Class participation grade

I think I should get a 97 in class participation. I usually participate in classes because it makes the class more interesting and easier to understand. I try my best to answer questions and when I myself have a questions I usually ask if I am confused.
As for comments on the class or Mr.Schick's teaching I have nothing negative to say. Our class and Mr. Schick's teaching style is really fun. I never found anything boring and the material was always interesting.

1/11/13

Today in human geo we continued to watch Guns Germs and Steel and ended up finishing all of the parts that are required for us to watch. The video talked about the spreading of animals around the fertile crescent, which is in the middle of Eurasia. It also talked a lot about wheat. Supposedly Americans consume 20,000 tons of wheat a year. That means that each American family consumes 133 pounds of wheat. After we finished the video Mr Schick told us to go on the World Factbook  We searched facts on Papua New Guinea and shared them with the class and Mr. Schick told us if they would be on the test or not which is on Wednesday. We only have 2 more days of human geo :(. But I'm super excited for Western Civilization!

1/10/13

Helloooooooooooooooooooo fellow bloggers. Today was the long mod for human geo but it felt super short. In the beginning of class we did our lock down. It went pretty smoothly.There was a couple of incidents where Mr. Schick had to shush us but other wise it was good. After the lock down drill we continued to watch the video Guns Germs and Steel. We watched about animal domestication and plant domestication. Animal domestication was when humans began to control animals (what they ate, when they breaded  etc.). It started with animals like goats and sheep and extended to larger animals such as horses and elephants. The idea was to get an animal that wasn't a carnivore because then you would have to collect other animals to feed it and it would take up too much time and resources. Humans tried to gather animals that didn't just benefit from meat but benefited with fertilization and dairy products and fur. The animals they used didn't take TOO MUCH taking care of, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a lot of work. At the beginning of 3rd mod Moh and I left to help Mrs. Murphy Dohn put away the nativity scene in the church. By the time we got back their was only about 4 minutes left in class. Hopefully we didn't miss too much!

11/9/13

Today in human geo we talked about the lock down procedure for tomorrow since we will be in Mr. Schick's class when it happens. We talked about the odds of it actually happening (which were't very good) but we always need an action plan just in case something as terrible as a school shooting were actually to happen. We shared our ideas on how to make more protections against this happenings and people suggested things like keeping a gun in the classroom that only the teacher has access too or maybe when the shooter walked in our classroom for all of us to attack at once and overpower him...it was an...interesting class. I'm kinda nervous for the drill tomorrow but hopefully our class can run through it quickly, smoothly, and without talking.

1/7/13

Today we covered a lot in human geo between watching the Guns Germs and Steel video and pausing it to take time to discuss it. Some main points in our class were what the Papua New Guineans ate, the ancient city of Drah, and the history of Papua New Guinea. The main food they eat is a dough that is found in the middle of their trees that they cut open and collect and bake. The dough lacks protein and they suffer from protein difficiency. The video then moved onto the discovering of the city of Drah, which is the oldest village that has EVER been discovered. The village had technology of their day and systems set up for a working and functioning civilized village. They had a granary and a cropping system. The video also talked about the history of New Guinea. New Guinea has never had a huge population which is actually really weird. There is a repeating pattern throughout history that shows that all nations with a working farming system seem to have a big population but this does not apply to New Guinea even though they have been farming for almost 10,000 years. It might be because they haven't advanced in technology over the years but the answer to that weird case is probably in the rest of the video. I'll just have to wait till Wednesday.

1/4/13

Today in class we started to watch a video about the book Guns Germs and Steel written by Jared Diamond. It was about how he went to Papua New Guinea to study the birds there and he eventually became as interested in the people of New Guinea just as much of the birds of New Guinea. New Guinea is place that has not advanced in technology in the last 13,00 years. When white people first came to New Guinea they rubbed it in their face that they had better technology than them. They gave them a record player and they even made the New Guineans carry them across the river so their pants and their boots didn't get wet. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the video on Monday.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a book about the obstacles and the force factors that have formed human history over the last 10,000 years.  The first part of the book discusses why some societies do well and advance and other just stay the way they have been for some thousands of years. He didn't want to use the common answer of “racism”. He found out it was more about the people’s environment than the people themselves.  It has won a Pulitzer Prize for the best non-fiction book, 3 literary prizes, and the Rhone Poulenc Science Book Prize. It has been translated into 25 languages and it was a popular book, especially around the time it came out. It made people start to think. People spoke out about the book and how they thought his views were wrong and others also expressed how true the book was and how right Jerry Diamond was. 

Jerry Diamond

Jerry Diamond has many jobs. He is mainly categorized as a geologist, economist, and a writer. He has wrote many books such as Guns, Germs and Steel . He is a professor at UCLA as a geologist. He studies the ecology of birds. He has made many many many trips to Papa New Guinea.  He goes to New Guinea because the birds there are at peace and not disturbed and he wanted to study them without interference. But there was a twist to this journey. After the people of New Guinea started showing him around he realized that the people has a more interesting history than the birds. This is where is main career kicked off. He has been given many awards including the Genius Award and a Pulitzer Prize.