Intro to Human Geography

In today's class we talked about visualizing population.  We watched a youtube video on Hans Rosling and he was trying to animate data.  We saw in the video that in 1810 almost every country died younger than forty and made less than $4,000 a year.  And now, if a country's life expectancy was under forty and you made less than $4,000 a year, you are considered poor and sick and above that is rich and healthy.  During the industrial revolution, the western countries went up in GDP per capita and life expectancy.  WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic killed millions and millions of people which affected the population and life expectancy.  By 2009, most country's went from the poor and sick category to the rich and healthy.  Tomorrow we are having a quiz on the video that we watched in class today.  I think I'll do pretty good on it because I understood the video and everything we were talking about today.

Today in class, we learned what a population pyramid is.  A population pyramid is a graph that shows the amount of population there is of each age.  It's also divided by gender and the age increases by 5 year increments.  Girls are always on the right and boys are always on the left.  Ages 0-14 are referred to as the pre-reproductive age.  Ages 15-44 are referred to as the reproductive age and ages 45 until death are referred to as the post-productive ages.  This is only for girls though, boys are not referred to any of these.  The shape that the lines make on a population pyramid show whether a country is growing quickly or slowly or decreasing quickly or slowly.  It can also determine which age group people should get jobs for.  For example, if the population is biggest is the 0-14 categories, you may consider getting a job working for a toy company.  Or if the population is the biggest in the 45+ categories, you may want to become a care giver because the need will be higher.

In today's class we went over the test we took last week.  I felt like I did a lot better than I did.  I didn't do that bad though, I got an 83 which is still a B but I thought I would get a 90 or somewhere around there.  I got all of the questions on the first page for the CIA Factbook.  I got 4 out of the 5 questions wrong on one page and I thought I only got one wrong.  I got all the push and pull questions right and I got the extra credit questions wrong which I thought I did.  We also talked about how only 5% of the world speaks English.  Today is a D day so classes were shorter.  I had no tests or quizzes today so it's a good day.  I do have a lot of homework but it's okay, I'll get it all done eventually.

Today we took the test.  I did not feel ready at all, probably because I only briefly studied last night for it.  Before we took it I went over everything though.  I thought that the test was pretty easy, I knew just about all the answers.  I would not have done well if I hadn't gone over everything though.  I was nervous that I wouldn't finish within the twenty minutes that we were allowed to use the website but I finished before the twenty minutes were up.  There was one question about Russia's birth rate and if it would be rising or falling and I didn't know wha to say so I just said rising.  I also had no idea what the extra credit questions were, I didn't even know what it was asking so I just made up two random numbers.  Other than that I feel pretty confident with how I did.  I got to study for my math test that I have later today because I finished early.

In todays class we went over the blog post that was yesterday's classwork and last nights homework.  We also had a discussion about several things in between.  We talked about how Luxembourg is one of the most wealthiest countries in the world.  It's ranked fifth out of all countries in GDP per capita (ppp).  Luxembourg is not in any debt, whatsoever.  In fact, they have a surplus of money to spend!  They're neighboring countries and Germany, Belgium, and France.  We talked about how America has a wider range of ethnicities living here than most other countries do.  I also learned that about 98% of Mexicans are Roman Catholics and only about 20% of Americans are Roman Catholics.  We have a quiz coming up on Friday and I'm not as confident as I was for the last one.  I think I'll do okay on it but I definitely need to start studying now to be ready for it.

What is the population of China, and of India?  The population of China is 1,384,688,986 and the population of India is 1,296,834,042. What is the Total Fertility Rate in Japan? The total fertility rate in Japan is 1.42. What is the death rate in El Salvador? The death rate in El Salvador is 5.8. What percentage of the French identify “none” as their religion? Is this statistic verifiable, and why? 23-28% of France identify "none" as their religion and that is not verifiable because the government doesn't feel it's their place to ask people about their religion because their job is to  take care of the secular side of the world. What percentage of Mexicans identify themselves as Roman Catholic? 82.7% of Mexicans are Roman Catholics. What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in the United States? The GDP per capita in the US is $59,800. What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in Nigeria? The GDP per capita in Nigeria is $5

In yesterday's class, we talked about the crude birth rate and the crude death rate.  I learned that the crude birth rate is the number of births per thousand of the population, and the crude death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the population.  I also learned that the rate of natural increase (RNI) is the annual natural growth (or decrease) of the population in percentage form.  This is found by subtracting the deaths from the births, typically there are more births than deaths but not all the time.  We also talked about the net migration rate and what push and pull factors there were for people that were thinking about migrating.  The net migration rate is the difference between the number of people that enter and leave a country per year.  Immigration is an excess number of people leaving a country and going to a new one.  This is written as a positive number.  Emigration is an excess number of people leaving their country.  This is written as a negative number.

In today's class we talked about life expectancy.  Life expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year.  On average, women all over the world live longer than men.  The United States has the 42nd highest life expectancy out of all countries.  The average women in the U.S. lives to be 81.97 and the average man lives to be 77.32 and the overall average person lives to be 79.68.  The highest life expectancy is in Monaco.  The average women in Monaco lives to be 93.58 and the average man lives to be 85.63 and the overall average person lives to be 89.52.  The lowest life expectancy is in Chad.  The average women in Chad lives to be 51.03 and the average man lives to be 48.64 and the overall average person lives to be 49.81.

