Sudan Refugees Documentary

                  Today we started watching a very informative and interesting video.The video was about refugees that escaped the civil war in Sudan. I was unaware of the horrible conflicts that were happening. The war was in the year 1983, the same year Pope John II named 18 new cardinals. When the war occurred more than 2 million people died.The country of Sudan is a sub-Saharan nation which means its South of the Sahara Desert. When the brutal war broke out over 86,000 refugees from Sudan traveled more than 1,000 miles through bad weather, disease and animal attacks all the way to Kenya. Later on in years to come the United States offered to refugees the opportunity to come the United States and start fresh. A problem would be that some of these refugees have never used electricity before and weren't willing to venture outside there comfort zones in order to have a new life.

CIA Factbook Scavenger Hunt

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, Brazil

3. What is the population of Pakistan? 193,238,868

4. What kind of government does the United States have? Federal Republic

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? Venezuel

12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military? Yes

13. What is GDP

         Gross Domestic Product

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it?

          Qatar        103,900

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

          No we are number 14

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

          Africa 

17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent?  Africa
19. What other country is in the top ten? India                        

21. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths? 7th

22. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones? No, we are 3rd.

23. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic? Roman Catholic 23.9%,

24. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic? Roman Catholic 82.7%

25. What is Net Migration Rate? The figure for the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons.

26. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? No, we are ranked 29th

27. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet? 7,095,217,980

CIA Fact Book

Today in class we discussed a little of what we went over yesterday plus we looked at country statistics. We explored a website called CIA fact book which gave us detailed descriptions on country and things that would be helpful in a paper such as population, government type an economic status. I think was a very cool and useful website that I could see myself putting to use in the future. Some neat things about this website are that in addition to population and government it gave things like crude birth rate which is the average of children per woman. The top 11 countries in this category were all from Africa. The reason I think this is happening because the health care and life expectancy are so weak that they have so many children in hopes to have a child reach adulthood. In conclusion Mr.Schick introduced to new and helpful resources.

World Population

Today in class we discussed terms and other things we should know for the new and upcoming unit. We had a plethora of new terms that we learned about. For example crude birth rate. I have never heard of this word but I was familiar with some others such as life expectancy. On top of these new terms we watched a power point that Mr.Schick created for the sake of the class. I was interested in this power point because he brought up some cool facts like how the world’s population has grown. Did you know that it took 10,000 plus years for the earth’s population to reach 1 billion and then from then on the number of years it takes for another billion keeps decreasing. It was a very interesting class.

Test Day 1

              Today was our first test of Human Geography class in our High School career. The test consisted of 10 multiple choice questions and 3 essay questions which weren't that difficult. I was pretty sure that I knew the answer to the 10 questions and I was confident on 2 of the 3 essays but that 1 essay gave me some trouble and had me concerned about the outcome due to the fact that the 1 essay was 20 points.The test was extremely boring but i was able to get through it. I dont look forward to another test but i do look forward to this weekend. MIKE..MIKE..MIKE.MIKE guess what day it is?? FRIDAY!

Presentation Day

Today in class we had a few presentation on the Globalization project and we also discussed parts of the test coming up in a week. Mr.Schick had most of the groups present the power points they have been working on diligently. None of the groups had volunteered to go first when Mr.Schick asked I gladly and proudly rose my hand. With this my group presented first. We did a good job from my perspective and we gathered enough information to inform the class on our belief of Globalization. When the other groups went I would take notes on the representation so I could understand where they were coming from. Lastly we talked about his upcoming test and what materials were especially important such as Ancient Greece and other important topics. 

Nike Schmike

Today in class we reviewed and talked about the Nike hate video yesterday. This video was very shocking and informative at the same time. I took a lot away from the video in class but what I found is that people will forget about this later on in the year. It is truly a shame what the Nike executives do to the very poor Indonesian workers. For example the poor as it is workers are paid 4.00 dollars a day, not an hour, a day and the Nike executives want them to cut their pay down to 3.70 a day. When you count all the workers in Indonesia the 30 cent pay cut is only saving this multi-billion dollar company 50,000 dollars. Meanwhile plenty of wealthy endorsers are making millions in endorsement money alone. But you don’t see Nike cutting their contracts down instead it’s the workers that live in poverty. So at the end of the day you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? 

Nike is not Nice

Today in class we explored real life pros and cons. A man named Jim and a woman named Leslie went to a Nike Factory in Indonesia to explore what is was like for the “sweatshop” workers. The reason they felt compelled to do this is because people argued that the conditions and wages they endured were perfect and nothing wrong with it so they tried it out. The two of them could not stand the conditions because it was inhumane . The 1.25 wages were enough for two meals a day in a 15 hour working day. They slept in a 8 by 8 cement room with one window and temperatures reached up to 100 degrees. They actually got sick and discovered many other problems which make the conditions “imperfect”. 

