Western Civ 2018

Today in human geo we watched a video about the population of countries around the world over 200 years starting in 1810. Back in 1810, most countries were in the poor and sick area. The only ones that weren't were the UK and the Netherlands. It wasn't till 1948 that almost all of the countries in the poor and sick section of the graph were in the rich and healthy section of the graph. There were still a few countries in the poor and sick section but they were very little. Mr. Schick loved this video so much that he wanted the maker of the video to be a guest speaker at our school but he unfortunately passed away last year.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo There is a link to the video if anyone wants to watch it.

Today in human geo we watched a video about population pyramids and what they are used for. One of the ways they can be used is to show what a country's population will be like in the  future. Population pyramids show different age groups and depending on the size of each section you can tell if a population is growing, shrinking or will stay the same for many years. these sections are called pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive. This also got us talking about the industrial revolution. Each country's population pyramid is different because some country's population is growing while others are shrinking. This also determines the shape of the pyramid. It can be a Christmas tree, a box, or a cup. Population pyramids also determine life expectancy based on whether you see a lot of people in the post-reproductive section of the pyramid.

Today in human geo we looked over the test and discussed what we got right and wrong on it. Most of it I got right but  few things I got wrong. The two bonus questions I got wrong and when I learned what the answers were I felt so stupid. Other parts of the test involved population pyramids and vocabulary. One of the questions actually involved doing math which a lot of people were stumped on that one. The first fifteen questions which involved the C.I.A. world factbook, everybody got right (which it was super easy).  In my opinion this was a very easy test and I hope more people think so as well.

Today we were talking about this company that donates money to people all over the world to help them reach a goal and the company is called Kiva. There were many different places Kiva has been helping out, three of which are right here in Baltimore so you can help out someone that's in your local area if you don't want to help out on a global scale. It took me a while to find some places to lend money because the first few times a searched for a country there wasn't anyone to lend money too. There are people in other parts of the United States and also in Mexico. I also saw major companies lend money to some of these groups like Ebay and Google, and also just random individuals lent money to these people.

The test today was mostly easy, only the first fifteen questions we got to use the C.I.A. world factbook on but the rest was also easy. There were also two bonus questions that I probably got wrong but they don't count against me if I got them wrong. Some of the questions involved looking at a population pyramid while others involved math (yay).  During the part where we used the world factbook we were timed and only got fifteen minutes to answer them and to make sure we wouldn't cheat he actually had a timer on the board so we knew when time was up. In my opinion it was a very easy test.

Today Carl's group got to go for the project. They had the best presentation in my opinion this is based on the fact that they were so enthusiastic and everyone enjoyed it as well. Dylan also went as well and the only thing he could've done to improve his project was capitalize certain words but other than that it was very awesome. We got a notice today that we're having a test on Monday but thankfully we got an email from Mr. Schick that tells us what to study and we also reviewed some today after the presentations were done. Hopefully I do good on this test and I remember to study the correct things.

Today my group got to go for the population pyramid project. My group was Hugh, John, and I and we shot for an A had a good project but we weren't that good at presenting it. The three countries we mentioned were United Kingdom (mine), Cambodia (Hugh's), and Latin America and the Carribbean (John's).  I thought we could've done better but it's over with and I and I hope we got a good grade. The one of the other groups that went was Emmanuel's (E-Man's) group. They did a great job with their presentation and they deserve a good grade. They are still a few more to go which will happen next class whenever that is. I am very excited to see what the other groups presentations are and hopefully they get a good grade.

Today we were looking at some people's population pyramid presentations. The first group that went was Jimmy, Dom, and Nick. They showed the differences between organizations and figured out which would be the best to help end world hunger. They found out that Care.com was the best. They also mentioned the John Dau foundation and Mr. Schick became friends with the founder on Facebook. Another group was Reilly, Ashlyn, and Gracyn. They shot for an A and did a great job with their presentation. The other group was also very well. They decided to talk about the reasoning behind why population pyramids were important and they also shot for an A. My group is probably going to go tomorrow and I hope we get a good grade.

Today in human geo we retook the pop quiz that we took yesterday. This time I actually got them all right so that's good. Some people were freaking out that they had to take it again while others wanted to again to try to improve their grade. After that we started to work in groups and started working on a project involving population pyramids. We had to answer four questions to get at least a B but my group was shooting for an A so we had to do the four questions and do everything that was on the right side of the column which told us what we needed to do. We picked three countries to compare which were the United Kingdom, Cambodia, and Latin America and the Carribbean. To find the population pyramids we went to a website called populationpyramids.net. This was a really fun project and I hope to do more projects like it. Here is a link to our project  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TAnOn2QxC-OBcCl_rBaJ12lp9hGjPhxyrAopFf5xJ9c/edit

Today in human geo we didn't do much. What we did was have a fire drill where you head outside onto the football field ad stand in a certain spot with your advisory. During this we were supposed to be quiet but everyone started to talk it's like they don't know how to follow directions. When we got back Mr. Schick gave us a pop quiz that was in a Scantron format, and the questions Mr. Schick projected onto the board instead of giving us a sheet with the questions on it. Some of the questions were really easy like asking us what total fertility rate was while others were more difficult like looking at a population pyramid and determining the country it portrays. Honestly I thought he was going to do more about population pyramids and then give a pop quiz but he thought we were ready so he gave it to us. I hope to learn more about population and things related to it.

Today in human geo we discussed population pyramids again and saw some that belong to certain countries and cities. We saw some pyramids that looked liked Christmas trees, boxes, and cups. The website Mr. Schick went to was very interesting because it also had a graph that showed you what it would be in the future. Some of the places we saw were United Kingdom, United States, Chad, Kenya, Japan, Italy, and many more. I was surprised by some of them and was eager to see the other population pyramids. One of my classmates actually found Baltimore's online which was also interesting. I hope to see more of these population pyramids.

Today in human geography we started to talk about ways to analyze population through things called population pyramids. The population pyramids can take on three shapes: the Christmas tree, the box, and the cup. The Christmas tree is used in developing nations with slow growth rates, high birth rates, and short life expectancy. The box is for developed nations with slow growth, low infant mortality, and long life expectancy. The cup is used for developed nations with negative growth, low birth rates, shrinking population, and long life expectancy. We also went on to IMDB and looked up Mr. Schick and we got to see all of the movies that he worked on. He also told us about this Russian band that after searching it on Google we learned that we shouldn't be discussing that. I can't wait for next class.