Video

If you get a chance, head on over to YouTube to view the class video (V1), and let me know what you think.  I'm very glad I was eventually able to export the final product.  Feel free to send your friends and family over to watch it as well.

Have a great Summer!!

Shirts are HERE!!!

If you ordered a shirt please contact me and we will figure out a time to exchange a nice, shiny, and new t-shirt for $16.  If you have friends that would like one they will cost $20.  They look really nice.  If you didn't order a shirt, no worries we have a variety of sizes left over.  As a reference, Heather and I are wearing mediums and Nick has on a large in the photo below.

 

Help me win Tia a bike

Hey there,

Does anyone still read this?

I have entered a contest with Mock Orange Bikes to win a bike.  I was thinking... I don't need a bike... who needs a bike?  Then I remembered Tia's story about her broken bike that the cave/camel crickets have claimed and how much she has really embraced biking outside.  I would love to give everyone a new bike, but I will need time to track down more contests :)  Its a really nice bike...

Ok, how can you help?  Go to the Mock Orange Bikes fan page on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mock-Orange-Bikes/112966143303

Find this photo and "like" it.   Then tell your friends to like it and have their friends like it.  Voting is open until May 27th.  That is all!!

Mulberries on the Greenway

I don't usually share mulberry tree locations with just anyone, since I want them all for myself.  I usually get funny looks as I'm climbing around the trees shoving fruit into my mouth. 

Not many people know that there is a lot of edible food right along sidewalks and city streets.  My two favorites that I have found in Winston Salem are these trees that you can make tea out of their flowers (after you dry them), and mulberries.  Yesterday while on the Salem Creek Greenway I found the mother-load of all mulberries.  No fewer than 20 trees, both black and white (I prefer black).  There is a broken limb over the green bridge on the way to the greenway and it is filled with ripe fruit.  So you are asking what the heck is a mulberry, well it looks kind of like a blackberry but is smaller and grows in a tree.  They are not usually as sweet, but they are really good.  I've made mulberry jam and pie before, when I was lucky enough to have a tree in my backyard.  Here is an upclose look at them if you are feeling adventurous.

Remember this week is National Bike to Work week! Bike On!

National Bike and Pedestrian Documentation Project

Here are the assignments for the last weekly homework of the semester.  It is really important that everyone sticks to sampling between 4-6pm on your day, PLEASE arrive on time. Click on the map below to view it larger!  I have made some changes... and anywhere my name is a student could easily fill in.

Locations

1. Stratford Road between Georgia Avenue and Buena Vista Road - Lane & Heather (Tues)
2. Liberty Street between 4th Street and 5th Street - Erika, & Shannon (Tues)
3. Main Street between 3rd Street and 4th Street -Kristen & Nick (Thurs)
4. Main Street between Waughtown Street and Salem Avenue - Cassie & Amy (Tues)
5. Acadia Avenue between Broad Street and Hollyrood Street - Brittany & Tia (Tues)
6. Salem Creek Trail - Kiva & Sarah (Tues)
7. Salem Lake Trail - Nicole & Louise (Wednesday)
8. Muddy Creek Trail - Louise (Thursday)
9. Reynolda Road (at the Krankies trailer) - Louise (Tuesday)

We still need a student or two for the Muddy Creek Greenway.  I still need Desiree', Teshenia, Olivia, and Alannah to sign up for a day/location.

Bike obsessed scientists - apparently we are everywhere

I found this wonderful video online today.  It was posted on the Science Friday website.  A must watch for all.

5 Best Family Biking Getaways

I am currently a subscriber to "Family Fun' magazine and there was an article that I found relating to biking and a great way to include the whole family!
The cities listed were Acadia N.P., Maine, New York, New York, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Portland, Oregon, and Santa Monica, California.
 

National Bike Month is just around the corner, in May! There is a great list of family friendly cycling events @ bikeleague.org and maps of bike trails specific to your region @ adventurecycling.org


Hope this is helpful!
Heather Lorenz

10% Campaign

I thought I would provide a link for the 10% campaign that Michelle Ferrier mentioned in class the day she came.  Take the pledge to spend 10% of your food dollars on NC food, here.

Class Guest - Michelle Ferrier from LocallyGrownNews.com

We were fortunate enough to have Dr. Michelle Ferrier, a professor in the college of communications at Elon College, and proprietor of LocallyGrownNews.com come speak with the class today.  We spent the entire period really discussing what the term local food means.

I want everyone to go to LocallyGrownNews.com and create an account.  We will be selecting the best blog posts from this week to be shared on that site with that extended community.  I know a lot of you are interested in engaging in the types of conversations that are ongoing on that site.  It would be wonderful if we can go beyond what we have been doing on the blog, and become more informative to our outside audience.

