Human Geography Blog 8-29-17

Today in Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we continued watching the video of Hans Rosling and his animated graph showing how countries flourish and thrive as time goes on. Before we started watching the video we introduced my shadow. I was also able to convince the entire class and Mr. Schick that he was my brother. Not sure how anyone didn't notice the fact that we didn't go to the same middle schools. But, after we introduced him we started watching the video. In the middle of the video Mr. Schick asked the question: Should we spend more money or less money on the military? It was interesting to hear the different answers where people were saying that we should spend more money so that we are able to keep our allies. But, Mr. Schick had a really good counter argument saying that he doesn't really think that if the USA started to spend less money on the military other countries would just end their alliance with the USA. After discussing this the bell rang

In today's Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we watched a video on population pyramids and why they are so important to us as a society. The video explains what population pyramids are, what they are used for, and why they are important. After we watched that video, we watched a second video by Hans Rosling. He showed his data in an animation type of graph. The x-axis was life expectancy and the y-axis was average annual income. He then had all the different regions in a specific color while each dot was its own country. In the bottom left of the graph all the countries there could be classified as poor and sick. While in the top right the countries could be classified as rich and healthy. In 1810 you can see that almost every country starts out in the poor and sick category. This is because these countries are pre-industrialized countries meaning that they haven't industrialized yet. You then see during industrialization some of these countries rise in the grap

Today in Mr. Schick's Honor's Human Geography class we got our tests back through the ceremonial bell ringing. He handed back the tests while ringing the bell on, if not, every single one of the tests. The class average on this test was an astonishing 98%. Many people got above a hundred on this test because there were two bonus questions on the back that many people were able to complete. When Mr Schick called, "Fran-swa," I was pleasantly greeted with two rings indicating that I got above a hundred on the test. When I looked at the test I had a 104% followed by three Facebook like stamps. Other than that it was a pretty mellow Human Geography class. We then went over the test questions in case we got one of them wrong. After we went over the questions we had about 5 minutes of free time which I used to charge my laptop. After that, the bell rang and ended class.

Today in the wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we went over an extra credit assignment that works with Kiva.com. Mr. Schick showed us the website and it is actually very simple to use. You can browse the lists of the borrowers by using filters by country, job, gender, or species. When you select a borrower you can read a summary about them, look at their designated total amount of money, and how much time is left in their goal. You can donate to the borrower in $25 increments. The borrower will use your money for whatever they say they are going to use it for in their summary. After they use your money they have a certain amount of time to repay your loan. Once they return your money you can use it again to help out another person. After that the bell rang and ended class.

Today in Honor's Human Geography class we had a test on all of the different rates in the world that calculate population, life expectancy, and much more. There was also one unfamiliar site in the classroom today and that was that Mr. Schick wasn't there. Today we had Mrs. Collins as a substitute teacher. The test went pretty well, I think. I was able to navigate the CIA World Fact book very well and found answers that I would have never thought were possible to find. For example, I would have never thought, in a million years, that one website would have the answer to the question: What percentage of the world is without power? The answer is actually on the world fact book. In my opinion, that's crazy. I also think I was able to successfully answer one of the bonus questions right. The question was: What is the net migration rate of the world? I answered 0 because when you think about it, no one is emmigrating or immigrating into Earth. Maybe in a couple decades that might

Today in the wonderful and always exciting Honor's Human Geography class with the one and only Mr. Schick we just reviewed the last couple of lessons in order to prepare ourselves for the test tomorrow. We all made sure to be on our best behavior today since we've all heard that Mr. Schick has been on a "detention rampage". So, we all sat down in our seats and were "ready" to prepare for the test. Mr. Schick explained to us that the first page of the test is like a CIA world factbook webquest. We will be given specific questions about countrie's people, economy, and culture and then find the answers by navigating the world factbook. So, in order to get ready for this Mr. Schick gave us some example problems to try out and get more comfortable with the CIA world factbook. After completing these problems the bell rang and ended class.

