Study guide

This is a Study guide for the religions for our test tomorrow:


Christianity:
2.2 billion (largest in the world)
Called: Christians
Located: Europe, the Americans, southern Africa
Denominations: Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants
Founder: Jesus Christ
Holy Book: The Bible
Beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine
Clergy: the Pope is the head of the church

Islam:
1.5 billion (second largest)
Called: Muslims
Location: Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa
Denominations: Sunnis and Shiites
Founder: Muhammad
Holy Book: Qur'an
Beliefs: monotheistic, Abrahamic, five pillars, see the purpose in life as serving to Allah

Hinduism:
1.1 billion (third largest) oldest religion
Called: Hindus
Location: India
Holy Book: the Vedas- meant to be sung, reveals the truth of ancient sages
Founder: no distinct founder, rather a set of beliefs(like the belief in reincarnation)

Buddhism:
1.5 billion
Called: Buddhists
Location: Asia, China, Japan, U.S.
Founder: Siddhartha Gautama
Denominations: Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Amidist
Four Noble Truths and the eightfold path

Judaism:
14-18 million
Called: Jews
Location: Israel
Founder: Abraham
Holy Book: Talmud and the Torah(first 5 books of the old testament)
Beliefs: That God is one

Religion part:2

Today in human geography we continued to present our religion blogs and prepared for our test tomorrow. These are the last three religions that we talked about.

Buddhism:

• It is a religion mainly to the country India
• Full of beliefs and practices based on teachings
• 6% of the worlds population is Buddhism
• Siddhartha Gautama is Buddah
• Buddah means the awakened one
• Commonly found in:
• China
• Japan
• Thailand
• One of the oldest practices today
• Spread from the northeastern region
• 1 million people in the U.S. are Buddhist
• Buddah is a person completely free from all faults
• He is not fat, but very skinny because he fasted for most of the time

Judaism:

• Practice in synagogues
• 81% live in Israel and the U.S.
• Religious leaders:
• Patriarchs
• Moses
• Abraham
• Abraham is their patriarch, and the first Jew  

Hinduism:

• Mostly found in India and Asia
• Has a large number of Gods
• Known as Cleities
• The gods have lots of powers
• Where they worship:
• Home
• Temple
• Road/street shrine
• They practice individual worship
• The religion was formed in 2000 B.C.
• Founded in India

Religions

Today in human geography we presented our presentations on religion. My group went first, me, Jasmine, and Stephanie were one group. I believe that we did very well I think that there was a lot of good information that we put on the slides. We then got to another presentation on Christianity and then we made it half way through a Buddhism presentation.

Christianity:

·         There are many different denominations like:

o   Catholics

o   Baptist

o   Protestant

o   Lutheran

·         Half of Christians are Catholics

·         36% of Christians are Protestants

·         Christian take up around 1/3 of the world

·         In 2010, U.S., Brazil, and Mexico were the top three countries with Christians

·         Believe that Jesus is the son of God

·         There holy book is the Holy Bible

·         They center on Jesus

·         Christianity emerged in the 1st century

·         It spread throughout the near east

Islam:

·         Islam is a monotheistic belief in a god or gods, and is an Abrahamic religion

·         the Qur’an book is like our Bible

·         It is considered to be the exact words of God

·         Followers of Islam are called Muslims

·         Muslims mostly live in:

o   Iran               

o   Pakistan

o   Turkey         

o   India   

o   Indonesia  

o   Bangladesh

·         Allah:

o   God is one, and the purpose is to love and serve

o   Humans are not created in Allah’s image

o   Humans can ask Allah for anything they want

·         The five pillars of Islam practices:

o   Shahada (testimony)

o   Salah (prayer)

§  Ritual prayers must be performed five times a day

o   Seyam (fasting)

o   Zakat (charity)

o   Hajj (pilgrimage)

§  The pilgrimage process has to be done during the Islamic month in the city of Mecca

Cultural Geography Test

Today in Human Geography we went over out test and prepared for our test Friday. We also continued to work on our religion presentations. They will be viewed in class and we be teaching our religion to the rest of the class.

