Halloween Eve

Today in class, on October 31, we used the CIA World Fact Book. Mr. Schick let us know that we will be having a test in the future on population and migration using the fact book website. We practiced using the website today in class to become familiar with it. How we practiced was, Mr. Schick would give us a country and then a topic. For example, what is the total population of the United States? Then, we would search the list of countries for the USA and look into a category we think the topic total population would be in. The total population has to do with people so we started by looking under the people and society topic. Then, to find the specific population you scroll until you see it. If you do not see population under people and society then you would look under a different category. Lucky for us, the population was under people and society and we found out the total population was 326,625,791. We did many other examples like this after. The test will consist of 15 questions and a 15 minute time limit to complete them all.

CIA World Fact Book Cont.

Today in class, on October 29, we discussed different facts about we learned from our blogs yesterday. We had to find five facts from the CIA World Fact Book and explain why they were interesting. Before we got into this discussion we had time to look over grades while some people asked questions about their blogs. This is good we got a chance to look over our grades before the quarter ends on Wednesday. I did not have any questions to ask about my grades or blogs so I got a chance to have a couple of free minutes. After this, we got into the discussion of the facts we learned. For example, we talked about the average rate of mother's giving birth in the United States. This age was around 26 which people thought was a young age. Even though this is a small number we talked about how this number was most likely smaller years ago. This fact can be proven because more women are attending college and not just focusing on raising a family. I think this is a good thing for our generation because women aren't just looked at for raising a family.

CIA World Fact Book

To get used to the website, the CIA World Fact Book, we are finding 5 facts about different countries and explaining them.

1. First, the infant mortality rate is much higher in China than in the United States. The rate for China is 12 deaths per every 1,000 live births compared to 5.8 deaths/1,000. This shows that life in China may be a lot harder to get good care for a child when they are born. Also, the pollution in the air has a big impact on the health of the people living there. I think this is interesting because it shows how your environment can have a big enough impact that some people are dying at a much higher rate than they should be if there were proper healthcare and a healthier environment. 
2. In Syria, the unemployment rate is 50% compared to 4.4% in the United States. This a very high number that means half the country does not have a job. This plays into the factor that Syria does not have a lot of money which may result in dangerous situations and bad health care. All these things increase the rate of emigrants in Syria. Also, there is a civil war happening in Syria now so that makes it even tougher to get a normal job. 
3. Next, 98% of Japan is ethnically Japanese versus only 32% of Canadian people are natively from Canada. People in Japan are very proud of their country and usually, people who do not have origins from Japan do not live there. This is very different compared to the huge number of diversity in Canada. For example, there are 20% of English people, 15% French, 14% Scottish, 4.5% Chinese, and 50% other. I think this is very interesting that shows the diversity of the countries and possibly the conditions of the country. For example, if there is a lot of diversity in the country then many immigrants are trying to enter. 
4. Greece has a rate of 36% of people being under the poverty line while the United States has a rate of 15%. My family is from Greece so this interests me in learning some facts about the people living. I occasionally hear about things happening in Greece and I know they are in a lot of debt which affects the citizens in many ways, even if it doesn't affect them directly. For example, things like raised taxes and inflation will attribute to put people in debt. 
5. Finally, in Venezuela, the death rate is 5.3 deaths per 1,000 people and America's death rate is 8.2/1,000. I found this interesting because I thought the death rate of Venezuela would be higher than the death rate of the United States. Their economy has crashed and the country is not stable so crimes could start to occur at a higher rate and other dangerous things. As I started to think of reasons why the death rate is higher in America, I came to conclusions that there are more people in the United States and there are many crimes here as well. For example, every day on the news there is a new crime and many crimes occur that don't even make the news. 

TFR

Today in class, on October 24, we talked about total fertility rate (TFR) in different countries and how it affects the population. The total fertility rate is the number of children a woman has in her lifetime. For the population to remain constant there needs to be a total fertility rate of 2.1. If the TFR is higher than 2.1 the population will increase but if the TFR is lower than 2.1 the population will decrease. The United States has a total fertility rate lower than 2.1 which should mean our population is decreasing but we have many immigrants coming into our country, so our population is increasing instead. Developing countries, like Nigeria, have very high total fertility rate's. For example, their total fertility rate is above 6 which is a very large number. This means their population should be increasing by a very high rate but unfortunately, many people pass away as children.

Population and Settlement

Today in class, on October 23, we discussed and took more notes on population growth and immigration. We learned about the difference between immigration and emigration. I learned that immigration is when people from other countries come into the USA. Emigration is when people from the country leave and enter a different country. Immigration rate is shown with a positive number and emigration is expressed with a negative number. The rate of immigration was a pretty high number, 3 or 4 years ago, but now the number has decreased largely. This number shows what has been successfully done to decrease the number of immigrants in our country. Also, the number of emigrants has leveled out. Our class was shortened by a little because after that class the whole school was going to a presentation about Juuls and vapes.

Start of the Next Unit

Today in class, on October 22, we started the next unit of our human geography class. We started out with new key issues. The unit is mostly about human population and how it grows. This unit is really interesting so far because we get to learn about the planet we live on and the other people that are on it. For example, there are 7.5 million other human beings on the planet right now and that number is increasing every second. As the number is increasing it is also decreasing because of deaths. I think it is interesting but scary at the same time to see how much shorter it's taking to produce another billion people. For example, it took over 10,000 years to have one billion people on planet earth but now it has only taken 12 years to get a billion people. India and China are definitely a big part in this because the number of their growth populations is much bigger than any other country. This forced China to enforce a rule so families can only have 1-2 kids. Hopefully, the number of people increasing in this world will steady out.