Today in Honor's Human Geography with Mr. Schick we continued going over our projects that we we've been working on. Today, the last two groups presented their projects. The first group talked about how in the country they chose there was a strange thing about their population. There were may more men in the country then there were women. Due to this, the men lived longer than the women. In most countries the women almost always live longer than the men. This can be caused by a variety of factors from stupidity to warfare. But however, there are more men in Qatar than there are women. This is most likely due to the oil industry there. Qatar is very much known for their oil industry. Because of this men flock in thousands to Qatar looking for jobs. The second group talked about a charity event called UNICEF Trick-or-Treat which meant that as kids walked around trick-or-treating they would let the adult at the door know that they were collecting spare change for UNICEF. This was

In today's wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we continued presenting our projects on population pyramids and world hunger charities. First up was Chase and Ben where they discussed the difference in between the two countries they chose and their population pyramids. They chose two similar countries, so there was a lot to compare and not a whole lot of differences. After that they talked about how some charities don't always use the money you give them for the cause. However, it is understandable that they have to use some of the money to operate and run the charity. But, they are supposed to use as little money as possible to run the charity so that most of the money goes to the cause. After Ben and Chase were done, I was called up to present. So, I presented my project about Tajikistan and Ghana and the charities that I was comparing and describing. After I presented the bell rang and ended class.

In today's wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with the amazing, guitar playing Mr. Schick we had a pop quiz which I was not expecting at all. The pop quiz was on everything we've been learning for the past week. I got a 7/10 on the quiz which sadly turns into a 14/20. On one of the questions I just put the wrong answer when I knew the right answer which I call a careless mistake. Another question I just was confused and didn't know the answer. Then the last question I got wrong was asking in what year did America's population reach 1 billion. On this question I just blanked and had no idea what the answer was. After going over this, Mr. Schick introduced a group work project. On this project you could either shoot for an A or a B. I decided to be a good student and go for the A. So, I had to research 2 country's population pyramids and ask and answer 4 questions about them. After this I had to compare 4 hunger charities and rank them. After this the bell ra

In today's always wonderful Honor's Human Geography class with the one and only Mr. Schick we continued going over population pyramids, but more in depth today. We learned that there are three main shapes of a population pyramid. It can be a Christmas tree, a box, or a regular tree. When a population pyramid is a Christmas tree it means that the country is a developing nation with a most likely high TFR. If the pyramid is the shape of box it means that the population is staying the same and most likely has a TFR of 2.1. If the pyramid is the shape of a regular tree it means that the population is aging and not reproducing often. A country with a pyramid like this most likely has a low TFR. After taking in all of this information this the bell rang and ended class along with the school day.

Today in the wonderful Human Geography class with Mr. Schick we continued talking about the Total Fertility Rate and then moved on to populations. We started off the class by passing around a chocolate cake. Yep, that wasn't a typo. Owen literally brought in chocolate cake. So, we passed it around and everyone cut themselves a piece of chocolate cake and "quietly" ate it. After discussing TFR further we went into population. We learned about these wonderful things called population pyramids. These are like bar graphs but in the shape of a Christmas tree. Population pyramids help us not only compare the populations of different ages but also compare the populations of boys to girls. Its interesting to look at the different shapes of the pyramids when we compare an aging country's population like Japan to a developing country like Chad. After this the bell rang and ended class.

In today's always great Honor's Human Geography class with the one and only Mr. Schick we discussed something called the Total Fertility Rate and then went over some questions on a powerpoint. The Total Fertility Rate is the average number of children born per woman. In order for a population to grow the TFR has to be 2.1 or higher. If it is anything lower that means the population is decreasing. The US TFR is 2.01 which means our population decreasing. The Nigeria TFR is 6.89 which means it is a developing country. The Japan TFR is 1.40 which means it is a developed country with an aging population. After discussing this we went over three questions on a powerpoint which were: Q-What is the population of the US? A-323.1 million people. Q-What is the infant mortality rate in the US? A-5.87 deaths per 1000 people. Q-Which country has the highest population of Catholics? A- Mexico. After this the bell rang which brought us to lunch.