Population Pyramids

In class, we watched a video about populations of different countries and how they increase and decrease. It all depends on the reproductive system of each country and it will determine if the population is growing faster or slower. There were some questions we had to answer on our class blog and the first answer to number one would be A: over 10 million. The second answer would be that the pyramid shape becomes inverted when a country's population growth slows down. The third answer would be that the Population Pyramid video does NOT give information on the death rates. The last answer would be that North America would be one of the fast-growth pyramids. The whole idea of all this is that the population changes pretty much every second. The death rate changes and so does the birth rate. Babies can be born almost every second in the world and people can die any second in the world. It shows how fast the population changes and how it gets better or worse. The overall population in the world is over 7 billion and it keeps changing right this second. I am not really sure when it was 6 billion or when it wasn't over 7 billion, but I think it's been 7 billion for many years and it just keeps going up. The country that has the largest population in the world is China which isn't surprising because China is a huge country and it keeps developing every day. The second highest is India which also makes sense because it is a very large country and even though it's not any where as close as China to be developed, it's population is very big. The third country is the US which I always thought the US had way more people than 323 million, but apparently it is much smaller than China and India. The population pyramids show many things and it tells you why the population changes without even having any words. You can just tell by the numbers going up or down to know how it changes and why.

CIA World Factbook

Yesterday in class, we were exploring more of the CIA fact book. The fact book is really nice because  you can learn a lot about different countries you want to know about or maybe you never even heard of. In class, some people showed us some facts they thought were interesting and cool about the statistics of some other countries. Some I thought were interesting were that the number 1 religion in Bangladesh is Muslim. Also that the country Chad has a very low literacy percentage. The other categories were like the life expectancies and the ethnic groups and languages etc. I also like how there are some pictures for every country just to get an idea of what there is in those countries and how it looks. Also, when you go on each like fact page of every country, it shows the flag and where it is located in the world. There are so many things you can learn about anything you pretty much want to know. 96.8% of people in Albania can read and write which I think is interesting because I wasn't sure they really cared as much about education maybe because they don't really speak any English. Most of the people in Barbados are black, about 92% to be more specific, and only like 2% are white. The literacy percentage in Barbados is like 99% which is really good and that means the country is developing more and may even be close to being fully developed. The expected number of years people are in school there are about 15, which makes sense and you could tell that education is more important so maybe people who live there could get more job opportunities in the US like to run a business. The economy in Barbados seems stable, but it's still trying to develop and get better in every way possible. There are tons of facts I could list but that would be too much to write. The CIA fact book just shows how much information the CIA can get from every country there is from the biggest country in the world to the smallest.

Fertility Rates and other notes

Today in class we talked about the fertility rates of the world and different countries. Fertility rate means the average number of children born per woman. For a population to remain the same, the total fertility rate must be 2.1. If it's more than 2.1, than the population increases. If it's less than 2.1, than the population decreases. The worldwide TFR is 2.47 which is much higher and that means the population keeps on growing and increasing. The US is 2.06 which is a little bigger but not by much. Nigeria's TFR is probably the highest in the world. It is 5.38. The rate is so high there because women have more children in Nigeria so they will have more kids to have in their family and some will live longer. Children in Nigeria die more often because of malaria and other diseases that kill people at a much younger age. They are more than devastated when any of their children die, but they have more so they can be sure that they will have some kids to look after and love. It sounds crazy and horrible but Nigeria is still a developing country and things like this happen because of the starvation rate and other issues that occur in Nigeria. There are many reasons why people migrate and move to live somewhere that is better for themselves and their lifestyles. There are push and pull forces that occur in places and countries that entice people to migrate where they choose to. Some reasons could be wars, job opportunities or having unemployment. Also, religious or racial issues could create problems and make people migrate because they feel victimized. In the world, there are many rates and categories that are measured in different ways and they will change dramatically in anyway.

Reviewing Our Test

Today in class, we got our tests back and went over the whole test. We reviewed the test so we had all the right answers because some of the questions could be on our mid-term. I got an 86% on the test but I thought I would have done better. My problem was the essays because I worded them weird and wasn't as clear as I should have been on what I was talking about. I also thought that my details weren't as great as I wished they were. Overall it wasn't that bad for the first test ever. I did really like how the test was set up and how I knew pretty much everything because we would always talk about what was important and what would be on the test. I hope the future tests will be the same. Even though the essays were what tripped me up, I will learn an easier way for me to write them that will make much more sense. I do think that the next test will be harder though because we will have many terms we will need to remember the definitions for. I also did think there should be only 3 essays because there are so many details that we need to include that it might be easier if we didn't have as many essays. It also might take a while to just complete one because we want to write it well and have good complete sentences. I actually like Human Geo as a class I think it's pretty simple and we don't have to do as much work as some other classes. I have an A in this class which is good but the test did take me down to a 90 which isn't bad but I want to try and bring it back to the 100 I had in the beginning. I hope to be successful in this class and learn a lot.

