcon eggshells from areas that were sprayed (from the Field Museum in Chicago, IL) and compared them with peregrine falcon eggshells from areas that were not sprayed (from the Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada). The results showed the eggshells in Illinois thinned after spraying with DDT while the eggshells in the Charlotte Islands area showed no change in the same time period. (more information here).  The result of weakened eggshells was declining numbers of peregrine falcon and other birds of prey (such as the American eagle) due to breeding failure, because weak eggshells caused embryo death. The study of Hickey and Anderson was key to Rachel Carson’s argument that indiscriminate spraying of DDT would lead to a “silent spring” where birds would no longer sing. The result of the study, coupled with Carson’s book was the banning of DDT and greater environmental awareness.  You can find more, here  and here. 

From the Collections: Forensics Studies

Figure 4.  Bird Skeleton, UM Museum of Natural History.  Photo Credit: Emily Thompson.

When a bird strikes an airplane, causing a crash, the authorities want to know what species brought down the plane.  The ultimate goal is to avoid future accidents, and by knowing what type of bird is involved, they can design airports, engines and airplanes to reduce bird strikes.  The bird remains, often just  a feather or bird bits called “sparge” are often sent to forensic ornithologist Carla Dove at the Smithsonian Institute. There, she and her staff identify the bird causing the bird strike by comparing its remains to samples in the huge bird and feather collections of the Smithsonian.  Additionally, they perform DNA analysis and  microscopic analysis. Here’s a study from 2009 of identification of remains of an American white pelican involved in the crash of a Cessna.   

If you like the idea of looking through museum collections, try this website from the American Museum of Natural History  in New York.  They have videos of what it’s like to open up the drawers and cabinets in the museum and what scientists are using the collections for.

This blogpost was written for the benefit of students at Washtenaw Community College and the community as part of my sabbatical activities for winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Earth Day 50th Celebration in Ann Arbor

In Ann Arbor, the Earth Day celebrations for 2020 will take place even though many live events have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Locally, the Ann Arbor Sustainability Office is taking the celebration online with the A2Zero 2020 Virtual Earth Day Celebration. Nationally, the Sunrise Movement and Youth Climate Strike are taking their events online with the Earth Day Live 2020, a 3-day live-stream.

Figure 1: Earth shot from nasa.govnasa.gov

 

History of Earth Day

I grew up in Western Pennsylvania in the 60’s and 70’s.  Water pollution was so bad the local news used to report on whether or not Lake Erie was on fire, again, because people kept dumping flammable oil and tires in the water. Near the steel mills in Pittsburgh, air pollution was so bad that, no matter how often people cleaned, everything was coated in a sticky black dust that got into your pores and lungs.

The first national Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 and about 20 million people in the U.S. participated (more here).  It was held as an environmental teach-in because of the air and water pollution and unsafe working environments arising from unregulated industrial development.  Senator Nelson from Wisconsin had the idea for Earth Day and enlisted Representative Pete McCloskey and activist Denis Hayes to help plan the event.  According to the EarthDay.org website, 10% of Americans including both Democrats and Republicans, demonstrated in 1970 at the first Earth Day. A photograph from the New York Times of huge crowds in New York City  on Earth Day in 1970 is here.

What is the tie between the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Earth Day? According to heritage.umich.edu, U. of M. held the first environmental teach-in one month prior to the first Earth Day and 15,000 people attended the event.  The national Earth Day was modeled on the U. of M. event and Ann Arbor, where U. of M. is located, and Ann Arbor have therefore always had a strong connection with Earth Day.

What was the first impact of the first Earth Day?  It was huge and included the establishment of the Environmental Protection Act in 1970, and the passage of the Occupational Safety Health Act in 1970,  the Clean Air Act in 1970, and  the Clean Water Act in 1972, according to earthday.org.