Start thinking about what piece of the local food conversation (on the board below) you want to discuss in your own blog posts.  This week, I am going to blog about how purchasing local foods (I stopped by The Reynolda Farmers Market on the way home from class today) is introducing me to new foods, maybe ones I have eaten in restaurants, but have never cooked at home.  I already had a nice discussion with the owner on what I'm supposed to do with all the food I purchased (how to cook it), and I will return tomorrow on my way to the cobblestone farmers market (near Krankies) to chat some more and to interview him for this week's activity.  He also told me he could get me some special long/sweet peppers that I haven't found in NC yet, I will definitely be back.

 

One last thing.  The very first event listed on LocallyGrownNews.com is the Environmental Movie Nights.  This Thursday they are showing a film "Grow Your Own Vegetables".  I will try to make it, but check it out if you can.... see full details of the event and save the date at this link 

Grassroots Biology Takes the Salem Creek Greenway by Storm

Today was a beautiful day to get outside on the Salem Creek Greenway (SCG).  I'm sad that Sarah wasn't able to enjoy, since she has been feeling so awful this week.  We also missed a few other students (where did Brittany wander off to?), but overall, fun was had by all (at least from what I could tell).  I'd like to hear what you thought of the greenway?  Whether you loved it or not, it is a great resource to have in Salem's backyard.  Soon with a short connection to Forsyth Tech this greenway will directly link 4 of the 5 major schools in Winston Salem.  I found out it was Teshenia's first time out on the SCG.  Kiva and Heather took the lead on bikes luckily they didn't scare away any wildlife with their laughter, we saw plenty.  We even had Kristen out on her roller skates. I only wish we would have had more time, so we could have gone further and seen more. 

 

We saw a number of mammals on the trip.  Most everyone saw the Marmots up on the hill on Salem's campus (I missed them), and a number of students saw the "baby beavers", also known as Muskrats in the marshy area across from WSSU.  The group I was with at the end even saw a dead shrew, I picked it up to show everyone its little short tail from which it gets its name.  We also heard plenty of birds as well, but couldn't visually locate too many.  See both humans and non-human animals enjoy a good greenway! My goal for next time is to get more students on bikes, they do have 11 bikes for rental at Salem.

Another class trip I would love to take is a camping trip up at Moore's Spring's Trails with a day trip to Hanging Rock.  I will ask what this would involve on my end, and I want you to think about a Saturday that this would work for you.  We probably would want to wait until May when the frequent rains lighten up.

Service Projects!

Today everyone signed up for service projects.  In case you missed OR didn't write down who is in your project group here is the break down.  Make sure you exchange email addresses and phone numbers.  Also make sure to send an email to your service contact before the end of the week.  One email from the group is fine.  Also make sure when you meet with your contacts you go as a group.  As you begin working on your service projects, please be responsible and demonstrate a good work ethic.  Tony, Matt, & Nick are all busy people and we do not to waste any of their effort, because we don't show up on time, or request multiple meetings because you don't coordinate with your group well.

MST
Teshenia
Shannon
Sarah

Novant - Wellness Product Development
Meghan
Cassie
Brittany
Nicole
Kiva

Novant - Bike City/College
Lane
Amy
Desiree'
Tia

CDI - Creating Buzz about Bikes (& current usage)
Alannah
Heather
Erika
Olivia
Kristen

What is spinning?

Yesterday Matt mentioned spinning, and I know Desiree' tried a spinning class at the local YMCA.  But is anyone else interested in trying this version of cycling?  I attended the Power Spin class this morning at the Gold's Gym on Reynolda and mentioned the grassroots biology class to my instructor and another instructor who was in the class.  They said they would love to have my students out to try a spin class.  Anyone interested?  It is intense, but you might find it fun to try it out.  If you are interested, let me know, we can pick a day (Sunday?) and I will make arrangements with the club.

Now I would much rather ride outside, but it really is two different ways to experience something I enjoy.  Outside, it is quiet and I can pay attention to my surrounds and have some moments of peace and reflection.  Inside, the music is pumping and so is my heart.  It is the only place I get the chance to listen to Top 20 music :)   Tomorrow in class, I will remind everyone of this opportunity to try a spin class at Gold's Gym, in addition to the two trips (biking & trails) this weekend.  If you are interested in biking on Saturday afternoon, let me know tomorrow so that I can reserve the bikes!!!

After class Ride

Motivated and inspired by our guest Matt Gymer (who averages over 30 miles on his bike daily), I decided that I will try to bike an average of 10 miles daily this week.  I already know biking on Friday and Sunday will probably not happen, so I knew I needed to get a jump on this week.  I realized that riding up to Salem Lake and back from Salem College is only 9 miles so I knew I needed to do more to reach my goal today.  But I didn't have a lot of time so I knew I couldn't make it around the entire lake either.  So after I went to Salem lake and back I then headed to Washington Park.  Making my ride just over 11 miles for today, not bad for about 45 minutes of riding.  I was pushing pretty hard, due to my time limitations, but I'm extremely happy with my ride today.

