Longitude

Today in class we continued our notes on longitude and latitude, focusing more on the longitude portion of it. Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the Earth's surface. The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich, England, and is given the position of 0 degrees longitude. Longitude Lines are known as Meridians, just like latitude lines are known as parallel. They run in North and South direction. Latitude lines run in east- west directions. Longitude lines are farthest apart at the equator and meet at the poles. They're equal in length and are halves of great circles.During class today we were taking notes and we always take notes in the dark and when we walk through the classroom it's always dark and today Mr. Schick finally told someone to turn them on and it was such a weird feeling like it felt unnatural for the lights to be on, but it was kinda cool.

Grids and Time zones (ways of describing where things are)

In class today, we continued working with maps and focused more on the longitude latitude part of them. Geography is the study of where things are found on the Earth's surface and the reason for there locations. Two important questions about this were: Where are people and activities found on Earth? and Why are they found there. The definition of a map is basically a two dimensional or flat-scale model of the Earth's surface (or a portion of it). Maps are made by cartographers. Cartography is the art and science of mapmaking. Maps serve two purposes. As a reference tool to identify an objects absolute and relative location , or it can be used as a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Absolute location as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude (north or south of the equator) and longitude (east or west Prime Meridian). Relative location is the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position other places. Latitude is measured by imaginary lines running parallel to the equator.

situation- notes

Today in human geo we talked about how situation is the location of a place relative to other places. When it comes to situation on a map finding an unfamiliar place and understanding its importance should be what you look for. Some places are important because they are accessible to other places due to their location. Mr. Schick went around and asked some of us where our copybooks came from and most people said from Vietnam. We were discussing how a lot of US merchandise and such are designed here but sent over to Asia for manufactory because the labor laws and pay are less expensive and strict. We learned from one of the exchange students from Beijing, China, Tom, that kids over there could honestly get away with working underage as young as like sixteen years old. The health benefits are also really bad over there and they don't really see it as their problem.

Site- notes

Today in human geo we discussed how there are physical characteristics of places such as (climate, water sources, topography, soil, and vegetation), this is called site. The factors of a site where some settle can also depend on their culture. This method of observation was probably often used when people first started to settle in new places. Humans have the ability to modify the characteristics of a site. Some people when they are settling, choose places with a body of water nearby because for some it’s an easy food source. We also talked about how certain foods cannot grow in the environment of the US. For example, bananas, coffee beans, avocados, and a few more. Where you decide to settle usually benefits your living styles in a way. So if you were a farmer you would try to pick a place with good soil and lots of open space for crops. If the climate in the area you chose to grow stuff is always cold and bad weather for ur plants, then it would impact your living situation in a way.

Map game screenshots

Getting our tests back !!

Today in human geo we got our Message to Garcia and excellence tests back and reviewed them. I actually did really good on it and got a 102 overall because of the bonus question. I also got 20/20 on both of my essays and I was really proud of them. As I was taking the test the multiple choice was super easy so i'm glad I got them all right. I made a quizlet to help me remember most of the info on the test and it was really easy to recall all of it. I like how on the test Mr. Schick put facebook like icon stamps on mine. Rachel put me in her blog today about how I did really good on my test and that was really sweet of her. I also found out from Mr. Schick that I was the only one in the superhuman geo class to get over 100 which was exciting.

Mercator Projection v. Gall-Peters Projection Maps

The most popular version is the Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It's been widely used for centuries, including today in various forms by Google Maps and many other online services. This map has imaginary lines that cut all meridians at the same angle, that makes it a useful tool for navigation. Because the Earth is roughly spherical, every flat map distorts our planet one way or another. Despite its benefits, the Mercator projection drastically distorts the size and shape of objects approaching the poles. A few things wrong with this map is the fact that it shows that Greenland is roughly the same size of Africa, but in reality can fit inside Africa about 14 times. Another misconception of the mercator is that it makes Antartica look like it dwarfs all the continents. In reality it looks like the second - smallest continent. The Gall-Peters Projection map makes seeing the relative size of places much easier.  this version comes closer to showing that what we percieve as land mass in the "South" is nearly twice as big as the "North"— 38.6 million square miles compared to 18.9 million square miles. The Mercator, however, makes the North look much larger. 