A2Zero Virtual Earth Day Celebration

For the 2020 Virtual Earth Day Celebration, the Ann Arbor City Hall Sustainability Office is live-streaming the events for the day! You can click on this link to register for the virtual event.  Once you register, you can access the activities online any time.  Also, if you’re interested, you can go to this page

 to complete a pledge online for activities you will undertake for Earth Day. 

The schedule of events is available here and events take place from 9 AM-8 PM.  It will be kicked off by Mayor Christopher Taylor, who will give an address on sustainability in Ann Arbor and the history of Earth Day.

Another highlight is a youth panel on “What Gives You Hope On Earth Day,” led by U.M. student Kristen Hayden and including W.C.C. student Zaynab Elkolaly at 2:30 PM.

If you’re looking for educational events, you can learn about Ann Arbor-specific programs, carbon neutrality, rooftop solar, wind energy, integrated pest management and more. Finally, there’s entertainment, too, including a couple of sessions of music, sustainability trivia, Earth Day BINGO, the movie "The Story of Plastic" and the reading of a children’s story, Mama Miti.

Get the Youth Out (-of-Doors, That Is)

The Ann Arbor A2Zero site also lists 10 kid-friendly Earth Day activities suitable for kids that will keep them engaged but safe during the pandemic. (Go here and scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Activities include: going on a nature scavenger hunt, building a “seed blaster” (you’ll have to read the description to find out what it is!), using a toilet paper tube to make a colorful wind sock, starting a meditation journal, and “Nature Lesson” videos from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. A number of these ideas are especially good at getting the kids out of the house, so they can have fun, education, and exercise on Earth Day!

Figure 2. The Great Lakes from nasa.gov

Earth Day Live, April 22-24 Live-stream

The Earth Day Live 2020 events are put on by the Youth Climate Strike and Sunrise movements. These events are youth-led and represent a growing concern about climate change and the environment, especially among our youth and teens.

The schedule of events for the 3-day live-stream is here, (scroll to find the events) The events include speeches, presentations, live music, meditations and calls to action.  The first day, April 22, will “focus on amplifying the voice of indigenous leaders and youth climate activists who are leading the movement to halt the climate crisis,” according to the website.

Additionally, there are 24 hours of action you can engage with, which you can find here.  Activities include sharing your air quality with a photo, cleaning up litter (solo), making a plant-based meal, contacting your representative and many more.

There Is No Planet B

Earth Day celebrations and events are taking place starting tomorrow, April 22 – April 24, 2020, because the Earth has limited resources for human needs, and, as the T-shirts say, there is no Planet B. Won’t you join in the celebration of the Earth, starting tomorrow and the work that must be done to sustain it, starting today?

This blogpost was written for the benefit of students at Washtenaw Community College and the community as part of my sabbatical activities for winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Setting My Chair in the Woods, Part I

Watching Berries Ripen

I was charmed a couple of years ago by an article from Hope Jahren about the Norwegian custom of setting a chair outside and sitting in it to watch berries ripen in the evening sun.  Because Norway is the land of the midnight sun and because this event goes on for hours, you'll never see it on prime-time TV or Instagram or TikTok.  

The point of this Scandinavian custom is simply to be, and to breathe in, and to breathe out, while enjoying nature.

“I Just Looking”

I once lost track of my child, very briefly. She was almost two years old and she simply disappeared from the house.   At the time, we lived on a steep property in the country next to a state forest, and I was a little panicky about finding her before she got into trouble.  I finally located her in a field to the side of the house, standing very still and serenely surveying the valley below.  I slowed my breathing, got calm, and gently asked her what she was doing.  Without ever taking her eyes off the view, she replied, “I just nooking (looking).” 

This tiny child was showing me just how important it is to be in nature, and to find yourself, by getting lost in the outside.

Forest Bathing

Another charming custom, this one from Japan, is called forest bathing or shinrin-yoku. According the Halie (2017), it involves quietly experiencing nature, in the woods, if possible.  You can sit, stand or lie down. You can slowly walk around and smell and touch the bark or be still and listen to the wind in the leaves.  The restorative power of nature is well-documented, so you’re likely to feel better at the end of forest bathing than at the beginning (more here).