This is the questions that were on our previous test for a future study guide:

1. Which is not a basic example of the characteristics of culture?    Economics
2. The official language of Brazil is:   Portuguese
3. Which of these countries has English and French as its two official languages?  Canada
4. What is considered the language of business, finance and commerce?  English
5. This country has four national languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), but there is very little conflict between these groups.  What is this country that has peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups?   Switzerland
6. The Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and Albanians coexisted in the country of... Yugoslavia.
7. Three of these countries are culturally homogeneous - which means they consist mainly of one ethnic group.  Which country is the LEAST homogeneous?    Switzerland
8. Which of these five key religions has the smallest number of members?  Judaism
9. Which of these five key religions has the largest number of members?   Christianity
10. Over 80% of the people in India belong to this religion....Hinduism
11. The majority of the people in the Middle Eastern nations belong to this religion....Islam
12. The two major sects of this religion are called Sunnis and Shiites....Islam
13. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim this city as a holy site .....Jerusalem
14. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all consider themselves descendants of ..... Abraham
15. Two denominations of this religion battled each other in Northern Ireland in the 1970s ......Christianity
16. This is an economic alliance based on a common use of the euro as their currency...the EU
17. This is a military alliance, including the United States, France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy and 23 other nations formed in the years following World War Two....NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
18. This is an economic alliance intended to coordinate the policies of oil-producing countries....OPEC (Organization petroleum Exporting Countries)
19. This is an economic alliance between the United States, Mexico and Canada....NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)
20. This is a problem-solving alliance whose members include virtually every nation on earth.  the UN.

One Lap Down, Three to Go

Today in human geography we took a test on cultural geography. It was the last test for the quarter, and now we are starting to talk about the different religions. I think that the test went pretty well, there were 4 or 5 questions that I guessed on, and I know that I got one wrong. Overall I think that I got around a 92%, which isn't bad. Once we finished the test we were split into groups for a power point presentation about the five major religions. Jasmine and Stephanie are in my group and we got the religion, Islam. We used the Google docs so we could all work on it together. We had lots of issues with the internet, but for some reason my internet worked, so I started to work on it. Then Stephanie's internet started to work, so now we had two people working on the power point presentation. Me and Stephanie got a lot done and we are almost done. Jasmines' computer never worked, but we got a lot of information done, and written on the presentation.

Test Review: Cultural Geography

Today in human geography Jasmine taught the class the class, and we reviewed our notes, and reviewed for the test. We also watched a short video that discussed nationalism. Listed below are some notes to study for our test.

Study Guide:

• Cultural characteristics- learned characteristics from a certain cultural or group. Can be seen through:
• Language:
• Spanish unites the Hispanic world
• Brazil is the only South American nation that speaks Portuguese
• Canada is a bilingual language:
• French
• English
• Switzerland has multiple languages
• English is considered the number one business language in the world
• Called the " lingua franca"
• Ethnic heritage:
• Countries , like Yugoslavia, have many ethnic groups and they get along fine.
• There soon became problems in Yugoslavia, and the country split up
• When one group has more power the weaker on is mostly to be punished
• Not all groups have the same outcome, like the U.S. for example
• Religion:
• Five major religions:
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Judaism- the people are decedents of Abraham
• Christianity
• Islam
• Muslim groups
• Shiites
• Sunnies
• Million of people believe in the same thing
• Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim Jerusalem as their holy site
• They are constantly fighting over this spot
• Spatial divisions- how we divide the livable space found on the Earth by establishing social, economic, and political control
• Countries
• Economic alliances:
• North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• Political alliances:
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Commonwealth of Nations
• Originations of American States
• Reasons for spatial divisions:
• Difference in culture, language, or religion
• Historical boundaries
• Imperial conquest and control
• Economic similarities and differences
• Nationalism- the belief that you nation is superior to all others
• Economic differences- fertile land, access to the coast, fishing rights, natural resources, different economic philosophies

Cultural Geography Part 2

In human geography today we continued to discuss the topic of cultural geography.

Spatial divisions are how we divide the livable space found on the Earth by establishing social, economic, and political control. Spatial division can be shown in many different ways like countries, economic alliances, and political alliances.

• A country is easy to explain, it is just different sections from the continents divided into countries.
• Economic alliances can be demonstrated by, many different countries and the issues that they have had. North America and Free Trade Agreement which is also known by the NAFTA. Association of Southeast Asian Nations is another example of economic alliances.

• Political alliances are also another form. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or the Commonwealth of Nations is also another group that represents the political alliances’ part of spatial division. Organization of American states is also another political alliance.
• There are reasons for spatial division, and they are the difference in culture, language, and religion. There are also historical boundaries witch make there be divisions in the countries. Imperial conquest and control, along with economic similarities and differences, are a part of the reasons for spatial division.
• Nationalism is the belief that your nation is superior to all others. This means that a nation has the right to think that there the best, but that may not be true but you have that right.
• Economic differences is fertile land, access to the coast, fishing rights, natural resources, and different economic philosophies.

Cultural Geography

Today things were back to normal, we had a teacher, everyone was in a uniform( out of spirit week clothes), and we started a new unit. It was called "Cultural Geography". Cultural geography describes groups of everyday people, and the ideas that the group will teach to other groups of people. This can connect a region, or maybe even divide a region. This basically tells us how countries are made you of so many different people, like the Unites States, or showing that most people in a country look and act the same, like China. There are three "Cultural Characteristics", language, ethnic heritage, and religion.

