podcast about asylums

Today in Human Geo, Mr. Schick began talking about his speech and debate class that he used to teach at John Carroll. I was confused how it related to our class until I realized he was trying to prepare our class for a speech a debate in our class. We began listening to this podcast that Mr. Schick seemed to really enjoy. I found it was interesting and I think next class, Mr. Schick is planning on having us actually go through with this whole speech and debate idea. I'm not sure how it is going to go, I am hoping it goes well. Some key things I got from the podcast were that people were given an asylum if their race, nationality, religion, political views, or social group were challenged. Before class, I barely knew what an asylum was. Now, I know that it is a save place for people that are not safe where they had currently been living.

new packet

Today in Human Geo, we began reading a new packet about migration. We had people read out loud and I thought it was very interesting. We read about what we had talked about in class yesterday. Some of the main topics were migration, immigration, and emigration. I found that the reading helped me to understand what we had learned and discussed yesterday in class. Another thing that happened in class today was when Demetri taught us a bit today. We all had questions about the western movement in America and he helped draw a map to show us what happened. I found that it helped me create an image in my mind and now I know what Mr. Schick is explaining when he talks about the western movement.

mobility

Today in Human Geo, we talked more in depth about the topic of migration. First we talked about mobility, which is the most generalized term that refers to all types of movements. Examples of this are driving to school, weekly shopping visits, and annual trips to see relatives. Another key word in this section was circulation. This is a short term and repetitive act of mobility. One example of this is college students traveling to their college in the fall and returning back home in the spring to see family. We learned that migration is a permanent move to a new location and Ravenstein’s Law is to see where migrants typically move in a region. We found that most migrants relocate within the same country, which is usually close to where they were originally living. I thought it was very interesting that around 9 percent of the world’s population are international migrants and that the US has the most foreign born residents in the world.

the actual pop quiz

Today in Human Geo, we went over the answers to the paper we had been filling out about population and wealth of different countries around the world. Then, we were told that we were going to have a quiz today and thought it would end up being really difficult. I had to get a pencil from my locker and we began the quiz. It looked extremely familiar and turns out it was a paper of the exact same questions that we had just answered. I found it went very well and I felt relieved once I had finished. We all were expecting the quiz to be hard because we hadn't had class in awhile it seemed. We also didn't have much time to look at our notes to refresh our memories on our most recent classes. Overall, I'd say this class went well and smoothly because I think we all had a pretty good understanding of what the quiz was about.

fake pop quiz

Today in Human Geo, we had a short class because of the two hour delay. Because of this, our class ended up only lasting for 35 minutes. We didn't end up doing very much since we had less time in class to work. We were handed a paper that looked like a quiz and we all thought we were about to have a pop quiz. This scared all of us because we didn't know anything on the paper because we hadn't watched the video yet. Once Mr. Schick told us it wasn't a pop quiz, we all were relieved and felt happy. Next, we watched a video about the worlds life expectancy and wealth throughout the years. I found it interesting how greatly the world has improved in both wealth and life span over just the course of a hundred years or so. Some key things I picked up from the video were that size corresponds with the population of a country and most people were located in the middle of the graph. On other part I found important was in the year 1810, people were averaged to only live for about 40 years. This greatly shocked me because now, we are averaged to live for at least 75 years or more.

going over quiz 3

Today in Human Geo, all we did was go over our quizzes. This was the quiz about the world fact book, birth and death rates, population pyramids, rate of natural increase, and total fertility rate. I was happy to see that I did really well on the quiz because I thought I had done well at the time. I only got a couple wrong, which was good. I also got one of the bonus points right and it gave me two extra points on my grade. The bonus point that I got right was the question about what the total fertility rate would have to be in order for the population to remain the same. The answer was 2.1 because the 0.1 accounts for the certain average of people who don't live to adulthood. I was surprised by how high our class average was because it was almost a 90, which is pretty good for about 30 people or so. Overall, I am happy with my grade and I think a lot of people did well too.

population concentration

On Friday in Human Geo, we talked about population concentration, populated areas, population density, and components on population. I learned that 2/3 o f the world's inhabitants are focused in 4 regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Population clusters typically have flat areas with fertile soil, temperate climates, and are located near a body of water. Places that are sparsely populated are because of dry, wet, cold, and high areas. These areas usually have less people because they are considered "too harsh" for living. In class we also learned that population density is computed in 3 different ways: Arithmetic, Physiological, and Agricultural.

• Arithmetic Density is computed by dividing population by land area
• Physiological Density is computed by dividing population by farmable land
• Agricultural Density is computed by dividing population of farmers by farmable land

The final thing we talked about in class were the components of population. Geographers measure population change in a country or the world by using crude birth rate, death rate, and the rate of natural increase. 

quiz 3

Today in class, we took our quiz on the world fact book, population pyramids, and other similar topics. I found the quiz went very smoothly and I think I did pretty well on it! I am glad that we got the test over with today because I have a lot of other tests tomorrow. I thought it was funny how we had to doodle on the test, which counted as a grade. At first, I didn't know what to draw because I couldn't think of the things that I could draw because most of them were mental not physical things. I decided to draw the different population pyramids like the tree, cup, and box. I also drew arrows to represent push and pull forces, I thought that part of the test was very interesting and kind of made it more fun.

review for quiz on world fact book

Today in Human Geo, we reviewed for the quiz that is on Thursday. We practiced using the world fact book online and answering questions that Mr. Schick asked us. I found this to be relatively easy and I am not expecting the quiz to be too challenging. Along with the questions on the world fact book, we will need to know about push and pull forces for a country. Some examples we talked about in class were that Canada is an example of a pulling force because it has great health care for a cheaper price compared to the United States. An example of a pushing force would be war going on in Afghanistan or another war-torn area. Pulling forces are factors that make you want to go to another country while pushing forces are factors that impact your decisions to leave a country that you are currently living in. I am expecting this quiz to be relatively straight forward, but I am still going to look over my notes to remind me on certain topics.

population pyramids in certain areas

Yesterday in Human Geo, Mr. Schick showed pictures of different population maps on the board. I found it very interesting because we looked at what the world's population will look like in the future. It scares me a bit because I feel like by the time my age group is 60, the world will be over populated and I think it will be a huge problem in the future. I am not sure what the governments will do about this over population. We also were shown the population pyramid of Japan and it was shocking to see that Japan is actually decreasing in population. I wonder what Japan will do in the future for this decrease in population. I enjoy looking at these population pyramids because it helps me understand what is predicted for the future. I also find the pyramids very easy to understand and I like looking at the different types for certain countries and counties because they all have different shapes.