The point of shinrin-yoku is to become centered by immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, smells and experiences of a calm, natural setting.

Figure 1. Setting my chair in the woods.

Setting My Chair in the Woods

Here is an exercise I first learned from Peggy Barlett (Emory University and Second Nature) and which I now teach, called "setting my chair in the woods."  This activity helps faculty from across the curriculum teach students about sustainability in all their very different courses.  Participants simply take a folding chair outside and sit in it, quietly, not doing anything, for 10 or more minutes.  When they come back inside, I ask them, what did you see? What did you hear?  What did you smell? How did you feel?  This exercise is popular because it's relaxing and it shows faculty how to create a oasis of calm for their students.  Moreover, it gives faculty and the students with whom they share it, a connection to place, our beautiful campus. Participants therefore gain a reason to engage in sustainability, so the place of campus is available for future generations.

The notion of setting your chair in the woods is that anyone with access to nature can create an oasis of calm.

Lab Time!

I love lab, so now it’s time to try out setting your chair in the woods for yourself.  If you have a folding chair or small side chair and access to the outside, try putting the chair outside and just sitting there for 10-20 minutes.  Breathe in, breathe out, look, listen, smell, touch. Repeat!  This is best if you can do it in an area with trees like a park, your yard, the school playground, or wherever!

Or if, in the time of the coronavirus pandemic, you are sheltering in place in your apartment or house, you can set up a natural space at home and spend restorative time there!  See if you can include natural lighting and a plant or two, especially a fragrant one.

Figure 2. Setting my chair in nature at home during the coronavirus.

Science of the Restorative Power of Nature

Spending time in the out-of-doors can be restorative, according to several scientific studies.  In one by White et al. (2019), over 20,000 English participants experienced varying amounts of time outdoors.  Those who spent 120 or more minutes per week out of doors self-reported having better health and well-being. 

In another by Li et al., (2007), a study of 12 individuals showed better immune function and more expression of anti-cancer proteins after forest bathing.   No matter whether you like setting your chair in the woods, meditating, or engaging in forest bathing, isn’t it time you spent some time outside, today?

References:

Haile, R. (2017). “Forest bathing”: how microdosingon nature can help with stress.  The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/06/forest-bathing/532068/

Jahren, H. (2017). Tasting the sweetness of summer, berry by berry.  The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/science/hope-jahren-berries-norway.html

Li Q., Morimoto , K., Nakadai, A., et al. (2007). Forest bathing enhances human natural killer activity and expression of anti-cancer proteins. Int. J. Immunopathol. Pharmacol. 2 Suppl 2: 3-8.https:// DOI:10.1177/03946320070200S202

White, M.P., Alcock, I., Grellier, J. et al. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Sci Rep 9, 7730. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44097-3

This blogpost was written for the benefit of students at Washtenaw Community College and the community as part of my sabbatical activities for winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Coronavirus: the Unequal Opportunity Virus

COVID-19, or the corona virus, is the name of the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The virus initials stand for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; more on nomenclature here.  SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus, which means RNA is on the inside of a membrane sphere spiked with (red) proteins, as shown in Figure 1. The sphere is made up of membrane from the previous host, meaning the person who sneezed on someone else and gave them the virus.  Yup, that’s right.  The virus went into the host, multiplied and broke out again covered in the membrane of the host.  Gross, efficient and, in the case of COVID-19, deadly.

Figure 1. SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (from cdc.gov)

I’ve been following issues in public health in southeast Michigan, and COVID 19 infections and deaths in this region show troubling trends. The rate of deaths in Michigan are among the higher rates posted world-wide. On April 1, the Michigan.gov/coronavirus website published data from which I calculated a crude death rate of 3.6% for April 1 and a death rate of  6.1% for April 12 (Table 1; data from michigan.gov/coronavirus).  The world death rate, according the the World Health Organization and reported in Nature was 3.4% on April 3  (read it here).