World Statistics

Yesterday in class, we learned about some of the world's statistics. Some of the ones I learned I was really surprised about. Like the fact that the U.S. is number 18 in the most obese country. I'm not trying to say anything bad, but it just seems the U.S. would be a much smaller number in ranking. I say this because our diet is not as good as it should be. We eat a lot of red meat and fried food. That's one reason why I thought it would go up. Also, how the younger generation isn't as active as it used to be. Like in the old days, kids rode their bikes to school and anywhere they really wanted or needed. That's another reason that it didn't make as much sense as I thought. Maybe it did go up because the date that was updated was in like 2008. There are so many interesting world statistics. One I thought was different was that Vatican City was the smallest country in the world. I didn't even know it was considered a county. Also, how Monaco is a very successful county because of its wealth and the diet people have that live there and visit there. I really want to visit it there one day. There was another county named Chad that seemed to be ranked pretty poorly in some categories. Like where the diet wasn't good, and how people starve which is absolutely terrible. I'm hoping that it can rank in better places and that the country can get better in every way and be more developed. The life expectancies were interesting too. The ranking number for the U.S. is 94 out of every other country in the world. Our birth rate is much higher because people just aren't having many babies they used to. The country with the lowest death rate is Quatar. I'm not so sure where Quatar is in the world, but I'm thinking it may be located in the or near the Middle East. All these statistics show drastically how much the world changes each and every day.

Population

Today we started our second unit which is about population and migration. We learned more about the population of the world today rather than migration. I know we are going to start discussing that later. There are many things we talked about that kinda made me worry. We talked about the life expectancy of many countries. Life expectancy means the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. The US is number 50. The women life expectancy is around 82 and the men are around 70. I didn't expect the US to be in the top ten or anywhere near number 1. I think that because of how people in the US take care of themselves. Our diet isn't where it should be and that is very true for young people. I feel like other counties have it more figured out than we do. I am not saying we aren't developed, it's just we need help in some areas. Such as diet, how we take care of our bodies and much more. There are so many people in the world and the number keeps increasing very quickly. There are over 7 billion people in the world and everyday that number keeps going up. The number also increases by over 73 million a year. 90% of this population growth takes place in the developing countries of Africa, South and East Asia and Latin America. Some countries are fully developed and some are still trying to develop. For the most part, the US is developed. Other places like Africa, aren't as developed as they should be. This could be because of the cause of many things. It could simply be because they have technology but it is not as advanced, or maybe they don't have technology at all. It could also be because some countries in Africa are poor and don't have the vital resources for the people who live there. Many other countries all around the world are the same. These statistics show just how much the world changes all the time.

Test

I thought the first Human Geo test wasn't bad at all. It wasn't really long and didn't take that much time, the essays probably took the longest. I didn't think that the essays were hard, I was kind of expecting them and the questions were not too complex it was like everything we learned and talked about. There didn't seem to be any surprises which is really good for a first test in the class because later on, we will be prepared and familiar with how it will be set up. I also liked how there was a lot to write for the little essays. It was an easy question to answer and there were a lot of details to put into the writing. You didn't have to like guess because you forgot or didn't know what to write. I think and hope I did really well because this will be like my first real grade for Human Geo. I liked the length of the test too because usually test are much longer than quizzes and this was a test so it was fair with how long it was. I was happy there weren't really any true or false because I always seem to mess them up and put the wrong answer. There was only one but I think I got it correct because it was kind of a common sense question. I really want to get them back tomorrow and see my grade because I want to see how I did. Overall, the test wasn't bad at all and I think I knew all the answers and got them right except one. The one was like a percentage question and you had to like really know and remember it if you wanted to get it right. I think that is the only one I got wrong. Another thing I thought was nice is that we could use our blog for answers. I think my blog helped me a lot because some things I had to check and make sure they were right such as definitions. I hope in the future we will be able to use our blog because it really helps. I hope my grade was really good on this test because I felt like I did well and felt confident about it.