• Language
• Examples of how language works in cultural geography:
• Spanish unites the Hispanic world
• Brazil is the only South American country that does not speak Spanish. The instead speak Portuguese.
• Canada is a bilingual country that speaks French and English. These two languages are the country's official languages.
• English is considered the world language used for business transactions. This is called "lingua franca"
• Ethnic heritage
• Examples of how ethnic heritage works in cultural geography:
• In Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups made into one country, but soon the leadership died and there became a war. Now they are no longer one country.
• When one group becomes more powerful, the other gets "shamed" by the powerful ones.
• Some groups get along fine and stay as one country, like America. America has peacefully emerged into one country, but many different groups in the country.
• Religion
• Examples of how religion world in cultural geography:
• The five major religion are:
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Judaism
• Islam
• There are millions of people who believe in the same thing but all belong to a different group. 

No Teacher

In Human Geography Mr. Schick was not there. We had human geography first so we just thought that Mr. Schick was running late, so we continued to sit there and talk among ourselves. Then the announcements started to be said over the speaker, but there still was no Mr. Schick. We then started to get a little worried, but we continued to just sit and wait for him. Phil soon opened to door and stuck his head out the door, but he was not there. Jasmine and Carly then went down to the office to tell someone, because we weren't sure what the number was for the office. When they came back they said that Mr. Ironton said to just wait in the room and that there will be a substitute in the room soon. Then, about seven or eight minutes later a teacher came into the class, and asked where Mr. Torres was, and we tried to explain to her that this was a human geography class, and that Mr. Schick used this room for teaching. She was a little confused so we continued to explain it to her. After us telling her again, she understood, then she left the room. We sat in the room for about another five minutes, and then another teacher came in, and he was our "real" substitute. For the rest of the class, that we had time left, we took a pre-test thing that will show Mr. Schick how much we know, and don't know. Then at the end of the semester we will take it again to see how much learned. I thought the test was pretty hard, and it gave me a look into what we will be learning for the rest of the semester.  

The return of the population quiz

Today in class we got our population quizzes back, I had totally forgot that we even took them. I was a little nervous, because I hadn't checked power school to see my grade. As Mr. Schick started passing out the tests, he wasn't ringing the bell for anyone. Mr. Schick only rings the bell if a student got an A, there was only one bell ring so far, and I was starting to get a little nervous. Finally he called my name, second to last, out of the pile and then I heard a ring! I was really excited because I hadn't done very well on the last test and I really wanted to do well on this one. Once all the tests were passed out there had only been two bell rings, and I was very happy and thankful that one of them was mine. The rest of the class we went over the questions for the test to see what the correct answers were. We participated more today which was good, and we weren't the class with the lowest average. Because we participated more we became more informed about the topic, I hope this continues to happen and we continue to bring our grades up as a class.

Kiva

Today in Human Geography we took a test on population pyramids, and vocabulary terms about the fertility rate, annual growth rate, and more terms like that. Once we finished the test we started to talk about an organization called Kiva. Kiva is an organization that helps poor people continue to make a living. This organization is many people in need of money to help their business, family, or even food. For example this man named Ronald who lives in Kenya is looking to raise a $700 loan. With this loan he will construct a greenhouse for his business. The best part about this that many other organizations do not pay you the money back that you had given them, but this organization does! This is one of the interesting qualities that this organization has. It is a very good education and I am interested in helping out people in need.

Test Tomorrow, Study Guide

Today in human geography we discussed what information would be on out test tomorrow. I was very excited about this because I want to very well on this test to make up for the pother one.
What on the Test/Study Guide:

• Crude Birth Rate= number of births per 1,000 of the population
• Crude Death Rate= number of deaths per 1,000 of the population
• Rate of Natural Increase= subtract the death rate from the birth rate, divide by 10 (the annual Growth Rate
• Net Migration Rate= the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a year
• Immigration= an excess of persons entering the country
• Emigration= an excess of persons leaving the country
• Push Forces= reasons for leaving
• Examples:
• Wars
• Unemployment
• Religious
• Pull Forces= reasons for staying
• Examples:
• Better economic opportunity
• Health Care
• Political freedom
• Total Fertility Rate= average number of children born (per woman). For the population to stay the same it needs to stay at 2.1
• Population Pyramids= a graph to analyze growth/decline of fertility, population, and growth in migration.
• "The Tree"
• Growth rates are slow
• High birth rate
• short life expectance
• Examples:
• Namibia (Africa)
• "The Box"
• Low infant mortality
• Slow population growth
• Long life expectancy
• Examples:
• U.S.A.
• Sweden
• "The Cup"
• Low birth rate
• Shrinking population
• Long life expectancy
• Examples:
• Italy
• Germany

Quiz and Population Pyramids

Today in Human Geography we got our quizzes back. We didn't do very well, I think that I had all the information, but I didn't put every little thing in my blog. I had just written the over view. I felt confidant, but I did not do so great. I hope to learn from my mistakes and do very well on the test that is on Friday. I am about the make notecards for them right now. We also continued to discuss the population pyramids. We looked at lots of examples and some of the reasons for why they would look like this. For example we look at a city in North Dakota, and most of their population was college kids. This was because the city had a major college in it, so therefore the population was higher than most in that age group. 