Table 1. Calculated crude death rates due to coronavirus in Michigan

This is mirrored by significantly higher infection rates and higher death rates in certain counties in Southeast Michigan.  These counties include Oakland and Macomb counties to the north and and Wayne county immediately south, with the city in Detroit located in Wayne county.  In Figure 2, the number of cases per county is shown and you can see a concentration of cases in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties (michigan.gov/coronavirus.)

Figure 2 Total cases by county in Oakland (Ok), Macomb(Mb)

Washtenaw (Ww) and Wayne (Wy) counties, modified

from Michigan.gov/coronavirus, accessed April 12)

In Table 2, I've calculated the death rates for Detroit and four neighboring counties (data from Detroit is given separately; data from michigan.gov/coronavirus).   It is shocking to see that the death rates are higher in Detroit, Wayne, Macomb and Oakland than in Washtenaw on April 1 and they are much higher by April 12 (Table 2).

Table 2: Calculated crude death rates due to coronavirus in 4 counties and the City of Detroit

What could cause these much higher death rates in Detroit and Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties?

A recent report by Thebault, Ba Tran and Williams (2020) from the Washington Post states that counties with Black majorities have higher rates of infection and death than counties that have white majorities.  In Michigan, according to their analysis, 33% of cases are African Americans and almost 40% of deaths are African Americans, although African Americans make up only 14% of the state’s population (read it here). 

What could cause  higher death rates among Blacks/African Americans?  Brookings Institute scholar, Rashawn Ray, states in a Brookings Institute blog (2020) that pre-existing health conditions and health disparity are the main contributors to the higher death rate among blacks and African Americans (2020).  Disparities, he explains, start with redlining minorities into subpar neighborhoods where they have less access to good food and green spaces for exercise, and where they are farther from hospitals and have lower-quality pharmacies. Every health threat leads to more illness and death in these neighborhoods than others (read the article here).

Rashawn Ray goes on to say that occupation is another factor in higher death rates among blacks and African Americans. Blacks and African Americans in areas with higher death rates are more likely to be considered essential during the pandemic and to work at jobs with a high degree of public contact.  Blacks, he said, make up a significant part of the workforce in occupations like food service worker, bus driver, and cashier.  Their dedication to serve others can have deadly consequences (read the article here).

I learned in an article in Metrotimes (Neavling, 2019) that an additional factor leading to high death rates in Detroit is lack of water to wash hands.  One of the CDC recommendations to prevent transmission of the virus is to wash hands with soap and water. However,  between April and August of 2019, the water was turned off in almost 12,000 homes in Detroit due to lack of payment. According  a report in Mlive (Moore, 2020), on March 28, Governer  Whitmer signed an executive order mandating that all water  get turned back on so everyone in Detroit is able to clean their hands to help prevent spread of the virus in their homes.  

Figure 3. PM2.5 emissions in Michigan in 2014
(Michigan Annual Air Quality Report from 2019)

Finally, there is one more possibility for why Blacks have a higher infection rate and death rate in an unpublished report from Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health, as reported in the New York Times (Friedman, 2020).  They state there is a correlation between death from coronavirus and PM2.5 air pollution (Particulate Matter 2.5 micron).  And, the air in SE Michigan has some issues!  The 2018 annual air quality report for Michigan states, “Particulate trends show that particulate concentrations have decreased, and the state is in compliance for all particulate NAAQS; however, Michigan has had past nonattainment issues in Southeast Michigan for TSP, PM10 and PM2.5. (p. 38; read it here ) The data on PM2.5 pollution in Michigan can be found in Figure 3 and the data on number of cases is in Figure 2.  If you compare the two maps, you can see the geographic correlation between where the highest PM2.5 air pollution is and where the highest number of cases are,.  Furthermore, we'd expect more deaths where there are more cases.

