Intro to Human Geography

Todays class was the last class of the semester.  I really liked this class a lot especially all the kids in it.  I have Mr. Fendryk next semester and I like him too but I'm going to miss Mr. Schick and his room because I like his jokes.  His room is also my favorite room in the school because it's on the bottom floor which is for some reason my favorite floor.  I also like the fact that it's not in the main hallway, it's kind of tucked away to the side.  I like the lights on the ceiling and I think my favorite part of his room is the tree right next to the window where I sit.  Right before this mod started, during advisory all the freshman went to the auditorium for a talk about school shootings.  We watched a video on how to stay safe and also talked about what semester two will be like.

In class today we watched Jeopardy.  Before class I had a health exam that I was very worried about but it went a lot better than I thought it was going to go.  I was going to bring in cans for extra credit but I completely forgot to until we were on our way to school so it was too late.  There is also an opportunity to get extra credit for the test after school if I went to the anxiety talk but I can't because I have practice after school.  This morning my mom made me eggs.  I was almost late because I forgot to make my lunch until right before we left my house.  I have never watched Jeopardy before but I really like it, it's entertaining and I could definitely learn a lot just from watching this show.  I don't watch a lot of shows that much anymore.  I can never find one that I like enough to get into.  I'm very picky with shows, if I don't like it within the first episode than that's it.

In todays class we took the test on the Guns, Germs, and Steal video.  I took three pages worth of notes and studied them all a lot.  I felt pretty confident before I took the test and I still do.  Whenever I take tests I count how many answers I'm not sure about and then after I turn it in I see what my score would be if I got those wrong.  I think I got a 22/26 which would be an 84%.  I think I could've done better but I did my best.  Mr. Schick put relaxing music on during the test too which I really liked actually.  I also tried not bubbling in the Scantron until I finished the whole test and I think that helped too because it forced me to check all my answers before I wrote them down and I did end up changing a couple.  I have an English quiz next period so I'm going to do some online studying on the website.  Later today I'm also reading at mass during Bible class which I'm nervous but also excited for.

In todays class finished the rest of the Guns, Germs and Steel video.  We didn't have much left so they didn't really talk about anything we hadn't already heard yet.  We talked a lot in class about how the lines of latitude played a part as well with the geographic location of countries. The Fertile Crescent spread out resources along it's lines of latitude all around the Earth.  That's how some of the same animals can survive in different countries than it's native one, because it's along the same line of latitude as it's native home.  Meaning the environment and climate for the most part will be the same and the living conditions are sustainable for the foreign animal to live.  We also discussed about the different native tribes that probably live all through out the Americas before Christopher Columbus came over.

  Me and Banks Clark at the Pow Wow-

In todays class we watched more of the Guns, Germs, and Steel.  We only have ten minutes left in the video.  Most of what we watched today had to do with animal domestication.  There are only fourteen domesticated animals in the world out of all 2 million species.  The fourteen domesticated animals are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, Bali cattle, Bactrian camels, Arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, and mithans.  None of these fourteen domesticated animals are not native to New Guinea.  The only animal New Guinea has are pigs.  Although they can gain meat from the pigs, they can't be used for much more. You can use their skin for warmth, they don't give milk, and you can't use their poop as fertilizer.  This goes back to no luck for New Guineas' geographic location.

In class today we continued watching more of the video Guns, Germs and Steel.  I learned that the first plant domestication for China was rice, for the Middle East was barely and wheat, for the Americas was corn, squash and beans, and for Africa was sorghum, millet and yams.  All of the farming these places did for their crops boosted them into civilization.  Even though Papau New Guinea had their crops too: sago and bananas, they weren't boosted into civilization like all those other places.  It's not that they hadn't started as long ago as them, their tribe has been around for 13,000 years but has not had the same outcome as all the other places.  The reason that Jared Diamond thinks is causing this has to do with the geographic location of each place.  Each place has different native crops that they live off of until they are developed enough to have other foods too.  Because the Papau New Guinians' crops and food require so much time and labor unli...

