Midterm Essay Prep Pt.2

            The two population pyramids portray two different countries with different problems. The first point is with their healthcare. Both of these countries have a healthcare system which either positively or negatively affects their total population. The second point is these two countries’ economies. A nation with a more developed economy is going to be vastly different from a country with a poor economy. The final point is with these two countries’ government. If one of these nations has a corrupt government, that would affect their total population.

            The first point is with these two countries’ healthcare. A country with better healthcare will have a bigger population and a lower death rate. This is because less people will die from disease and hospital complications opposed to the other country with a higher mortality rate because of their poor healthcare system. This will also lower the birth rate over time because less people will have a lot of kids because they know that a majority of them will live longer. The country with better healthcare is country B because of their lower birth rate and their high number of people 75+. 

            The second point is the economy. A better economy will also lead to the country being able to afford better healthcare. Country A for example has a poor economy. This is known because of their high number of children and adolescence who are put to work to provide for their families. Country B however has a much more developed economy. Because of their developed economy, it has become much less economically advantageous for a person to have more kids than less. This is because kids have become a liability rather than a economical advantage.

            The final point is the government of these countries. Country A shows signs of being a developing country so this gives the possibility of the government being corrupt and not allowing the country to prosper. Country B also could have this happening if the country has implemented a law where a person can’t have more than one child causing the population to decline because their TFR is not meeting the rate for replacement. 

            Country A and Country B are very different countries. This is shown through their population pyramid through which you can also figure out things about these countries. For example, by analyzing the population pyramid, it is possible to assess the country’s economy and healthcare. This shows how powerful a population pyramid can be for understanding a country.

            

 This is my full essay. I feel like I will do very well on the actual test.

Midterm Essay Prep

            The two population pyramids portray two different countries with different problems. The first point is with their healthcare. Both of these countries have a healthcare system which either positively or negatively affects their total population. The second point is these two countries’ economies. A nation with a more developed economy is going to be vastly different from a country with a poor economy. The final point is with these two countries’ government. If one of these nations has a corrupt government, that would affect their total population.

            The first point is with these two countries’ healthcare. A country with better healthcare will have a bigger population and a lower death rate. This is because less people will die from disease and hospital complications opposed to the other country with a higher mortality rate because of their poor healthcare system. This will also lower the birth rate over time because less people will have a lot of kids because they know that a majority of them will live longer. The country with better healthcare is country B because of their lower birth rate and their high number of people 75+. 

This is what I have so far.  

The Demographic Transition

Today in class we were given a packet about the demographic transition. The demographic transition is a process in which countries go through where the population will increase and decrease based on advancements in healthcare and a better economy. This was pretty easy to understand because all of the terms involved with this graph are terms we have already gone over and talked about. Also, in class today I was so tired so I tried to nap but I stopped myself because I didn't want to be totally unconscious and possibly snore or something.

Post Test

We took the test on world religions in class today. I think I possibly got 100. The only question I got stuck on was the one about what religion 87% of Indonesia practices. I put down Islam, but I think it could have been Hinduism. Other than that question however, I think I did great. I didn't even need to study it was so easy.  If the nest couple lessons are as easy as this one, I think I'll do great on the semester exam.

World Religions

Today in class we started learning about world religions. There are many world religions. The largest one being Christianity. The second largest is Islam. Both of these religions are Abrahamic which means they descended from Abraham. Tomorrow we'll learn about the other 2 major world religions. I think it is probably Hinduism and maybe Jewish. I'm also doing this blog so late because I am a huge procrastinator.

Post Test

We took the test on people and population in class today. I think I did very good on it. I didn't completely know the question where it was three countries and I picked the one with Italy in it. It might have been about TFR I don't know. Other than that question, I feel very confident about my grade. I think I will at least get a 95 if not 100. We also had a dress down day today for people who got honors. I got second honors so I got to dress down which is nice because I have basketball later so I won't have to change out of the uniform.

Population Review

Today in class we reviewed population to prepare for our test on Monday. I think I'll do really good on the test because I have done very well on the past tests about the same subject. I expect myself to get at least a 95 if not 100. I don't think I will need tot study for it either especially since I haven't studied for a human geo test yet this year except for the maps test on countries.

Presentation Assessment

Yesterday, we presented our projects on the countries we were assigned. I think my group did a really good job on the whole project except for coming up with a solution. We didn't know about that question beforehand so we couldn't answer to our fullest ability. Other than that though, I think our slides were very detailed and I think we presented it very well. In my opinion, we definitely had one of the best presentations in the class.

Presentation Day

Today in class we all presented our country projects. I think my group did a really good job in explaining the problems in Kenya. I think I could have added more detail to my slide and given more information about terrorism. In my opinion, our project was one of the best out of all the rest. The last thing we could have definitely done better on was the solution to the problem. We didn't really think about a solution so we didn't really know what to say when the question came.