Yesterday in beginning of class someone had make up the test so we had about twenty minutes to do whatever.  I caught up on some homework I had.  Then when the kid finished, we looked at a powerpoint about population and settlement.  I learned that there is over 7.6 billion people on earth right now, and that number is constantly increasing.  There's approximately 200,000 being born each day, and 2.5 every second.  In America there's a person born every 8 second and there's also one death every 11 seconds.  America is the third most populated country in the world with about 330,000,000 people.  The most populated country is China, they have about 1,400,000,000 people.  The rate of birth per year has massively increased since 1804.  I forgot to do the blog post again last night because we don't have class today so I thought I had an extra day. Oops.

In today's class we had a test.  We reviewed for the test in class yesterday by going over a powerpoint.  It was pretty much all the same things I had already learned from Mr. Fendryk's class, so I wasn't too worried about it.  I think I did really good on it, at least I did until after everyone finished I realized I got three wrong.  The three questions that asked what time it would be in one place based on the time in the other were the ones I got wrong.  Like for the San Fransisco one, I subtracted three hours for our time instead of adding:( . It's ok though because I think I got all the other question right on the test.  I honestly thought it was gonna be a harder test but maybe it just wasn't hard because I studied enough.  I found a quilt on everything we were learning and studied from that mostly, and a little from the powerpoint we looked at in class yesterday.  I think I studied enough for the quiz and I'm pretty happy with how I think I did.

Yesterday's class was my first class in Honors Human Geography.  I thought I would have no idea what was going on but it was pretty much all of the same things from Mr. Fendryk's class.  We reviewed for the test today by going over a powerpoint and talking about it.  One of the differences from Mr. Fendryk's class is that we didn't have to write a blog post everyday, only when he assigned them, so I didn't know we had to do one and I'm doing it a day late.  I also didn't know they had to be 150 words because in Mr. Fendryk's class, the blog posts only had to be about four to five sentences long.  I like the classroom, especially the string lights on the ceiling because it makes the room feel homey.  I also like how the actual lights aren't on because it's not so bright and doesn't hurt my eyes.  Another thing I like about the classroom is that it's a little further out of the main hallway where the rest of the classrooms are so it's q

Today's key question was, how do geographer describe things?  Geographers describe things by using absolute and resolute locations.  Absolute locations are longitude and latitude points on the Earth that stand for a specific place.  Resolute location is describing where a place is in relation to the absolute location.  For example, Maryland is west of Delaware and south of New York.

The key question today was, how do geographers describe where things are?  Geographers use mental maps and activity spaces to describe where things are.  We use mental maps to find our way from point A to B, to organize a use info for future reference, and to make sense of the world. Activity spaces are your daily cyclical movements.  In your mind you know exactly the way to get to the places you go to daily.

In todays class we talked about map scales and projection.  Map scales are the level of detail and the amount of area covered on the map depends on its map scale.  It's presented as a ratio or fraction which shows the relationship of a feature's size on a map vs. it's actual size on Earth.  Projection is a systematic transformation of the longitudes and latitudes and longitudes of locations from the surface of a sphere or anything 3D into locations on a paper which is 2D.  An example of projection is transferring locations on Earth's surface to a flat map.  Maps cannot be made without projection.  All maps aren't 100% accurate because that's impossible.

1. Canada 2. United States 3. Mexico 4. Guatemala 5. Belize 6. El Salvador 7. Honduras 8. Nicaragua 9. Costa Rica 10. Panama 11. Cuba 12. Jamaica 13. Haiti 14. Dominican Republican 1. Columbia 2. Venezuela 3. Guyana 4. Suriname 5. French Gulana 6. Ecuador 7. Peru 8. Bolivia 9. Brazil 10. Paraguay 11. Chile 12. Argentina 13. Uruguay

The geographic grid is a system of imaginary arcs drawn in a grid pattern on Earth's surface. It allows us to pinpoint absolute location using longitude and latitude.  Longitude lines are also know as meridians, they run north to south.  Latitude lines are also known as parallels and they run east to west.  The prime meridian is a longitude line that separates the western and eastern hemispheres.  The equator is a latitude line that separates the northern and eastern hemispheres.  When you plot an absolute location, the longitude is first and latitude is second.  You also have to say N or S after the longitude and W or E for latitude.  For example, Washington D.C.'s absolute location is about 39०N, 77०W.

Telling Time and Time Zones A time zone is a region of the globe that observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes.  Time zones mostly follow the countries' boundaries just because it's easier and more convenient for the people.  Because of this, most lands are not the exact Coordinate Universal Time (UCT), some places are off by only 30 minutes while others are off by a couple hours.  GMT is the Greenwich Mean Time, located at the prime meridian.  The UCT is based off the prime meridian, 7.5 degrees east and west of the prime meridian is the GMC.  Every 15 degrees you move west is an hour decreased and every 15 degrees you move east is an hour gained.

The 5 themes of Geography Why is each place on Earth unique? Each place has different features needed for living that's why it's hard to pick a place to settle in.  Place refers to the physical and human aspects of a location.  The toponym is the name of a place.  Site is the physical features of a place which determines if a place has the resources you need.  Situation is the environmental conditions of a place and where it's located in relation to other places.  Geographers use site, situation and toponym to describe location. Using site and situation for our mapping worksheet, I chose E for 1.  E had the best location site wise, it had access to all the best resources needed for living.  For 2 I chose C because it is in the middle of all the other places which is most convenient for trading purposes.  For 3 I chose E even though it's not the easiest for trading purposes it has the most and best resources surrounding it.  For 4 I chose A for site because it was clo