LAST DAY :(

Today in Human Geo we took our last test. It was really depressing but the test was really easy. We all finished pretty quickly and Mr. Schick went to grade them. Our class average was an 80%, which I thought was pretty good. He rang the bell for everyone who got an A, and everyone did pretty well. I got a 100% and since it was our last day I was really happy. For our last class it was 9:11, and let me tell you it was sketchy. It’s said that this is our last class because I love Human Geo, it was really fun and we had a good class. Hopefully I have a good West Civ class because it would be a real downer if I didn’t. Afterwards we got candy and Mr. Schick said goodbye to some of us. Lucky for him, I will be in his West Civilization class! SO now Mr. Schick wants us to tell him what we liked and disliked about this class so here it goes. First off I really like blogging because it is a really easy way to do homework. So don’t change that. Also I liked how we took notes and learned stuff that is actually relevant to present day. I really like Google Docs too because it makes groups projects a lot easier. I don’t really think there was anything that I didn’t like about Human Geo so I say you shouldn’t change anything. And now i'm going to purposely post this blog at exactly 9:11 

LAST TEST!!!!

Tomorrow we have a test on Urban Geography and also on the video Guns, Germs, and Steel. We finished watching the video today in class and we also reviewed a little. The last part of the video was just about the 14 animals that we learned about yesterday. 13 of them are from Asia, Europe, and North Africa. None of these animals are from Popua New Guinea. We also learned that cows, pigs, sheep, and goats were native to the Middle East and that’s why it was such a thriving place in early civilization. So basically any location that shares the same latitude will have the same climate, length of day, and even weather conditions. Jared Diamond finally found an answer to the guy who asked him why white people have more cargo than them. He said that it is all because of geography. Where you live determines the ability you have to thrive.

More of the Video

We continued watching the movie in Human Geo. We picked up where we left off but it took Mr. Schick a while to get the video to play so we reviewed for the first like 20 minutes. We learned about geographical luck. For example some people are given better animals and crops depending on where they live and that is geographical luck. Some places are specific with what plants they grow. China produces rice. The Americas produce corn, squash, and beans. Africa produces sargo, millet, and yams. Popua produces sago. We also learned that Good domesticated animals should be able to reproduce within 1-2 years. They have to be herbivores so they don’t have to raise other animals for the carnivores to eat. Jared Diamond narrowed it down to 14 animals that fit the job. They are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, mythos, donkeys, camels (2 kinds), water buffalo, rein deer, llamas, yaks, and cattle. And as Mr. Schick said, Popua has NONE of these animals. 

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in Human Geo we watched a video called Guns, Germs, and Steel. It’s about a man named Jared Diamond who is a professor at UCLA. Fun fact he has an obsession with all types of birds. Kind of weird if you ask me. He travels to Popua New Guinea which is an island nation located between Asia and Australia. Mr. Schick said that it was like a paradise for bird lovers because none of the man made things have been built yet so many exotic birds live there. One man from the island ask Jared why white man had so much more cargo than people from his homeland. Cargo is all the stuff you own. We also learned that all great civilization have large population, advanced technology, and well organized work forces. The people who live in New Guinea have a source of food from the sago trees. Which contains a lot of food but it goes bad quickly and it’s a lot of work to harvest them. More notes on the video to come!

ITS FRIDAY!

Today in Human Geo we had class first mod. When class started some junior came into our and talk to us about stuff. I’m not even sure who she was or why she was there but she was sort of funny. She prayed with us and then left. Mr. Schick continued with his PowerPoint on Urban Geography and I’m pretty sure he finished up today. We talked about the second revolution of urban geography. All about steel mills and we even brushed up on some things we previously learned. So I guess sometime next week we will take our final test of the semester on what we just learned and then Human Geo will be over. That’s okay thought because I have Mr. Schick next semester for Western Civilization. I probably won’t have the exact same class but that doesn’t really matter. I really liked Human Geo this semester and hopefully West Civ. Is going to be fun too. 

Another Urban Geo blog

Today in Human Geo class we learned more about Urban Globalization. Here are all the notes we took from Mr. Schick’s PowerPoint.

2 Components to form urban cities:

-  An agricultural surplus

- Social stratification

Hearths of Urbanization:

-        Mesopotamia (Iraq)- 3500 BC

-        Nile River Valley (Egypt)- 3200 BC

-        Indus River Valley (India)- 2200 BC

-        Haung He An Wei River Valley (China)- 1500 BC

-        Mesomerica (central america)- 200 BC

Mesomerica: 

-        Mayan Aztec civilizations

-         theocratic centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings.

Diffusion of Urbanization:
The Greek cities:
By 500 BC, Greeks were highly urbanized.
A network of more than 500 cities and towns made up the Greek empire.
Theses cities and towns were sitting on mainlands and islands.
Each city had an acropolis and an agora.
The Roman cities:
A system of cities and small towns that were linked together with roads and routes.
The Romans were the first to come up with connecting their cities with roads.
Sites of Roman cities were typically for trade.
A Roman city's form combines the acropolis and agora into one space.
Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Between 1/3 and 2/3's of the population was enslaved.

Urban Geo

Today was our first day back in Human Geo class since break. Today’s class was short due to the 2 hour late bell. We spent the first part of class discussing Mr. Schick’s new mustache, but also talked some about why we had exams before the semester was over. Mr. Schick told us the story behind that and then we continued our class. The remainder of class was spent starting our new lesson, Urban Geography. We will have a 100 point test on urban geography sometime before the semester ends.

-        City: a conglomeration of people/buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.

-        Urban: the buildup of the central city and the suburban realm- the city and the surrounding environs connected to the city

-        More than half of the Earth's population lives in urban areas around the world.

-        A rural area can become urbanized quite quickly in the modern world. Ex: Shenzhen, China

-        Before urbanization people often clustered in agricultural villages