Stufdent Teacher

Today in Human Geography Jevan taught the class. We went over the scavenger hunt, and discussed the questions. Some of the facts were crazy to believe. The question ,what country has the third greatest number of airports?, has an unexpected answer. The answer is Mexico, Mexico has the third most airports in the world. This amazes me because you would thin that it would be Canada, United Kingdom, or even China. Another question was Can women serve in the Chinese army? Well they can, and by having this help their military force, because with women serving it makes their army bigger, and creates more jobs/opportunities to make money. The country with the highest birth rate is Africa, this fact really shocked me. Most people put the image in your head that Africa is nothing but a poor Country, but as this fact tells us that they must have enough money to keep their children safe and healthy. Many of these facts shock us and we are unaware of the facts and the world around us.

Scavenger Hunt: CIA Factbook

1. What is the population of the United States? 316,668,567 as of July 2013.

2. What are the five largest countries in the world, by population? 1. China  2. India 3. United states 4. Indonesia 5. Brazil

3. What is the population of Pakistan? 193,238,868 as of July 2013.

4. What kind of government does the United States have? Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition.

5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe? 95% of Zimbabwe is unemployed as of 2009.

6. What is the largest country in the world by area? Russia

7. What country has the third greatest number of airports? Mexico

8. What country has the greatest number of exports? China

9. What country exports more oil than any other? Saudi Arabia

10. What country imports more oil than any other? United States

11. What country has the second largest proven reserves of crude oil in the world? Venezuela

12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military? Yes

13. What is GDP?  Gross Domestic Product. value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year.

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? Qatar, it is $103,900

     15. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita? No it is 14th in the world

     16. Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent? Africa

     17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be        found in which continent? Africa

     18. What other country is in the top ten? Asia

     19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths? The U.S. ranks 18 compared to the world

     20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones? No, were third

     21. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?  23.9 percent

     22. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic? 82.7 percent

     23. What is Net Migration Rate? The difference between the number of people entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 people.

     24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? No, Libya does.

     25. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet? 7,095,217,980 people as of July 2013

A New Unit: Population Migration

We started a new unit today in Human Geography. The main topics covered life expectancy, migration, and the fertility rate. The life expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. Over seven million people are living in the world, and there are more to come. Immigration is an excess of people entering the Country, normally this will be positive. The opposite of immigration is emigration and that is excess of people leaving the Country, this will be a negative. 90% of the Earth's growth and population comes from Africa, South and East Asia, and Latin America. The death and birth rate are calculated by the number of births/deaths per 1,000 of the population. To find the rate of natural increase you have to subtract the death rate from the birth rate, and then divide that by ten, this is called the annual growth rate. Push forces, and pull forces are leaving a Country for a reason, or for coming to a Country for a certain reason. Some push forces are, wars, unemployment, religious, and persecution. Some of the pull forces are better economic opportunity, religious and political freedom, and better health care. The fertility rate is the average number of children born. For the world to stay at the same population the fertility rate would need to be 2.1 every year. The world's population continues to grow rapidly.

First Test

In Human Geography we took our first test. I was a little nervous, but I had studied and I knew that I would do fine. I wish there would have been more multiple choice questions, instead of the essays, but it was ok. The essay questions were very long but they asked good questions that you could write about. I think the most difficult thing was the infrastructure part. I had trouble telling apart globalization and infrastructure, but that's about it. I liked having the long class period, because you got to take your time and really think about what you were writing. The main subject that the test covered were, The Message to Garcia, Socrates, Globalization, and infrastructure. We also talked about the Greeks and how they lived and their government systems, not all of this was on the test, but some it was. Over all this test was pretty easy, and mainly focused on essays and over view question about the topics.

Presentation and First Test

In Human Geography today we presented our presentations about Globalization. This was helpful for we have a test tomorrow and we got to see what other students though about the topic, (kind of like a review day). My partner was Jessica, and I think we did pretty well, considering this wasn't a real grade, but just something to help us study. All of the presentation were done very well, and hopefully will help us for our test. We also got to discuss the subject a little bit more, and talk about the details of the subject. By having multiple groups we got some new perspectives from them. Once we finished presetting we discussed out test for the rest of the class. This will be our first test of the year and it is worth 100 points, with 3 essays. This makes me a little nervous, but if I study I know that I will do fine.