In class today we watched more of the Guns, Germs and Steel video.  We learned and talked with the class about how there are still Native American Tribes around today like the ancient people we study. The tribe in the video is from Papau New Guinea.  They have their men hunt and their women gather.  The women gather by chopping down sago trees and hacking out the middle to get to a sap that they can turn into food.  One tree provides about 80 pounds of food.  Although the New Guineans are always in need of food, a lot of the meat they catch and food/ grain they gather ends up going to waste due to their lack of ability to store and save food.

In class today Mr. Schick went over all of our exam grades.  I got an 85 overall with the exam and essay combined.  I feel like I could've done better on the essay but the exam I thought I was ready for besides the parts from the beginning of the year that I never learned.  I'm pleased with all of my exam grades so far, I still haven't gotten my bio exam grade though.  We also did a little bit of research on the Guns, Germs and Steel video.  It was a book that National Geographic made a three-part video to and we're watching the first part.  It's about how the different continents developed differently based on their geographic location.

Today in class we worked some more on our essay for the exam.  I worked out with Mr. Schick when I'm going to actually do the essay exam since I won't be at school when we do it.  We're supposed to do it in class on Friday but I'm leaving Thursday to go to my cousins wedding.  I emailed Mr. Hollin, Mrs. Cathell and Mr. Schick to tell them that I wouldn't be here.  I think I'm going to do good on the essay.  I chose the B promt and I really like population pyramids which is what they're about so I think I'll do good.  I'm really excited to go to the wedding  because it's in Florida, I know it won't be super nice but at least better than Maryland.  

In todays class we started typing and researching our essay topic and here's what I've got so far: Country A and Country B are in two different stages of the demographic transition.  They will both face different concerns in the future if their population pyramids remain the same.  Country A and B will experience different stages in the demographic transition that will change their population pyramids and could arise potential issues. The demographic transition is a series of stages that a country experiences as it develops.  A country’s first stage has high crude birth and death rates and the NIR slowly increases. Stage one has high birth rate and rapidly declining death rate so the NIR increases rapidly.  Stage two usually happens when a revolution occurs. Stage three has rapidly declining birth rate, moderately declining death rate and a moderate NIR. This happens when people have fewer children.  Stage four has a very low birth rate, slightly incr...

Khan Academy - you measure the growth of a population by adding the number of babies born, and immigrants coming into the country and subtract the number of deaths and people leaving the country - you can find the percent of growth rate by subtracting the population from the beginning of the year from the current population and then dividing that by the same number of population from the beginning of the year, last times it by 100 - if the growth rates positive the population is growing, if it's negative the population is decreasing Kim Smith - from the Agricultural revolution to the Industrial revolution the population grew by 67,000 people per year, now we gain that amount of people every 6-7 hours -t he exponential growth that we are experiencing is not expected to level off until around 2050 - by 2050 we are expected to have a population of around 9-10 billion people Why Populations Grow - I ndustrial Revolution was the key starting point of the population boom - t he...

Today in human geography Mr. Schick told us about all the stuff we have coming up in class, leading to exams. I'll absent on the 12th and 13th which is when we are writing our essay as part of the exam so I'll have to email him about that later.  He gave us a packet to read and highlight about demographic transition.  I hate reading so I don't know how but I didn't space out at all when I read that.  It talked about the four stages that countries go through in their population change.  The first is a high crude birth and death rate and a low NIR.  The next stage is a high CBR, rapidly declining CDR and a high NIR.  This happens when some sort of a revolution occurs, for Europe and North America it was the Industrial Revolution and for Africa, Asia, and Latin America it was the medical revolution.  Stage three has a rapidly declining CBR, a moderately declining CDR and a moderate NIR.  This happens when the CBR drops dramatically while the CDR cont...

I did horrible on the quiz yesterday.  I did so much worse than I thought I did, I got a 36 out of 50 and I thought I would get like a 40 out of 50.  My grade came out to a 73%, I don't think I've done that bad on a quiz in a long time.  I also studied a lot for it.  I even rewrote out my notes.  Oh well.  We're waiting for Nick to take the quiz because he was absent yesterday and then when he's done we're going to check it.  I went to the bathroom before class started and I saw Kenzie in there so we walked down to class together and she told me about how she was upset because she got a bad grade on her math test and the human geo quiz.  It made me feel a little better though since I got a bad grade on it too.  Mr. Schick yelled at Christo and after lunch I fell up the stairs and landed on my head and my head ache still hasn't gone away.  H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G !

