No Way!!

We reviewed the questions we answered about the CIA fact book in Thursday’s class. Jevan was the teacher for the day and he sat up front and called on us to answer the questions. Some of the things we learned from the fact book were outrageous, and I would have never guessed were true. Like how Mexico is ranked 3^rd for the most airports. I thought it would be some other country that’s huge like, China or India. We also talked about how most of our oil comes from the Middle East and how we need to be careful not to tick them off because we need that oil. Mr. Schick told us an interesting fact about Americans. 90% of Americans can’t locate Syria on a map. They all talk about how we need to get involved, or how we shouldn't get involved, but most of them don’t even know WHERE this is going on. 

CIA FACTBOOK

1. What is the population of the United States?                                                                          316,668,567
2. What are the five largest countries in the world, by population?                                                   China, India, United  States, Indonesia, and Brazil
3. What is the population of Pakistan?                                                                               193,238,868
4. What kind of government does the United States have?     Constitutional-based Federal republic; strong democratic tradition  
5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?                                                                                95%
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 proved 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 or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given yea
14.What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it?

            Qatar

14. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita?

no

15. Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent

Africa

16. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found

in which continent?    

           Africa

17. What other country is in the top ten?

            India

18. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths                                                                        Ranked 18th
19. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones?

            No it is ranked number 3

20. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

            23.9%  is Roman Catholic

21. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

            82.7% is Roman Catholic

22. What is Net Migration Rate?

            An excess of persons entering the country is referred to as net immigration

23. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world?

            No it is ranked 29th

24. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet?

            7,095,217,980

Population and Migration

We learned about Population and Migration today in class. Over 7 billion people live in the world today, and the number is growing. The problem is too many people are being born and not enough people are dying. The life expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. Most well developed countries, like America, have a pretty good life expectancy for people. Countries that have horrible conditions (contaminated water, etc.), like Indonesia have very low life expediencies for people. We also learned about Immigration and emigration. Immigration is when a bunch of people are entering a country, and emigration is when people are leaving a country. Both of these can have negative and positive effects. For example, when too many people enter one country, not enough jobs are available. Sometimes people leave or enter a country for a specific reason. Pull forces is when a person moves to a country because of a reason like freedom of religion or better government. Push forces is when a person leaves a country because of a reason like civil war, or environmental danger. 

Test Day

The test we took today took the whole class period. It wasn't a very difficult one but we had to write 3 essays at the end and it basically took up most of the time. When we first started the test everyone was silent but then people started finishing after only 20 minutes. Mr. Schick said that if they had already finished then they obviously have done it wrong, because it is impossible to write three good essays that quickly. I think my essays were pretty good because it took me awhile to write them and they were very detailed. About halfway through the test, Mr. Schick walked over to the door in the corner, which I recently thought was a closet, and opened it up to get some air. Apparently that’s a whole other class. When people started to finish they moved to the back to get on their laptops without bothering anyone. That didn't really work because we bothered people anyway. 

Preparing for the Test

Since we have a test tomorrow, in Human Geo, we went over some stuff to prepare us for the test. We also presented our power points about the effects of globalization. We discussed topics that could be on the test and reread our notes to refresh our minds. So basically it was a review day. Thank God we reviewed because we talked about things that I would have completely forgot about on the test. Like apparently Socrates’s famous saying was “the unexamined life is not worth living.” I would have totally gotten that wrong on the test. So basically the test is going to be about a letter to Garcia, our roman vocabulary, Socrates, globalization, and anything else we have learned. 

JUST DON'T DO IT

We did some more research on the down side of globalization again today.  We looked at articles about the argument over how Nike should treat their employees. One website wrote about how Nike had solved it issue. The only problem was, they didn't really solve it. Just because they gave the workers less hours doesn't mean that their lives are much better. The reason the article was saying Nike solved the issue was because they were pro-business and didn't want Nike to lose any money. What Nike needs to do is pay the workers more, give them safer work conditions, give them health benefits, and so much more. Another article we read was about how Nike was forcing the workers to work for lower salaries, by threatening them with the military.  What I don’t understand is how you can treat someone like crap, when they are human beings too.

Behind the Swoosh

We watched a 20 minute video, about Nike sweatshops, in class today. The video was about a man named Jim Keady, who was a coach at a very nice catholic high school. He refused to wear Nike products even though his job required him too. The reason he refused to do this was because he thought that people who worked in the sweat shops had unfair labor conditions. They didn’t get paid enough to live a satisfied life. Jim traveled to Indonesia to see what it is like to live like a Nike worker. After only a week there he knew that it was impossible to be able to survive with so little money. Near the end, Jim came back to America and tried to talk some sense into the Nike CEO’s, and managers, but they all denied him. Jim knows that the way these people are living is sickening and he has to do something about it.