Disscussion of Nike

After having a day to think about the Nike video and how they treated the workers, I realized how bad, and inhumane it is to do that. We also did a follow up and looked at a recent article to see what Nike had done about their mistreatment of their workers. The article basically said that the difference Nike had made was that they gave their workers an apartment to live in, and would be giving them $4.00 a day instead of $1.25. This does help things but Nike found a ways to "cheat", the minimum wage in Indonesia was $4.00, and Nike was looking for a way to get around that. Nike would pay government officials, (or whoever was in charge) so that they would not enforce the law for their company, and they could get away with paying Nike workers less than $4.00. Also this apartment wasn't very nice either, but it was better than what they had. By hearing these facts makes me very depressed and I wish that they could just treat people right. Nike makes very high quality athletic wear, it is just a shame how they run their company and treat their workers.

The Nike Swoosh

Jim Keady is the founder of the organization "educating for justice". Jim is a very good soccer player and he ended up coaching the number one soccer team in the world. As their team became even better Nike recognized them and wanted to sponsor them if they would wear the swoosh symbol on their uniforms for soccer. Jim had heard their Nike did not treat their customer's right and he was not going to agree with Nike's deal. The school became upset with this and fired Jim because of his decision. Jim and his fellow college Leslie Kretzu, decided to make a change about how Nike treated their workers. They went to Indonesia and were going to live the role that the workers played, but without actually working in the factory. Jim and Leslie lived in the same place as the rest of the workers, and the conditions were horrible. The average worker only makes $1.25 a day, which is close to nothing to live on. As they continued to live in there conditions they lost a lot of weight and Leslie became sick. As time went on Nike had heard of Jim and Leslie's plan and they would be asked to leave immediately. Security would follow them around to make sure that they did not disturb the Nike Company. This was very fighting to them, for they had hear stories form previous Nike workers that they had been abused and even held at gun point. Jim and Leslie returned to the U.S. and found the CEO of the Nike Company. They told him what they had experienced, but he simply denied it. After Jim and Leslie they began speaking at schools and persuading them that what Nike is doing in Indonesia is wrong, and that they are not the only company that expresses this way or treating your workers. People are all equal and disserve the same respect and that all people are equal.
I agree with what this video is saying and what Nike is doing is very wrong. It takes a very brave person to stand up a nationwide company and tell that company that they are doing something wrong. I praise the bravery that Jim and Leslie had and I hope that the companies soon realize that they need to change their way of treating their workers.

Globalization PowerPoint

In Geography today we continued to discus about Globalization. We were having internet problems that day so it started off a little difficult, but it was eventually fixed. We started to have a class discussion about weather globalization is good or not. As we started getting further into class Steven had an idea to make  power point about the pros and cons of globalization. We got into groups and started making a power point of the pros and cons. This was a good idea because we could do it in groups and we would be using the new Google sharing tool that we learned in the previous class. We split up into groups and started on our PowerPoint. This will help us for and upcoming test and it was just a better way of doing work.

Globalization Pictures

In Human Geography today we continued to discuss globalization, and looking at the effects it has on the world. We also looked at pictures that gave a better understanding of globalization that it is becoming more common to speak more than one language. This is happing because more people are wanting to know news around the world, and to interact with people from other countries.  Another picture that we looked at was a man in Kenya talking on the phone and the infrastructure that was need to use the phone is a big deal to them, but not to us. Most countries are in need of cell towers, electricity, and technology. Lastly another one of the pictures that we looked at was a picture of an American movie in China. This is crazy to me because you wouldn't think that the Chinese or the U.K. or any other country would want to watch our movies, but they do. This shows that anything that can become global.

Globalization

Today in class  we discussed the memory of  9/11 and how it affected the world. This was a horrible event in history, but it is also a sign of how brave our Country can be. The bravery of how the rescue response units work to save hundreds of lives is very inspiring. The day after, the Country came together and hung flag in windows, cars, and in the news. This showed me that our nation cares. It would have been an amazing but yet very sad experience to remember seeing and hearing the news, and see how we can all work together. We also discussed globalization, which is the interaction of different parts of the world. It also results in the expansion of international cultural, economic, and political activities. We looked a website that showed how daily things can become global in all different countries. As an example we saw a picture of McDonald's and KFC in China, and that was very neat to see the daily American things in a different Country though.   

