Event 1

For event #1 I attended Linda Weintraub's open workshop on Wednesday April 19th. The workshop that Mrs. Weintraub had for us was very interesting and fun to be apart of. She first sat us down in the hallway and had us participate in an activity where she asked us to think of how much of the day we spent without using man made materials and we were stunned when we gave our answers and found that we all roughly only spend about 2-5% of our days in natural parts of the earth, such as the park or the forest or things similar to this. She explained to us that is amazing how the technological advancements we have made have changed the way we live our lives due to the amount of activity we have with our smartphones and tablets inside our houses. This then lead to the true workshop activity that took place inside the room, where she had boxed up and laid out materials that may be found in a forest, such as moss, bones, sticks, rocks, and various natural materials that she hand picked from the forest. There were various activities that took place with the materials, such as feeling the weight comparison, viewing the decay from time, and walking on some pieces to feel them on your bare feet. These activities were there for us to be able to experience the things that we should be around everyday in the outdoors, and stop relying on our technology and phones to have a good time.      

Circle of items to walk around on, and boxes with exercises 

Me (Far left in red shirt) along with the group that attended the open workshop

This workshop was eye opening to me due to the reliance we truly do have on technology in our lives everyday. Growing up, I was very active and wanted to get out of the house as much as possible, so i understand the importance of being outdoors and involved with nature. As I grow up, I realize more and more I am using technology more often and I have even seen this with my little sister. I have a sister that is only 8 years old, and she is very involved with tablets and watching TV, and isn't active in her free time. This is something that is taking over lives of everyone around us, and needs to change. This lack of activity in an overall picture is affecting health issues among those growing up. We see the rates of obesity and health measurements going up and these are due to these types of technological advances that we are constantly seeing. 

Young children enjoying the outdoors

Two young kids caught up in technology instead of being active outside

In the end, I really found this event important to myself personally. I was very eye-opening to me to see what direction we are going in a society as far as activity and technology. I would strongly recommend future student to attend Mrs. Weintraub's workshop, as I truly believe we can all learn a few things from it and become better and healthier with the things we learn.

-Kyle Mora