In todays human geography class we took our world religions quiz.  The five religions that were on the quiz were Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.  The quiz was pretty easy, only a couple stumped me, but I think I did pretty good on it though.  I have a B in human geography right now so I'm hoping the quiz brings me up to hopefully an A, if not at least closer to one.  I don't know when the mid- quarter grades come out but I'm really hoping by then to have all As.  I feel like if I can get straight As by mid- quarters than keeping those As until the end of the quarter will be easier.  It'd be much easier to do that than it would be to have a B or C at mid- quarters and try super hard to bump that to an A by the end of the quarter.  The only Bs I have at the moment are in human geography and intro to Bible.  I have an 87% in both classes though so they're pretty high Bs.

In todays human geography class we learned about the other two world religions.  We learned about Buddhism and Judaism.  Buddhism is the fourth largest religion and Judaism is the ninth largest.  Even though Judaism isn't the fifth largest religion, Mr. Schick included it in the top five world religions because of its' survival throughout all the years and attempts of prosecuting Jews off the face of the Earth.  Followers of Judaism are known as Jews and followers of Buddhism are known as Buddhists.  Buddhism has 500 million to 1.5 billion adherents, the number varies quite a bit because Buddhism is a very lenient religion.  You can be a Buddhist and pretty much any other religion at the same time.  Buddhists are geographically located mainly in Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan, while Jews are geographically located mainly in Israel and the United States.  Buddhism has four denominations (other religions based off of one) and Judaism doesn'...

In todays class we learned about three of the five most popular religions.  We learned about Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.  Christianity has about 2.2 billion adherents.  Adherents is another word for a follower, it comes from the word adhesive which means to stick to, so it's like sticking to your religion.  Islam has 1.5 billion adherents and Hinduism has 1.1 billion adherents.  Christianity has many different denominations, Islam has two denominations and Hinduism has no denominations.  Denominations are different branches off of a religion.  Christianity is geographically located in Europe, North America and South America, and Southern Africa.  Islam is geographically mainly in Indonesia, the Middle East, and North Africa.  Hinduism is geographically located in India and Nepal.  Each religion has certain beliefs they have to believe in.  Some religions are more strict and have more rules than other religions.  On Frida...

Today in class we went over the test we took yesterday.  I thought I was only going to get about four wrong but I got eight wrong.  I got an 80 percent which is still a B so I am ok with that.  I was hoping for a higher B like an 85 percent but I am just glad I did not get a C.  All the ones I got wrong were the questions that I wasn't sure about.  Most of the questions that I got wrong were the ones about the countries and continents.  I did also get a couple that I was unsure about my answer correct and I was very pleasantly surprised.  Mr. Schick told us that he gave the honors classes six extra questions than the regular classes which I didn't know.  One of my friends in the regular class tried to rub in my face that he got a better grade than me.  Now I'm gonna go tell him we had six extra questions so that's not true!!!

Today in class we took a test on population, population pyramids and migration.   I remembered to look over all my notes last night and this morning Mr. Schick gave us time in class to study some more.  So I watched the video on population pyramids which I'm really glad I did.  Right before we took the test Mr. Schick told us we would need to identify specific countries which I am not good at doing so I tried to learn those quickly.  There we a couple questions on the test having to do with specific countries and continents that I don't think I got right.  I don't think it was too hard of a test I'm just not good at knowing a specific countries population growth and that type of stuff.  The test was 40 questions.  I think I got probably like a 34 out of 40.  I am sure I didn't get higher than that, I'm thinking I got a B which I would be ok with.

In todays class the last group presented for the developing and post-industrialized country slideshow project.  Tonight is also the parent teacher conferences and my mom is meeting with all my teachers.  I'm not nervous about it but I think all my teachers are going to say I talk too much.  The last group's presentation took about 20 minutes.  They're definitely getting an A.  Now we're doing a little worksheet Mr. Schick is giving each of the groups.  It has a place for you to grade everyone in your  group's part in the project.  I'm glad we are doing this because there was definitely some people in my group who did absolutely nothing and it really made me mad.  This always happens I feel like when I do group projects, especially with people I don't know very well.  If they're my friend I'll tell them they're being rude by not doing anything but if I don't know them well, I don’t feel comfortable saying something like that.