Review in class today

Today we reviewed everything for our first Human Geo test on Wednesday. The test is on pretty much everything we talked about since the first day of class. It seems pretty easy once your pretty familiar with what we learned. A message to Garcia, ancient Greece, Socrates, and Globalization are all included. I think this unit was pretty easy to understand even though I haven't really learned any of it before. In middle school, I learned about like how the US came to be and all the successful people that were involved in building our country. I think learning about ancient Greece and Socrates was interesting because it was new and kinda crazy to believe. When we learn about the greek gods and how people were in ancient Greece, it's kind of hard to believe. I don't mean that in any bad way, I am just saying that it's hard for us to really take in how it used to be. I thought the story on Socrates was interesting because he stood up for what he believed in. He was willing to die for it and it was admiring to hear how passionate he was about it. He thought that what he did was right and he had no defense. He felt like he didn't need to prove to people things that they couldn't understand. It was cool to hear about it because you always think that is so inspiring. It is inspiring because it shows how people defend themselves and some people are too scared to even try. Most people just brush things off when something bad happens and they don't draw attention. They should stand up for themselves and their rights. The story of Socrates and his death illustrated that. After all, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Globalization

Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. It is what connects all the countries and the continents. They aren't connected physically, but socially and connected through business. I think that globalization is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that people all around the world can be more connected and can relate more. Even though the world and people will never be perfect, people can relate and accept everyone the way they are in some ways. The bad thing is that people who are in different parts in the world could lose some of their culture. They could do things differently and eat certain things that could be from other places but forget about their food in their culture. Everyone and every place has their own originality. It is what makes them unique and they need that. In some ways, globalization could ruin that. People might be so hooked on something new from lets say the US and love the idea, but they forget about their own things they created and not care anymore. I know that seems kind of extreme because why would anyone actually do that, but it could occur in some ways. For example, in China, there are many McDonald's that are going into business and are affecting the youth. Young people might not eat with their families or even want to eat Chinese food. They probably like how it is faster and more convenient and you can eat it whenever. Especially, people who are in college or even high school because they need to keep track of time. Their breaks are limited and they need to get food faster. Fast food restaurants from the US most likely, can make things easier when it comes to their meals. Businesses are not the only thing that are globalized. Globalization is also the expansion of international, cultural, economic, and political activities. Globalization changes almost everything, the way people live and the way people think. Globalization makes things more modern and updated.

Being Absent Today

I was absent today because I was really sick. I think there is a bad cold going around and of course I got it. I did absolutely nothing and when it got later, I had to do more homework. There are pros of being sick, but then there cons. A pro would be not going to school that day. The cons are worse though because you have to make up work and homework from like two days. It's not fun at all. Having this type of cold makes it even worse though because you feel like you can't breathe. You feel really dizzy and tired all the time. You don't even want to eat, your appetite is like limited because you just don't care about food. That is weird because all you want to do is eat right everyday. Not when you are sick, all I've been eating is soup and I can't even taste anything. Also, I've lost my voice and I couldn't even talk today. I was thinking about coming to school because this is my second day over the course of only three weeks. I don't really know why I have been getting really sick lately. I never really get sick like I can't remember the last time I had a cold this bad. It has probably been like two years. It is very rare for me to get sick at all. I know some people who get sick a lot and miss a lot of school. I am not one of those people which is good, because it's really annoying. There is just so much work you have to make up. I don't think it is anyone's cup of tea. I think it is just weird how the time I have to be sick twice, is when I just started high school and I am still trying to get used to everything. I am trying really hard the rest of today to get better and be ready for school tomorrow. At   least it is Friday and almost the weekend. I think it will be much easier to be more prepared. I have to be ready for tomorrow and wake up on the right side of the bed.

DID YOU KNOW VIDEO

Today in class we watched a video called Did You Know. The video was talking about the future and some predictions that people think will happen with technology and pretty much things in life. One fact was that China will become the number one English speaking country. I thought that was really interesting and kinda crazy. I thought it was crazy because I always thought that the US was the number one English speaking country. The percentage already is high, but since China motivates everyone to always continue to learn English, it all makes sense. Also, their will be many more job opportunities than people from China who only speak Chinese. Another fact is that schools are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet. I thought that was weird because I thought why would they do that? Since so much can change in only a year, it's necessary. The technology is already so advanced, it will be even more advanced in the future. Another thing I thought was interesting was that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest behind China and India. I know that Facebook is kind of outdated to my generation and Twitter and Instagram are very popular and used way more. Reading that statement is crazy because imagine if Twitter or Instagram was a country, there would be billions of people in that country. It's extreme to think about how powerful social media is and what it could do in the future. Technology is going to change the world very soon, but I think that it already is.