I will say I am exhausted.  I car pool with my husband and so everyday after class I walk over to his office in downtown Winston-Salem.  Today this mile long walk was really difficult after the fast/hard ride I just had.  I know I need to eat some food, maybe I'll try that Vega recovery drink, since I'm trying not to eat dairy, so my old Whey protien shake is out of the question.  I'll let you all know how it tastes.

One last note.  This is your own journey.  Do what you think is sustainable (what you can reasonably keep up with) and that you enjoy doing.  Set your own goals in this adventure into wellness and environmental responsibility.  Make sure to notice the big and small changes.


Websites from Today's Class:
Daily Plate
Backroads - Active vacationing
Brendan Brazier - Vegan Ironman
Wellness at Salem

UPDATE... Oh boy does that Vega taste good!  Can you sense my sarcasm?  I bought samples of 3 different flavors, so I'm hoping the next flavor is going to actually be palatable!!

15 Most Active Cities

America's 15 most active cities - Time Magazine Article

Lets see how these cities compare with the top 50 bike friendly cities?!

Readings now on Moodle

Sorry it took so long.  New readings are up on Moodle.  Check them out.

Upcoming Events - Group Bike Ride and Trail Build: Weekend of February 26 & 27th

I wanted to announce a couple of class events I now have on the schedule.  These will be outside of the normal class time but I think it would be good to have some activities as a class, I understand if you can not attend.

Saturday Feb 26th (3pm-?):
Weather permitting, I will be going on a bike ride to Salem Creek/Lake trail.  The entire out and back from Salem is about 14 miles and will take between 1-1.5 hours.  If you don't want to or cant go for the entire route you can always turn around.  The part around the lake is unpaved and a bit rough in places, so if you are not comfortable you could always lock your bike up and walk it for a bit.  There are 12 bikes on Campus and I will find out what we have to do to get some/all of them during the weekend (update later).

Sunday Feb 27th (9am - 4pm):
Weather permitting, I will be going out to Moore's Springs Trails for the weekly trail build.  If anyone is leaning in the direction of working on this project I suggest you join me and find out for sure.  Even if you switch projects, you can count your time at MST towards your 30 hours.  I have room in my car for 3 extra people but if I get a bigger turn out (especially of students without their own transportation) we can take two of our cars and take up to 8 students (I have another driver).  Hopefully if more students want to come we can arrange a car pool.

FOR BOTH EVENTS.  We will meet outside the Science building on campus and leave at the time mentioned above.  If you have any questions email me or comment here!!

In other news...I am having issues with my email account and having trouble posting to Moodle.  I do have a new chapter to post, and will do so as soon as humanly possible.

Moore's Spring's Trails

Is it alliteration if the "S"s come at the end of the word?

 Ok so I wanted to provide a link to the Moore's Springs Trails Facebook page that Tony McGee referred to in class today.
 
Facebook Page

Also if you'd like to learn more about StokesCORE here is the website.

http://www.stokescore.org/

We will spend some time on Monday the 28th to discuss the service project options for the semester and lay out exactly where students are needed, so stay tuned for how to get involved with the trail building project.

Get involved with Greenways in Winston Salem

Do you want to get involved with greenway development?  Do you want to learn what a greenway is?  Feel free to attend one of the two public hearings that are left for public comments on the W-S master greenway plan.  There is a lot of information about Greenways in W-S at the link below.

Public Hearings on Greenway development

A really easy way to get involved, especially if you can make one of the meetings is to take the online survey about Greenway development and your usage.

Survey

How do I get a bike to ride? Part 1

So what do you do if when you got to your bike for last week's bike ride and it was broken?  Well if you are on Campus you can walk on over to Shober House and sign out one of the 12 bikes that Salem owns for this purpose.  Then they will tell you which bike to go check out in the basement of Betting Hall.  You can check a bike out over night as well and return it in the morning, if you want to plan a late evening or morning ride.  If you have any questions please ask.

First Class - First Impression

Today was the first day of the semester at Salem College.  It was a busy day.  As always (at least on Monday and Wednesdays) I began my day with a 10am class at WSSU, followed by a two hour lab that starts at 11am.  Since classes started at Salem College I had to quickly walk over to Salem for the Grassroots biology class.   A total of 18 students were enrolled in the class and all of them were present the first day, always a good sign.  I introduced myself and then asked the students to introduce themselves to the rest of the class.  I am always pleased when students share some of their background.  It always make for a more interesting dialog.  I also think it takes some courage to share information about yourself with a group of strangers (at least before you really get to know people).

I really look forward to hearing what students think about the Bike Town USA article and to learn about their ecological footprints, when we get to that on Wednesday.  It will be interesting to "play" with the numbers (on myfootprint.org) a little bit and see how the changes that we "make" influence our scores.  I'm also interested in watching the student Vlogs and reading the blog posts as we begin the semester.  I have already decided that weekly blogs/vlogs make more sense than to have students try to keep track of whether they have one due that week.  I'm not sure if I will post the Vlogs here, maybe an edited collection from time to time would make sense.

Alright, I'll keep it short today.