Map tingz

Today in human geo we talked about the differences in three different maps on board and described details we noticed about them. So there was three different maps hanging up on the white board and Mr. Schick had us go up to them and write down in our notebooks what we saw on them. On map A, the colors were a little bit more dull then the other two, there were route signs all over, the light water represented the shallow end of the deeper parts of the bodies of water, and it showed topography- which just means the map showed the ridges of the mountain ranges. On map B there was a compass, all of the oceans and seas were labeled, the continents were labeled, countries were different colors, and both map A and B were mercator maps. Map C had bold letters and the colors were more bright and bold.

Test day !!

Today we took the test covering all the info we learned on "A message to Garcia" and Excellence. Last night I created a quizlet with most of the information I thought we would have to know for the test. I practiced reviewing all the info by doing the "learn" part of the quizlet. I think it really helped me a lot because when I got the test i felt pretty prepared and like I would have a chance of doing pretty good on it. I answered all the multiple choice questions pretty easily, but I wasn't expecting to have to write two big essay's. My hand hurt after the first essay we had to write. I felt that I put a lot of thought into the first one. The second one didn't take me too much time because it was more of an opinionated question, so it was a little bit easier to get my thoughts out onto the page.

Finishing "Excellence" slides & 9/11 disscussion

Today in class we got new seats and I really like where I sit now. After we got new seats, we talked about how in 508 BC democracy was introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes and its importance. We also had a thorough discussion about the impact of Socrates and his method. Socrates worked as a stonemason as a young man and also fought heroically in the Peloponnesian War. Due to his background, it shaped the way he saw the world. Since he saw nothing wrong with him giving kids a chance to think for themselves  and thinking about the other possibilities of things, he was charged withe the crimes of corruption of the Athen youth, and impiety. When he was put on trial with 500 people in the jury, he blatantly admitted to his "crimes", but didn't see the fault in them, he was put on death sentence. It was interesting though because he literally admitted to what they considered was a crime and 221 of the 500 still pleaded him not guilty. Anyway he later had the opportunity to get out of his death sentence by escaping but refused, proving his loyalty to Athenian democracy. Poisoned hemlock was what caused his death.

On this day 18 years ago, the tragic event that affected the whole world happened: 9/11.  Mr. Schick discussed his experience on this day.

Agora- a central public space in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning of the word is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life in the city.

Polis- a city state in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes.

The importance of the year 508 BC to the ancient Greeks- Democracy is introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes. (1st time in history rose up against leaders and over threw them) He establishes a constitution and is often called the "Father of Athenian Democracy". This is one of the great accomplishments of the Greek culture.

Socrates- was a classical Greek philosopher who is credited with laying the fundamentals of modern Western philosophy. He is known for creating Socratic irony and the Socratic method. He has had a profound influence on Western philosophy, along with his students Plato and Aristotle.

The death of Socrates- The Suicide of Socrates, 399 BC. On a day in 399 BC the philosopher Socrates stood before a jury of 500 of his fellow Athenians accused of "refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state" and of "corrupting the youth." If found guilty; his penalty could be death. poisoned

The Socratic Method- a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. It is a dialectical method, involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view is questioned; one participant may lead another to contradict

more on the letter to Garcia

In the beginning of class we talked about how back in the day the teachers were allowed to hit the students with no consequences taken and how it was a very normal system. Personally I couldn't imagine going to school and the teachers being allowed to hit you, like that's terrible. Anyway after that little discussion, we continued working with the A message from Garcia letter. Today instead or reading the actual letter, we went more into the backstory and the specifics of everything. I learned a couple of new things today that I found pretty interesting. For example the fact that apparently Alaska and Hawaii weren't always states and there were 48 at one time. I also learned that the tallest mountain in North America was Mount McKinley, which was changed back to its original name, Mount Denali. The A Message from Garcia letter was so liked by the people who had read it, that it was created into a movie twice! One time in 1916 and another in 1936. When the letter was reprinted as a pamphlet, it sold over 40 million copies. It was also translated into 37 languages. "Take a message to Garcia became an expression for taking initiative. It is sometimes used in the Military.