The news about higher rates of infection and higher death rates in Blacks/African Americans in Michigan spurred Governor Whitmer on April 9 to create the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities to study the problem in Michigan (read the announcement on michigan.gov here).

Interestingly, there is a report by Healy in the LA Times (2020) that there is another group that seems to have a higher death rate.  The report is that males might be both more susceptible to infection and more likely to die than females. This trend is under current study and you can read about it here.  

We desperately need to fix inequalities in the structure of our society, especially in Southeast Michigan.  Everyone needs have access to clean water and air, good food, excellent health care, high-quality education, environmentally-friendly transportation, and a good standard of living. I’m not sure how to fix these disparities, but we must stop institutionalized racism, sexism, ageism, and other isms that separate us, preventing us from living and working together and, importantly these days, fighting coronavirus together.

This blogpost was written for the benefit of the learning community at Washtenaw Community College and beyond as part of my sabbatical activities for Winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Fighting COVID19, Starring... YOU!

We're all worried about COVID19.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has 5 recommendations to help protect you and others during the corona virus pandemic.

The first is to wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds each time you wash them!  You can sing a song through one verse as you wash and that should do it. Some people recommend Happy Birthday, although people of my acquaintance like to sing sea shanties, with words that would make a sailor blush!  Each time you wash your hands you can sing the next verse in the song.  To remember this: soap up to wash away corona virus!

The second is to maintain social distancing while completing essential errands such as grocery shopping, picking up prescription medicine, and exercising outside.  My friends and family call this “physical distancing” instead because we don’t want to isolate ourselves socially, just physically.  This doesn’t mean inviting your family and friends to an event and standing 6 feet apart while socializing for hours.  It means limiting all contacts outside your household contacts by brief interactions that are made 6 feet apart.  To remember this: if the virus you would defeat, keep a distance of 6 feet!

Third and very recently announced, you should wear a fabric face mask while outside your home on essential errands, such as shopping for food or medicine or getting exercise outdoors.  You should not be wearing masks of the type made for health care workers, because those are needed in health care situations. You can make your own mask by sewing or by folding fabric, and the folding-fabric technique demonstrated here by the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams (found here, scroll to video).  Anyone 2 years old or older who is able to remove the mask themselves in the event of trouble breathing should wear a mask. Remember this: it's not too much to ask; protect others by wearing your mask!

The fourth recommendation is pretty standard for preventing transmission of respiratory diseases and that is to cover your coughs and sneezes.  You can sneeze or cough into a tissue and then throw it away and wash your hands.  Alternatively, you can sneeze or cough into the inside of your elbow.  If you are wearing a mask you can cough and sneeze into your mask.  You’re washing and drying that mask, aren’t you? To remember this hint: cough or sneeze; cover it, please!

The final recommendation is to clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces, like light switches, door handles, keys, tables, counter tops, toilets, sinks, and cell phones. When you clean, you use soap and water to remove dirt and debris (gloves needed during a pandemic). When you disinfect, you use EPA-certified disinfectants (the list is here ) on surfaces but not on humans (gloves required).  For example, 4 teaspoons of bleach can be diluted in 1 quart of water or 5 Tablespoons of bleach in a gallon of water (wear gloves when using, because, once again, disinfectants are not for use on humans.) To remember, try: During the pandemic, I'm prioritizing sanitizing!

The CDC has great advice for how to do your best to keep from getting the corona virus during this pandemic.  So everyone, just stay calm and follow the CDC recommendations!

This blogpost was written for the benefit of the learning community at Washtenaw Community College and beyond as part of my sabbatical activities for Winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.