Population Pyramids

Today in Human Geography we took a quiz about the "Lost Boys Video". I believe that I did very well on this test but I do know that I got two questions wrong.
After the test we started a new PowerPoint about Population Pyramids.

Population Pyramids are used to analyze growth, or decline of the fertility rate, mortality, and migration in cities. These can be put into three different shapes, the Christmas tree, the box, and the cup.




The Christmas Tree:
 This show that the growth rates are slow
There is a high birth rate
There is a short life expectancy.










The Box:
This shows low infant mortality
low population
Have longer life expectancy.










The Cup:
Low birth rate
Shrinking population
Long life expectancy  






These facts and ways to see the population are very interesting, and hopefully we will continue to learn more about them.

End of the Movie: The Lost Boys

It has now been three years since the boys moved to America. They have gotten a good education, and have good jobs. Panther has decided to go to Africa and find his girlfriend. Once he does this he will bring her back to America and marry her. Meanwhile John Bul was searching for his family. He had finally made contact with them and had news that his parents were living and his sister, but that his uncles and aunts had not survived the war. He soon was able to make enough money and fly them here. The reunion was very emotional and happy for all of them. John soon went to Sudan and built a medical house for the men and women in Sudan. This medical house has changed many lives of the men, women, and children. Lastly Daniel went to college and completed all his degrees, but he did not have the same outcome as the others. They are all very thankful for the opportunity that they were given and hope to give it to some other of the lost boys.

Part 3: The Lost Boys

The Boys have been living in America for two mouths. They are starting to feel comfortable in the culture, and they continue to work hard and make money. As time goes on the boys start to realize that their neighbors are not very fond of them and have been complaining to the police. One of the changes that they have found difficult for them is that if you are ever lost, you can just walk up to someone and ask them for help and they will help. This is not how things work in America, if you just walk you to someone's house there are most likely to call the cops or ask you to leave. They were also told by the police to not travel in groups for Americans felt intimidated by them. These are some of the challenges that the boys have had to face. Now about a year and a half living in America, they were feeling lonely , they no longer were allowed to walk in groups together, or spend time at home because they would be working, or in school. They decided to drop out of college and save their money to invite some of the lost boys from Kenya refugee camp. They will always have the relationship with the boys and will never forget the sadness of their country, or the joy of coming to America.

The Trip to America: Lost Boys

The lost boys finally got on their plane and were heading for America. They were very amazed by the plane and the things it could do. On the plane they had American food for the first time and they said that their own food was better. I believe they said this because they didn't know how to eat the food the way that we do, for example on of the boys was eating butter, just straight-up butter. Once he had eaten it he made a strange face as if to say "this is disgusting", we would agree with him, you don't just eat butter plain. Once they arrived to America they were shocked to see all the people and culture. They soon were assigned their apartment and they were discovering new things their too. They learned how to "use" electricity, learned what a shower is, and that we use trash cans, you don't throw your food out the window when you are done with it. They continued to learn new things about their apartment, I think the most shocker to them was that the each got their own bed. Later on in the day they went to a grocery store, and they learned how to provide food for themselves. They were enjoying their new life in America, but they were still concerned about the other boys and how they were doing. They said that they were doing this for them, to possibly give them an opportunity to come to America. They thought about the other boys constantly and that hopefully soon their country will regain peace, but for now they were very grateful for the opportunities that they had been given. 

The Lost Boys

Today in Human Geography we watched a movie about the civil war in Sudan. The North and the South had gone to war, the North was destroying the South. The government was to go to the South and kill all the men, women, and children. The women were killed and so were the men. The children were left behind and suffered the war. These children were mostly boys and they were given the name "the lost boys". They had to flee their country or have the risk of being killed in the war or by anything else. They went to Ethiopia and found a refugee camp where they were safe and had food, water, and shelter. Ethiopia's government soon collapsed and the refugee camp was gone. The boys were again forced to move. They traveled to Kenya, this travel was very hard, and more than half of the boys had died on the trip to Kenya. The ones who made the trip made it to a safe refugee camp. At this camp they got an education, food, and shelter. After about 15 years of the boys staying in the camp, many more came but they were beginning to give up hope in their dream of going home. The United States started a program that sent some of the boys to live in America and start a live there. We stopped the movie there and we will see what happens when they go to America and start new lives.