Today's class - Debate

Today in class we had a debate on our seating arrangements. At first, we were assigned seats and some people didn't like the idea too much. Personally, I didn't care because it really is only a seat for one class. Other people had different opinions on the whole predicament. Some people agreed with me and didn't care as much. Some people really hated their seats and pretty much demanded to be allowed to move. We kinda handled the problem like the Greeks did whenever they were in the agora and had different opinions. A few people came up the the podium and gave a speech of their reasons and opinions to the seating arrangements. One person came up and said that we should be able to change seats because we would be more comfortable and have people to talk to more rather than people we didn't know. In my opinion, I like meeting new people and getting to know them. It's nice to because you might share the same interests. Sometimes people don't feel that it's as easy because they don't know what to talk about with people they barely know. They feel there isn't an icebreaker they can think of. I do understand that because I have been in the same position before. Change is going to happen though, and it's great. After we had some speeches given, the whole class took a vote. Half the class voted to change seats, the other half simply didn't care or they liked their seat. In the end, we did all change seats and everybody seemed happy.

Extra Info from notes on Socrates and ancient Greece

Yesterday, we learned more about Socrates and ancient Greece. Some of the terms we had to define, we have more details on. Arete has more meaning than just great excellence. It means moral virtue and being a good person. Also, being noble and the best you can be. It was important to the people of ancient Greece because they always wanted you to live up to your potential. They wanted there people to be good and genuine. Polis meant more than just a city. It was the perfect and ideal place to live. Everyone in ancient Greece wanted things to be as perfect as they could, including their manners and even where they lived. In 508 BC, Clesthenes granted full rights to all the free men of Athens. Women were not allowed to vote, therefore they were not granted rights. During this time period, the birth of democracy began. People of ancient Greece also revolted against their leaders. In ancient Greece, there was a philosopher named Socrates. He was also one of the founders of Western philosophy. One of his students was Plato, who wrote a lot about Socrates life. A famous quote of Socrates was "The unexamined life is not worth living." I think this means that you have to do many things in life, because you need to live or it's not worth it. Socrates is saying that you have to do something with your life and yourself. The death of Socrates was pretty admiring. During his trial, he didn't defend himself as much. He just said that anything he taught or ever said to a group of people, he stood by. He believed in and was passionate about what he did. People told him that they would take him away from Athens and he wouldn't have to go to prison. He refused because he was willing to die for what he believed in. He was sentenced to die by poison hemlock and that was the end. 

Define Terms Assignment

• Agora- a central spot in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning would be "gathering place" or "assembly." It was very important to most people in ancient Greece. The agora was the center of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the city. Agora was like the meeting place where some people would gather for military purposes or situations involving the council.
• Arete- means excellence of any kind it also means "moral virtue." In early Greece, this notion of excellence was pretty important to the citizens of ancient Greece. 
• Polis- means city in Greek. It also means citizenship and body of citizens. An example of one popular city-state would be Classical Athens. Acropolis of Athens was a noted polis of ancient Greece.
• The year 508 BC- this year was part of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. During the Roman empire it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Poplicola and Tricipitinus. There were many wars taking place in 508 BC. It was the overthrow of Roman monarchy and the beginning of the Republican period.
• Socrates- was a Greek philosopher and he was one of the founders of Western philosophy. Facts about his life would be known from the writings of his students, Plato and Xenophon. He was born in 470 BCE, and died in 399 BC.
• The death of Socrates- is a oil on canvas painting by a French painter named Jacques-Louis David. Socrates was sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. They sentenced him because he was introducing strange gods and by destroying the youth of Athens.
• The Socratic Method- is also known as the method of elenchus. It was also a negative method of hypothesis elimination. It was a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with different point of views based on asking and answering questions to start critical thinking and illuminate ideas.
• Word for idiot- a private person, someone who was not involved in politics. They weren't usually made public. They were also called intellectually disabled people.

SOURCES:

Wikipedia

http://www.biography.com/people/socrates-9488126

Elbert Hubbard

Today in class, we talked about Elbert Hubbard who wrote A Message to Garcia. He was always confused by why people were never trustworthy. They just never did what he wanted them to. A message to Garcia is about President Mckinley and he needs a message delivered to Garcia. During that time, the Spanish-American war was going on. Garcia was in Cuba, and the President needed someone who was reliable to send the message. There was this guy named Rowan who was always willing to send anything and he made it seem like it would always get there. President Mckinley gave it to Rowan to give the message to Garcia who was in still in Cuba. It took Rowan a while to get the message to Cuba, but he did just in time. Elbert Hubbard wrote A Message to Garcia in 1899 and was copied countless times. Hubbard also wrote many other pieces, but I think the most famous was A Message to Garcia. The whole story itself is pretty interesting. It kind of relates to some things that happen in real life, even today. The story is like a life lesson, that teaches that people won't always take your trust as something to take seriously, they might just play around and not take it seriously.