This is a live, online class via Zoom. 

In this 6 week course, you will learn the importance of movement, stress reduction, self-care (including sleep strategies, rest, self-love, self-forgiveness) healthy nutrition and mindfulness and healthy relationships to improve your overall wellbeing.

This course will be done on Zoom in a lecture format with time at the end for Q & A.  with journal prompts, hand-outs, text, phone call or email check-ins. There will be a FREE Zoom meeting to go over the course at the end of the 6 week session.

Fee includes a journal, pen, hand-outs, weekly check-in via phone call/text/email and FREE Zoom meeting at the end of the 6-week session to wrap up the course.

This is a live, online class via Zoom.

This 60-minute Yoga class will provide sequences that calms the nervous

system along with stretching/warming the muscles and preparing the mind to rest.

Breathing techniques, short meditation and positive affirmations will end the practice.

This is a live, online class via Zoom.

This morning class practiced in a chair offers mind and body benefits without having to get up and off the floor or even changing into Yoga clothes. Enjoy a “pick me up” at home or at your office by using structural techniques to improve you range of motion, relax tight or overused muscles and release tension from the mind.

This is a live, online class via Zoom.

Reaching balanced wellness by working on strengthening and stretching the muscles, preventing falls, improving cardiovascular and bone density health. 

This class is progressive and increases your overall well-being throughout the 6 week session.

This is an online, Zoom session. 

The public health impact of a school-based citizen science effort to assess well water for arsenic in Maine and New Hampshire.

In Maine and New Hampshire, arsenic contamination of well water is one of the most pressing public health issues. Most people in rural areas of these states derive their drinking water from private wells, which often have arsenic levels above the EPA limit of 10 ppb. Arsenic can cause cancer, cardiovascular, and other health problems. We have been addressing this issue by engaging secondary science teachers and their students as citizen scientists in collecting drinking water samples for analysis of arsenic and other toxic metals.

This project provides context for students to engage in scientific inquiry and motivation for them to construct knowledge and meaning through the process of discovery. After receiving test results for arsenic and other toxic metals, students share their findings with their communities with the aim of moving people to act on this important public health issue.

Since the inception of this project in 2016, over 5000 students have participated in project activities and submitted over 3,500 drinking water samples for analysis; in some communities more than doubling the number of wells that have ever been tested.

We are expanding this effort to other households in Maine in an effort to study the health effects of arsenic exposure over people’s lifetimes.

Dr. Jane Disney is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at MDI BiologicalLaboratory. In addition, she directs the activities of the Community EnvironmentalHealth Laboratory. She is the co-developer of the citizen science online data portal,Anecdata.org. Since 2000, she has worked with multiple community partners, identifyingand helping to remedy threats to public health and the clean waters on and around MountDesert Island. With a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, she launched“All About Arsenic” in 2018, a project that engages secondary school teachers andstudents as citizen scientists in collecting well water samples for analysis of arsenic andother toxic metals and sharing their findings in their communities. In a collaboration withthe University of New England, Dr. Disney is focused on the health of Mainersthroughout their lifetimes, with research to uncover the connection betweenenvironmental exposures to toxic substances and the aging process.

This is an online, Zoom session. 

Rural Schools as Sources of PFAS Contamination in Neighborhood Wells.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or “forever chemicals” are increasingly found in groundwater and soil in many areas of the U.S. They harm human health and have negative consequences for wildlife and ecosystems. Rural Maine residents have been concerned about PFAS exposure since the discovery of contaminated soils on Maine farms where sludge from sewage treatment plants was used as fertilizer over decades.

“Forever chemicals” are showing up in well water in communities surrounding these agricultural areas. These residents have been receiving assistance with well water testing and mitigation from Maine DEP, but other contamination sites in Maine are receiving less attention.

In particular, drinking water in some rural Maine schools has tested positive for PFAS, and some are exceeding the 20 nanograms/liter limit established for public drinking water sources in the state.

We have begun a Community Engaged Research process on Mount Desert Island (MDI), Maine, in the vicinity of two rural schools to determine if contamination of groundwater near schools is impacting surrounding properties. We will share our findings and plans for next steps with school and community stakeholders.

Dr. Jane Disney is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health at MDI BiologicalLaboratory. In addition, she directs the activities of the Community EnvironmentalHealth Laboratory. She is the co-developer of the citizen science online data portal,Anecdata.org. Since 2000, she has worked with multiple community partners, identifyingand helping to remedy threats to public health and the clean waters on and around MountDesert Island. With a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, she launched“All About Arsenic” in 2018, a project that engages secondary school teachers andstudents as citizen scientists in collecting well water samples for analysis of arsenic andother toxic metals and sharing their findings in their communities. In a collaboration withthe University of New England, Dr. Disney is focused on the health of Mainersthroughout their lifetimes, with research to uncover the connection betweenenvironmental exposures to toxic substances and the aging process.

This is a live, online class via Zoom. 

In this 6 week course, you will learn the importance of movement, stress reduction, self-care (including sleep strategies, rest, self-love, self-forgiveness) healthy nutrition and mindfulness and healthy relationships to improve your overall wellbeing.

This course will be done on Zoom in a lecture format with time at the end for Q & A.  with journal prompts, hand-outs, text, phone call or email check-ins. There will be a FREE Zoom meeting to go over the course at the end of the 6 week session.

Fee includes a journal, pen, hand-outs, weekly check-in via phone call/text/email and FREE Zoom meeting at the end of the 6-week session to wrap up the course.

This is a live, online class via Zoom.

This 60-minute Yoga class will provide sequences that calms the nervous

system along with stretching/warming the muscles and preparing the mind to rest.

Breathing techniques, short meditation and positive affirmations will end the practice.