Google Sharing Documents

In Human Geography today we learned how to use a tool through Google. Through your Gmail account you can set up a document and "invite" other people to see what you are typing, and they can also add their comments too. You can do this anywhere as long as you have internet and computer. No matter where you are and where the other person is (who is helping you with the paper) it will still work. You can make word documents and power points with this tool also. The best feature is that it saves automatically, so your work will always be saved no matter what happens. We had a lot of fun with this in class, and Mr. Schick even said that we pick up this new tool very well. I think that this tool will make group work a lot easier and fun for assignments and papers.

Dissuction of the Did You Know video

Today in class Carly was the teacher, I think that having the student teach, makes the class speak up a little bit, I'm not sure why but it does. During class we read our blog post about the "did you know" video, and we had a class discussion. We talked about the "baby boomers" generation, and how quickly the population is growing. We also discussed how quickly the world is changing, with jobs, technology, and people. The world will be very different in the next 5 to 10 years and it will be interesting to see how far we think the world has come now, and imaging what it will be in the future.  

The "Did You Know" Video

Today in Geography class we watched a video that amazed me, on how quickly the world has, and still is changing.

Three facts that really stood out to me are:

1. That China will soon become the number one English speaking country.
• This amazed me because I would think that Chinese would soon become the number one language in the world. Not that they would be learning English.
• This would have an impact on my life because it would be easier for me to talk to people in other countries, especially in China.
• Technology plays a big part in my life, for example I use my computer for 50% or more of my classes, technology has come a long way and is being used in many different ways today.
2. The top 10 jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004 
• This fact shows how much the world is really changing, and how far we have come in 6 years, and wondering what is to come in the future will be the most exciting thing.
• Because jobs are changing so quickly the option of my generation having a job and staying with that job for 10 years or more is very slim.
• By having technology apart of our lives new jobs are coming about, like the fact says, jobs will be continuously changing over the years.
3. Every four minutes 60 babies will be born in the U.S., 224 babies will be born in China, and 351 babies will be born in India.
• I had not realized how much the population was growing, and this fact really shocked me.
• This impacts me, because there are 635 babies being born every four minutes, and that is just in three countries. The world is becoming very populated, and that makes a problem in the future.
• I believe that we have just started to see the new and amazing technology that is being invented, and there is more to come that will change the way we live forever. 

Review on Socrates

In Human Geography today we did something a little different. Mr. Schick let Steven tech the class, with  the help of Mr. Schick himself. I think that by doing this it got us talking a little bit more, and hopefully we will continue to talk more in class. We continued to discuss about Socrates and the Greeks way of living. The reason why Socrates was sentenced to death is because he was becoming a threat to some people, and he would criticize other peoples way of thinking. He was sentenced to death because he was corrupting the minds to the youth. Also he was charged with disrespecting the Gods, witch was a very big deal in ancient Greece. Socrates was a well respected man to some people, so for them to see, or hear of him dying, it made them very upset. Socrates was a man who change the way of teaching and thinking forever.

Greek Review

Today in Human Geography we had a discussion of Greek cultural. A place called the agora, which is a popular assembly, is where the Greeks would meet and have a discussion of political terms, and would vote on issues. Everyone got a say in what the decision was, but there was a voting at the end, and the majority ruled. A polis it a Greek city\state and it would be like our countries capital. In the year 508 BC the Greeks over-through their government, this is the first time anyone tried to get rid of the Government. The Greeks also developed democracy. Socrates was a philosopher, and he wanted people to be able to think for themselves. Socrates question asking became a method called "The Socrates Method". Socrates continued to ask his student questions, and challenging their answers. Socrates was sentenced to death because he had criticized Critias, and there for he was made to drink poison hemlock. The Greeks had a very different world then we do today.

Greek Vocabulary

agora- a popular political assembly 

arete- the aggregate of qualities, as valor and virtue, making up good character

polis- an ancient Greek city/state

the year 508 BC- Cleisthenes grants full rights to all free men of Athens

Socrates- Athenian philosopher

the death of Socrates- he was punished for criticizing Critias, therefor he was made to drink poison hemlock

the Socratic method- a teacher continuing to ask their students questions, to challenge their answers.

what the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot-  Required to Vote or Risk Being Labeled Idiots