Test Day

Today in class, on October 18, we took our human geography test on maps. At the beginning of class, many people were talking and we could not get started for at least 15 minutes. Then, Sydney Walsh introduced her shadow which who was named Carly and the whole class started singing the ICarly theme song. Finally, we took the test and I was feeling a little apprehensive at first. When I started going through the questions I felt more comfortable with my knowledge and I think I knew most the questions. Overall, I think I prepared well for this test and I hopefully got a good grade on it. I liked the format of the test because multiple choice is helpful for me to figure out a question. I like to eliminate the answers I know are not correct because it is easier to keep my thoughts straight. The only problem with using the Scantron is it is harder to skip a question if you are not completely sure of the answer. Also, I find it harder to check my answers. Overall I thought I did well on the test and am happy with the effort I spent toward studying.

Review Day

Today in class, on October 17, we reviewed for our test tomorrow. We talked about time zones and how different times and did some questions about them. For example, if it is 10:00 A.M. at the John Carroll School, what time is it in London, England? It would be 3 P.M. Mr. Schick gave us a more confusing question like what time would it be in the South Pole. Since all the lines of longitude meet at the South Pole there is not really a specific time zone. Essentially, at the South Pole, it is every time and all the time. If people lived at the South Pole they would just decide what time they want it to be. We also reviewed our notes about mapmaking and cartography along with different elements of the map. To prepare for my test at home I will review all my notes and memorize the important things. Also, I will make sure I label the places on my map that may show up on the quiz in the time zone questions so I will be able to figure those out.

What the Future Will Be Like

Today in class we had a discussion about culture and religion. We talked about how a lot of us are very similar but there are many small things different about us and our religion. For example, when we said a simple prayer, like the Our Father, some people said the version that was 20 words longer than the other. Both of the prayers were right but they are just different. We talked about Muslim culture and how the women are treated very differently from men. For example, Muslim women just had a law passed that allowed them to drive, only a couple months ago. I think in the future people will still be having disagreements about things like religion. Most people like to believe that their way of thinking is correct and many people think differently, causing many arguments or fights. Even the smallest topics can get people angry with one another about religion or what they believe in.

10/12/18

Today in class, on October 10th, we took more notes. Olivia was teaching our class for today and explaining our notes. We talked about many examples of globalization like social media, fast food restaurants, and Amazon. There are benefits and negatives to globalization. For example, Amazon provides easy, cheap products for people to get shipped to their house. The bad thing about this is they pay their workers barely any money. This is why the price to buy the object is so cheap. It costs less money to manufacture products in China and then ship them to the United States than to manufacture them in the United States. Also, we talked about the recession in 2008. The prices of houses were gradually rising until they were very expensive and suddenly the market crashed and everything was worth much less.

Are Tracking Devices Good?

Today in class, on October 11th, we talked about tracking devices and took a couple of notes. We discussed some of the benefits and negatives of putting tracking devices in young children. We talked about how it was the same idea as putting small chips in dogs. People do this so if their dog runs away you can track it and find out the owner's information. This is very useful for dogs because they cannot communicate with people and find their way home on their own. Young children cannot communicate with adults either or help themselves. For example, if a child gets kidnapped you can find exactly where they are and even if they are still alive. Also, if a criminal had a tracking device in them, you could track their location instead of having to ask the public for information. Although there are some benefits there are a lot of negatives. It is a huge invasion of a person's privacy along with many other negative things.

Pop Quiz

Today in class, on October 9th, we had a pop quiz on mapmaking. The information was from the topics that we discussed and that we wrote in our notes. I was a little nervous to take this pop quiz but even more when I heard we only had 10 seconds to answer the questions. That meant I did not have time to think about my answer and this was a little tougher because I did not know the material as well as I would have if I studied. Since this was a pop quiz I did not prepare and also I could not review my answers. I did not do as well as I hoped I would but I did better than I expected to. After this quiz, we took more notes on maps. We started off reviewing the information Patrick tried to teach us but did not do the best job.

Is It Really a Coincidence

Today is class we first talked about synchronicity and continued our notes about maps. Mr. Schick explained to us how he was on vacation in Colorado and received information about strategies to help anxiety at a random store he was in at the moment. He did not look at this video until two months later but when he did the video related to Socrates and the unexamined life quote which we had just learned about. At the time, Mr. Schick was most likely putting together the powerpoint or information about Socrates when he watched the video. Also, he the following days one of his friends posted something asking for help with her anxiety attacks, which the video had also talked about. This may be a huge coincidence for all this to happen at the same time but I think it is a sign to do something with this information we have learned or a way of God reaching out to us and telling us what he wants us to do. I think this is very interesting how things in life almost perfectly line up without even trying.

Is Alexa listening?

Today in class we discussed modern technology like a GPS and Alexa. We talked about the benefits and negatives of these devices that make our lives much easier. They are very convenient for us but we never know what they are listening and remembering about us and what we say. Alexa responds every time you say "Alexa" suggesting that she listens to everything we say. Even though it may not record everything we say it is still a little sketchy. For example, one person in the classroom said they were singing a song and it had the word suicide in it. Alexa then responded with the suicide hotline number even though nobody asked it. I personally think things like this are not bad to have in your home because it does not record anything you say. Also, I am not a criminal so I do not have to worry about people arresting me. Alexa is convenient for me especially when I just want to listen to music because all I have to say is "Alexa play Spotify."

A Review

Today in class we started with reviewing our tests from a couple weeks ago. It was funny how if you got a 90 or above you would get a ring from the bell and if you got 89 or lower, it was silent. Also, one person even got above a 100 because there were two rings from the bell. I did well on my test and got a ring on the bell. I understood the things I got wrong and it was helpful to review it. After this, we were given three more maps. Two of them were labeled so we could check our work and the last one was left to fill in many countries and cities. I did not get to finish this but I assume I will be able to next class. We also got to listen to music again which was helpful to me.