population pyramids

Today in Human Geo, we talked about population pyramids. Population pyramids are used to analyze growth or decline in fertility, mortality, and migration. On the left side of the graph is males, and on the right side are females. The three basic shapes of population pyramids are shaped in a Christmas tree, a box, or a cup. The Christmas tree shows growth rates are slow and it most likely means they are developing nations including Africa. Christmas tree graphs show a high birth rate and a short life expectancy. A box shaped graph shows low infant mortality and is a developed nation. Since everything is most likely equal in a box graph, it means there is a slow population growth and long life expectancy. The final common shape is the cup and it is known for having an extremely low birth rate. They have a shrinking population which can cause damage for the future jobs and professions that will be needed. Cup graphs also are developed nations with long life expectancies.

more about the world fact book

Today in Human Geo we talked more about the world fact book and found many new things about it. We are planning on having a quiz Tuesday about navigating the world fact book. There will only be 15 minutes to finish the quiz, but we are allowed to use our laptops. I am very glad that we are able to use our laptops because they will be extremely helpful during this. We will need to know crude birth and death rates, net migration, rate of natural increase, push and pull forces, and certain populations of different countries around the world. I might need to use the world fact book a bit more to practice but I am not expecting this quiz to be too difficult so that is good.

world fact book

Today in Human Geo we discussed the world fact book and I think it is interesting because it shows a multitude of information all in one website. I decided to write about Australia because I have always wanted to visit there because it is on the opposite side of the world. Australia has 23,232,413 people in their country, which I thought was important to note and it is the 56th largest country in the world. People living in Australia are predicted to live for about 82.3 years, I found it is longer than the average for the United States. Australia's economy is mostly based off of natural resources, energy, and food. They are known for extensive reserves of coal, iron, copper, gold, and natural gas. My final fact that intrigued me is that the area of Australia is 7,741,220 sq km and it is the seventh largest country in comparison to the world. I think that the world fact book will be very helpful to me in the future when I have research papers about certain countries or areas around the world.

migration

Today in Human Geo, we talked about birth rates and death rates per 1000 of the population. We learned that the net migration rate is the difference between the number of people entering and leaving a country during the course of a year. There is net immigration and emigration and a good way to remember it is immigration is going in with an i and emigration is exiting and has an e. There are also many ways for migration, for example if people have a pushing force like a civil war, environmental degradation, unemployment/under employment, or religious/ethnic persecution. Other reasons people could migrate would be a pulling force including better economic opportunities, better health services, religious freedom, or political freedom. At the end of class, we began discussing the total fertility rate which is the average number of children born per woman. We found that in order for the population to remain steady, its TFR would have to be 2.1. Anything over would cause an increase in population, and anything under would cause a decrease in population.

life expectancy

Today in class, we went over our test from a week ago and I got a 100 so that was good! I found a lot of the questions to be easy because I had remembered going over most of them in class. Today was the first day Mr. Schick had exploded so that was something....new. After that chaos, we began talking about life expectancy which is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. The highest life expectancy is in Monaco, located near the Mediterranean Sea. They have a life expectancy of 89 years old while the US has a life expectancy of around 79 years. I think it is shocking to think that in Chad, people living there are only expected to live til their 50's.

population

Today in class we talked about population. There are over 7.5 billion people on the Earth right now and the population is currently increasing by over 73 million each year. I think this is crazy to think about because soon enough there will be about 10 billion people in the world. I don't know what will happen if the world gets over populated. I wonder if in the future, governments will start to limit the amount of babies being born, like in China. I think this overpopulation will definitely be a problem for the future because 90% of the population growth is taking place in underdeveloped countries where most of the families can't provide for their children. Also, the children in these developing countries will not get the health care and education that they need in order for success.

another test pt 2

Today we took our second test in Human Geo. I found the test went very smoothly and I feel very confident about my answers. I studied longitude and latitude, the different types of maps, and time zones. I am glad that I knew those topics because thats mostly what the test consisted of. One of only questions that I am unsure of was the question about how El Paso got its name. I thought it was because of its origin because it is a Spanish name. But, in Spanish, El Paso means the pass so it could have been named that because of its physical features. Overall, I feel really good about that test and I am glad that I studied.

review game

Today in Human Geo, we reviewed some more for the test on Friday. Demetri taught the class again today and we played a game to help us go over some questions he thought would be on the test. I thought the game was really helpful and it made me understand more of what our test is going to be on. Overall, the class was kind of loud but pretty productive. For example, Mr. Schick kept having to quiet us down but we still ending up getting our studying and review done. I think we should play this game more before tests because it helps our class understand the material in a more fun and engaging way.

review for test on 10/19/18

Today in Human Geo, we did a review for our test this Friday. We went talked about how the prime meridian is exactly opposite of the international date line. We also talked about finding out the time for different places around the world. Each time zone is separated each 15 degrees longitude and there are 24 time zones on Earth. From the east of the international time zone, time is an hour ahead and so on and from the west, time is an hour earlier and so on. I am thankful that we are able to use our maps with the timezones for the test on Friday because it will help a lot.