Nightmare on Human Geo Street

             Friday The 13ths class was a productive class for some parts and other parts not so much. But I like that about my Human Geography class, we gets things done and we have fun doing it. We were introduced to Google Documents a few classes ago and we are now really starting to get in the swing of using it. We were assigned groups for a Google Power Point which works like Google Documents. The topic of the Power Point is Globalization. Our group was undecided on a name for the Power Point so I step into the leadership role and said that it should be called That Globalization Life only because it sounded hip, the rest of the group didn't like it. But probably the highlight of my day in Friday’s class was the fact that I got to wear the Happy Birthday hat which was sparkly and rainbow colors.

Silk Birthday Party

                Today in class we talked about a few different topics. Since are class is notorious for getting Mr.Schick distracted we were given the challenge of getting him off topic. We got close but weren't able to succeed. We also discussed more of Globalization and how American industry helps employ native people in foreign countries that are in need of a job. Such as a McDonald's in China will give Chinese people jobs. I think “Americanization is beneficial to everyone economically speaking. Something I found crazy was the examples of globalization thousands of years ago. Such as if you wanted silk which many people did they had to get to get it from the Chinese because they were the only ones who knew how to make real silk. As a result of the Chinese being a major resource for people’s needs the road used to cross into China was named the Silk Road which is an ironic name. On top of this all….it’s my BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!

McChange

Today in class we talked about globalization. This is a subject that is pretty general so we needed a definition but the problem is this word has many definitions. Mr.Schick ended up giving us a definition from a website that was sufficient for the sake of the class.  We also talked about “Americanization” which is a made up term that means the same as globalization but this is specific to USA because no other country is as good as the United States at globalization. Japan was famous for eating healthy foods such as rice and sushi and this made Japan a healthy country that had longer life expectancy. Globalization came into play and now there is McDonalds and other unhealthy restaurants in Japan and it is becoming less and less healthy. It is unfortunate that this is happening but this is the way world is becoming and people and countries are just going to have to roll with it.

Google and stuff

Today in class we talked about a new technology. We talked about Google documents. I had never heard of this before or made one so this class was going to be a valuable time. The program was not downloaded on to my computer or anyone else’s in the class so we took some down downloading the program and getting past “forbidden territories”. A lot of students were experiencing blocked signals but I was not getting anything. I thought my computer was going to change screens when I downloaded it but it didn't. I accidentally downloaded the program 7 times. I told Mr.Schick and he knew what to do and the problem was sorted out. After we found out how to get me started on Google documents I was off and running. Dylan and Jon were the other group member I worked with. Jon and I came up with 14 “test questions” and Dylan went to the IT department to get is slow computer fixed. Hopefully the next time we use it he will be on board. 

Did You Know?

                          In Friday’s class we learned a lot of neat stuff. We took a look at a YouTube clip and saw astonishing facts. A few facts that really caught my attention were facts like, China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world. This one was such a big deal to me because at first I was thinking how China can speak English more than primarily English speaking countries and the reason is they have more than double the  United States population and English is the trading language. Another crazy fact is the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exists in 2004. I couldn't believe this because I didn't think so many jobs could have changed that drastically. Now let me ask you a question, what do you think are the 3 largest countries? Well if you guessed Facebook as number 3 then you were right. If Facebook were country it would be the 3^rd largest due to the number of members. I would be a member of “Facebook land” because I have an account and so do 800 million other people.

Homosexuality, Horses and more!

                       Today in class we talked about homosexual or same gender marriage and some others things that are hard to describe. Laugh out loud. It all started with Mr.Schick asking what are thoughts about same sex marriage were and then we got off topic. My opinion on homosexual marriage is that I would not vote for it. I think it should not be allowed. The reason I say this is because I am pretty sure that it says in the bible that it is not allowed. Also I find it disturbing when they “interact”. After we discussed this topic for a little bit somebody said “it should be legal because in Texas you can marry your horse” and obviously this caused an uproar. Nobody was quite sure if this was a true statement so everyone went to websites to find the truth. We ended up with answers from grogtheugly4 and other unbelievable names and we are still unsure on the truth of this topic. I look forward to the next interesting conversation are Human Geography has next class.

Review Day

                   Today in class we went over the Greek terms and definitions. I blogged about the terms on Friday and had already knew a little about the terms because of prior knowledge. We went over the importance of each term and why we needed to know it. It was a fun class because Mr.Schick is a good teacher and always keeps the class engaged. If someone looks like there dozing off he makes a noise that is sure to keep to them interested. We weren't able to get through all the terms but we were able to get through most. The only ones we didn't get to were the death of Socrates and his method as well as what the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot. Mr.Schick is one of my favorite teachers and at the end of class he said “Congratulations you made it through another day of high school” this comment brighten my day and I’m thankful he’s my teacher.

Greek terms and definitions

All definitions are in my own words

Agora-The main place where the whole community would meet for social gatherings or events

Arete-Being the best you can be at anything

Polis-A city in Greece where people lived, for example: Sparta

508 BC-Athens established there government

Socrates- A popular Greek philosopher from Athens who is responsible for the Socratic method

The death of Socrates- He was found guilty of 2 crimes and was forced to drink poison which killed him

Socratic Method- Socrates method to problem solving which in order to use the method you would ask multiple questions that when answered would eventually reveal the answer

Ancient Greece Idiot- If you were called an idiot in ancient Athens you were particularly shy or quiet