PowerPoint project

It’s kind of a surprise that Steven was the one with a bright idea today in class. His idea was that we made a PowerPoint about globalization using Google documents. Everyone agreed with him because using Google documents is extremely fun. For our Power Points we had to find out more about globalization and its effects. We also had to make sure that the website we used were reliable and had factional. 

Saul the Persecutor

Mr. Schick told us the story of Saul today. Saul, like many others, persecuted Christians. One day he was riding his horse up mountain when he was attacked and blinded. God came to Saul in a dream and asked him why he was persecuting him and his people. After his encounter with God he changed his name to Paul and traveled the word spreading the good news of God. He became one the top five most influenced people in the world

 What does a man in Kenya need to make a call on his cell-phone? He needs infrastructure. For example, electricity, a job, cell phone towers, etc. In class we also talked about the U.N and how they are an example of globalization. Another example is that American movies are the biggest money makers around the world!

The Attacks on 9/11

9/11 was the topic discussed about today, in class. Mr. Schick talked about his memories of that day and we just listened because we were only 2 when it happened. He said that everyone was in mass when they got the news of what was happening and they all went back to their classrooms. Two girls from his class had been extra terrified because their love ones were near the attacks. If it were me, and one of my relatives was in New York at the time, the last place I would want to be is at school. Not that there's anything wrong with school but your trapped in a class room and you have no idea whats going on so you think the worst. I can’t even begin to imagine how awful that must have been. The only thing I know about 9/11 is that every year they show documentaries about the attack and it puts me in a depressing mood for weeks.

Google Documents

We set up our Google Documents today in Human Geo. Google documents is a way to work on an assignment with other classmates without being in the same place. It lets everyone in your group work on the same document at the same time. The cool thing about Google Documents is that it automatically saves your work every couple of seconds, so you never lose it. Another cool perk of Google Documents is that it allows you to have a group chat while working so you can talk to your classmates. The document we worked on today was for test questions. We made up questions that might be on a test and then answered them as a group. I think Google Documents is going to make everything a lot easier. 

Student teacher #2

On Friday’s class Mr. Schick wanted me to teach the class. For some reason when the student teaches the class people talk more. I called on everyone to read the blog they wrote, out loud. The blogs were about the video we saw in class a couple days earlier. We picked three things from the video that shocked us. Everyone had a pretty interesting blog. We also talked about the “baby boomers” generation. After World War II was over people were celebrating the victory. The population was increased by a lot. Than we spent the rest of the class talking about computer support and why JC is different form our old schools. 

Did You Know?

After watching “Did You Know/ Shift Happens” these were my reactions to some of the facts.

The top ten jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004:

When I first saw this it made me wonder what types of jobs will be in demand when I am older. Also I realized that most of the jobs were probably newer technology jobs like an app creator or computer support.

England used to be a world power in 1900:

This fact shows just how easy it is for a country to become so powerful and then lose it all. When I’m older America may not be as powerful as it is today.

1 out of 6 couples married last year in the US met online:

When I saw this I noticed just how much technology is used in our lives. We rely on it so much without it we would be lost. This affects me because when I’m older we will probably be using technology for EVERYTHING.

New teacher

We had a very exciting class today because Mr. Schick decided to let Steven teach the class. He talked to us about Socrates’s life, and also about his death. Socrates was charged with disrespecting the gods and corrupting the minds of the youth. Not only did Socrates think he was not guilty but he also thought that he should be rewarded for his deeds. A fun fact about Socrates, is that he was not a very good looking person. He was just an old hag who walked around barefoot. When he had the chance to escape his punishment, Socrates denied it. He was thought of as a hero to the people. 

Socrates the philosopher

 During Human Geography today we had a discussion about the vocab words we defined. Technically it wasn't really a discussion because Mr. Schick did most of the talking we just listened. The words we defined were all connected to Ancient Greece. We learned in class that the Greeks pretty much invented democracy. We also learned that the Greeks were known for their theater productions and also for their philosophy. One of the philosophers from ancient Greece was a man named Socrates. His way of teaching was to ask a lot of questions so that the Athenians could learn to think for themselves. Since Socrates was such a valued person, the government thought of him as a threat. He made them look foolish by questioning them, and later sentenced to execution. 

Vocabulary for Ancient Greece

Agora- A place where people meet for assemblies  

Arête- excellence

Polis- a city state in ancient Greece

The year 508 BC-  the year of the first revolution in history

Socrates- He was an ancient Greek philosopher known for start of the western philosophy.

The death of Socrates- he questioned the tyrant and was forced to drink poison

The Socratic method- a way of teaching that requires a lot of questions and answers

“Idiot”- a person in ancient Greece who doesn’t vote