in class assignment

1. Eratosthenes is known for making the first accurate measurement of the circumference of Earth.
2. Another thing Eratosthenes is known for is being the second head librarian of the Library of Alexandria
3. Eratosthenes also created a mathematical technique that shows a way to find all prime numbers to a specific integer.
4. It would be 7:00 am in Oregon.
5. It would be 3:00 pm in Greenwich.
6. It would be 10:00 am in Toronto.
7. The time would be 3:00 am at the South Pole.
8. Five toponyms named after physical features are Iceland, Greenland, Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon, Long Island.
9. Five toponyms named after Native American places are Iowa, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Connecticut.
10. Five toponyms named after important people are Washington D.C, Baltimore, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana.
11. Five toponyms that have a religious affiliation are San Fransico, St. Paul, Santa Fe, Bethlehem, and San Juan.
12. The coordinates for Baltimore MD are 39.2904° N, 76.6122° W.
13. The coordinates for Quito, Ecuador are 0.1807° S, 78.4678° W.
14. The coordinates for Taveuni, Fiji are 16.8414° S, 179.9813° W. 
15. The coordinates for Christchurch, New Zealand are 43.5321° S, 172.6362° E.
16. The coordinates for Juneau, Alaska are 58.3019° N, 134.4197° W. 
17. Geographic Antipode is the point on Earth that's located directly opposite to a specific geographic location, which would be the farthest point in the world from that specific location.
18. The antipode of Beijing, China is Greenwich, English.
19. Shoalwater Western Australia, Australia is the antipode of Bermuda.
20. Augusta, Western Australia, Australia is the antipode of my house.

culture

On Friday in Human Geo, Demetri taught the class again and I learned a lot. We talked a lot about culture. Culture is the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together decide the certain traditions of a group of people. We learned there are two different types of culture; what people care about and what people take care of. Geographers study these both to figure out why main ideas and values produce a certain culture in a particular place and to figure out the production of material wealth, including clothing, food, and shelter that humans need for survival. We started talking about the topic, "why are different places similar?" We talked about scale which is the relationship between the portion of the Earth being studied and Earth as a whole. This is related to globalization which is a force/process that involves the entire world and results in making something world wide in scope.

review on section 1

Today in class we had a review day and went over the main ideas of section 1. Some of the main ideas covered in this section were maps, gps, telling time around the world, location, and regions. Eratosthenes created the first world map and Ptolmy had some additional improvements later in history. There are mainly three different maps of the world that we use today, Mercator, Peters, and Robinson. We talked about the distortion caused when mapping the world because it is hard to map something spherically shaped like Earth on a flat surface. This can affect the shape of areas, distance, size, and direction between points. Latitude and Longitude are used to describe where areas are located. The Earth is also split up into 24 different time zones and each 15 degrees of longitude has its own time zone. We learned that the prime meridian passes through Greenwich, England and is the master reference of time for all points on Earth.

pop quiz

On Friday, we had a pop quiz in Human Geo. I've realized there are a couple things I need to look over because I definitely did not get a 100 on that quiz. In my head, I always thought that longitude went side to side and latitude went up and down. In reality it's the other way, so I'll definitely need to remember that for the next tests and quizzes in the future. I also got the nation date line mixed up with Greenwich, England because I thought that the date line meant standard time reference. Now, I'll know for next time that the date line passes through 180 degrees longitude and the standard time passes through Greenwich at 0 degrees longitude.

regions

Today in class we talked about the different types of regions on the map and how we name them. Mr. Schick let students teach the class for today and I think it made class more fun and engaging. We should do that more often because it was fun and we were learning at the same time. Demetri also did really well and I think he should always teach the class. This week has been really fun because of spirit week and I think that is what also made class more fun.

kneeling for the national anthem

       In class today, we went over our tests and the questions we had for it. After that, Mr. Schick started asking us questions and was interested in our responses. This was how Socrates taught his students and I thought it was really engaging and I found this method really interesting. We talked a lot about the NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem and I do think that this is somewhat similar to what Socrates did in Athens. I believe this because the NFL players are attempting to protest what they believe and that was exactly what Socrates did when he told everyone that they should be thanking him for what he did instead of punishing him. The big difference however, is that Socrates was punished by death and the football players would be punished by being off the team.
       I don't think what the players are doing is right because it comes off as disrespectful but it is working because everyone knows about it and it is a peaceful way to protest. I think it is better than maybe a march or something because this is probably working more effectively and it is peaceful with out any fighting or anything like that. I don't have a certain side that I am defending because I think that both of the reasons that people brought up in class about this situation made sense.

gps

Today in class we talked about the GPS and how we use them today. They are very convenient to use for directions when you're in the car, pilots use them to navigate, and our phones use them to find a location of a place. We also talked about the cons of finding location and how our phones are tracking where are. I think this is a problem because there can be many things that could go wrong if someone gets a hold of where you live and if they find out your personal information. This could be very dangerous in the long run and could cause many problems with technology. We also labeled a time zone map in class today.