A Message To Garcia

In today's Human Geo class Mr. Schick reinforced the rule that any day we have class, we have to blog which I wasn't aware of until today, but i'll try to stay on top of these.  After that we read an essay called "A Message to Garcia", written in 1899 by Elbert Hubbard. I was one of the first people to have to get up to read and surprisingly I really wasn't that nervous about it. Anyway the essay was about the Spanish-American War and the president needed this guy Rowan to deliver a very important letter to someone of the name Garcia. In the story it seemed like Rowan was a very get the job done kinda guy because as soon as McKinley gave him the duty to do that he delivered the letter right away, even though he had to go through a lot to complete the task, he got it done. Now when there was another thing needed to be done- this time much more simple, the clerk that was asked to do it refused and questioned them instead of just following through with it. After reading Hubbard's essay, the connections with the story and our discussion of the difficulties of high school are kinda similar. Like in the Hubbard story there was a guy who was willing to do his work no questions asked , but there was also a guy who was kind of trying to get out of it or half do it. So maybe that the hardworking guy represents a student who tries to be on top of all their work and the other guy is like a student who can't really stay on top of their work and other things. To be honest I kinda just took a wild guess on this so sorry if it doesn't make sense.

2nd Official Day of Human Geo

Hi Mr. Schick, since I was unaware of the fact that we needed to write a blog everyday we have class I forgot to write the one for Wednesday so here it is.

 Wednesday was our first official day of Human geo and it went pretty well. The whole class we were pretty much just finishing setting up our blogs if you weren't able to do it the night before. Since I had my blog completely finished and set up, I was able to help another student set up his, Tom Chen. His computer was completely in Chinese so it was a little difficult to help him out, but in the end I was able to help him set up his human geo blog up too. After everyone in the class was done with their blog set up, we discussed the things that may or may not be difficult about high school. For example like time management, keeping up with grades and learning to balance ur school and social life. Out of those topics I related to the the time management part of it. I fell like i've always struggled with time management and putting my school work first before activities and stuff. I feel like I have been pretty good about it so far this school year, but i do baton twirling and the season hasn't started yet so it has been easier to put all my focus on school recently.

First Day @ JC

1)   Today was the first day of school and there were many ups and downs to it. A few of the good things about my day were probably the fact that I was able to open my locker much more easily. I struggled with the combination lock the day of freshmen orientation which made me feel like I wouldn't be able to get it open when school started, that made me a lot more anxious than I already was. Which is why it was relieving when I found out I could unlock it much easier. Another good thing about my first day at John Carroll was how I didn't have to carry that many books around and I got to re connect with some friends throughout the day. Some events that weren't so good today would be when I got off from mod 4 getting ready to head to lunch, but I had to go up to my locker on the 3rd floor and put away some books. Doing all of that resulted in me getting to the cafeteria late and having to wait in a very long line to buy lunch. Another thing that happened today that I didn't like was me not being  on time for math at the end of the day because I couldn't find my classroom.  Those were all of my best and worsts parts of my first day.


2) I like the seat I was given in Human Geography because I have trouble seeing the board sometimes and it's really convieneient that I'm in the front. I also like my seat because it's on the end of the classroom so I have easy access to the door and I can get my phone easily as were leaving. A reason I don't really like my seat that much is because I'm not really near any friends, but other than that it's good.