Online Classes: Photographing Your Homework Like a Pro And Once in a Pink Moon

As long as you have a computer and a reliable internet connection, moving to online learning can be easy and fun!  First, you have to watch your lectures and do your homework, which is the hard part.  Next, you have to photograph and upload any homework that you have written or drawn on paper, which is the fun part! Read on to become the next Dorothea Lange or Ansel Adams of homework, with a discussion of:

Writing Easy-to-Read Homework for Online Courses

For hand-written homework, it’ll help your instructors a lot if they can easily read what you wrote.  If they’re happy, you’re happy, because you won’t have to copy your homework over and photograph it again, right?  Here are some easy hints on how to write legible homework:

1) Write your answers single sided (do NOT skip this step) on paper using highly contrasting blue or black pen or dark pencil (the trusty number 2 pencil is dark enough). Include your name at the top of the first page and page numbers.

[This step makes sure there is no “bleed” of ink or pressure marks from the other side of the page, which make the page illegible to instructors who must read hundreds of pages.]

2) Set up your lights so there’s enough light to photograph without shadows. At night, you might have to move a couple of lamps together so there are NO SHADOWS (do NOT skip this step, either). 

[This step is important because shadows are really distracting and make the page illegible to instructors who must read way too many assignments.]

The pink mool photographed through our neighbor's magnolia!

Photographing like a Pro Using the Scanbot  App

I just tried out the Scanbot App, available for iPhone and Android and it rocks, mostly because of ease of use and because you can easily make a file with multiple pages.  I joined for free, but they push for monthly fees, so make sure you sign up for free if that’s what you want.  

1) Download the Scanbot App (it’s free!) to your phone or tablet.  You can download either the Android or iPhone version. Enter your email.

2) The app asks for permission to use your camera; give permission. 

3) The camera becomes active right away and you can select from “Single” for one-page homework or “Multi-Page” for multi-page homework. 

Suppose you have multipage homework.  Select “Multi-page” and take photos, in order, of pages 1 and then 2 (You wrote page numbers on your homework, didn’t you?).  When finished with all pages, you click in the lower right on the words that tell how many pages (“2 pages,” in this example).

4) Click on “Save” in the upper right.  Check the file has all necessary pages by swiping right.  You’ve just photographed your first assignment!

Send and Upload Homework

You can easily send your file to your GoogleDrive, OneDrive or Dropbox (all three recommended by Blackboard) and upload files to Blackboard from there.

1) Get to the page on Scanbot that has a picture of your file. Click on your file.  At the bottom, click on “Send to,” then ”New Workflow,” then “Add new Cloud.”

2)  Suppose you select “Google Drive” because you have a Google Account at your college.  You will have to enter your school address and give permission for Google to connect your accounts.

3) Next you’re going to link your Cloud storage (aka your GoogleDrive, OneDrive or Dropbox account) to your Blackboard account and upload your homework. The instructions are different for iPhone than Android, so go  here:

Or, if you don’t want Google tracking everything you’re doing, you can email the files to yourself, download to your computer and upload to Blackboard.  

Verify Upload

You should get an email verification that you submitted an assignment.  You should also be able to see your assignment on your assignment page on Blackboard and be able to open your multi-page assignment!  

Once in a Pink Moon

Now it’s time to relax! There apparently was a beautiful pink moon on April 7, 2020 if you happened to see it.  I photographed the moon through my neighbors’ magnolia tree the day before (see above) and I photographed the tree the day after (see below), as well.  The “pink moon” is not actually pink but is seen in April at the time the pink blossoms of phlox bloom.  Apparently, that's also when the magnolias bloom!

The moon was also considered a super moon, appearing bigger and brighter than usual because it was at its closest to the Earth, according to CNN.  Click here to learn more.   

The magnolia in full bloom!

This blogpost was written for the benefit of the learning community at Washtenaw Community College and beyond as part of my sabbatical activities for Winter 2020.  I am solely responsible for the content and hold the copyright for the work. Feel free to use the information in this blog; just credit me with a link back to my blog! -Emily Thompson, Ph.D.