Kenya Project

Today in class we started working on our projects. My group is doing Kenya. The problem I picked to do within my group is international disputes. This topic covers all of the problems Kenya has with other countries. I think this project should be pretty easy considering the amount of information on the CIA World Fact book about this topic. Kenya doesn't actually have too many disputes, but they do have a good amount of terrorism which I will cover in my slide.

Pop Quiz Prep

Today in class we went over questions on population to prep us for a pop quiz. If we do have a pop quiz, I think I will definitely get 100 on it. Population for me has been so easy so I think I'll do great on the semester exam portion of it. The only thing I feel like I will have trouble with is the part of the exam with A Message for Garcia because I don't completely remember everything from that unit. All I have to do though is study and I will be fine.

In Class Assignment Summary

Yesterday in class we did an assignment where we had to find what we thought were the most important statistics on the CIA World Fact book. I learned from this assignment how even countries you would think would be producing a lot of babies might not be. I thought that all the African countries would have a rapidly increasing population. I was wrong however because even though most of those countries have a rapidly increasing population, its not all of them.

In Class Assignment

Death Rate: 7.7 deaths/1,000 population (World) - I think this fact is important because it is the amount of people who die and you don't want it to be too high or too low. The World Facebook also says that this statistic means there are 108 worldwide deaths per minute and 1.8 deaths per second. 

Maternal Mortality Rate: 211 deaths/100,000 live births (World) - This fact is important because it is the amount of women who die giving birth. This number is so high because most places don't have as good healthcare as we do here in the U.S. I think we should strive to make this number much lower than it is.

Population Without Electricity: 1.201 Billion (World) - This statistic is very important because it tells how much of the world still doesn't have electricity. I think this is way too high of a number considering all the things we use electricity for. We are really lucky to not be the 1.201 Billion without electricity.

Internet Users Percent of Population: 43% (World) - This statistic is extremely important because of the emphasis we put on using the internet. We need to change the fact that over half the world isn't connected to the internet. This is a problem because we use the internet for everything and that means these people don't really know what's going on around the world. 

Unemployment Rate: 7.7% (World) - This statistic is vital because people need jobs to earn money and survive. This statistic is completely accurate however because if you're unemployed for a long period of time, your government will stop counting you as an unemployed person. This might be very high in some countries so the unemployment rate is probably quite a bit higher.

China - Rising slowly/Decline

Argentina - Rising slowly/Rising slowly

United States - Rising slowly/Rising slowly

Slovakia - Rising slowly/Decline

Ghana - Rising rapidly/Rising rapidly

Poor and Sick vs. Rich and Healthy

Today in class we watched a video where Hans Rosling explained population and income trends using life expectancy and GDP per capita chart. This is very useful to see how far countries have come in terms of economy and healthcare. Personally, I thought China would have had their industrial revolution quicker than they did because of how big of a country they are now. Instead however, I learned that they developed their huge economy over about the past 10 years with the ridiculous number of factories and their very cheap labor.

Population Pyramid

I forgot to do a blog yesterday however I'm doing it now. We talked in class about the population pyramid. The population pyramid is a type of graph which allows you to see the amount of people in the population make up a certain age group. This very helpful when figuring out if a country's population is rising or falling. You can tell it's rising if the chart expands at the bottom and is smaller at the top. This also tells you the country is pre-industrial because they're having so many children and not a very long life expectancy.

Post Test Review

Today we got our tests back. I did super good on it. I got a 101 and I'm very proud of it. I think I could have definitely gotten a 104, but I made a dumb mistake which cost me 3 points. The surprising thing is that I didn't even study for this test. I just paid a lot of attention in class to the power-points and Mr. Schick speaking. I hope I can do just as well on the exams and future tests as I did on this one.

Test Day

Today we took the test on population. I think I did very well on it. The hardest part for me was coming up with another push force because I know countries where I wouldn't want to live but I couldn't give a description of why people would want to leave. I think I might have gotten 100 but I'm not very sure.

Test Review

Today we went over what the test is on tomorrow. I have a pretty good feeling about the test. I feel like I'll get a at least a B if not an A. We went through the CIA World Factbook again and looked at some of the statistics for different countries. The most surprising statistic I think is the immigration rate for Syria. They have the most people coming into their country than any one else in the world. I think this is crazy especially since Syria has such a bad reputation for being violent and definitely not a place you would want to live. This is probably because there is a war going on there so people are heading into the country to fight or something, but I'm not sure.

CIA Factbook Questions Overview

Today we went over the questions we answered using the CIA World Factbook. I thought these questions were very easy considering all we had to do was find where they were on the website. I find this website very interesting because I can learn about every country in the world on one webpage. The most interesting statistic to me was the amount of money spent on military. I thought for sure that a country like China would spend more money on its military than us, but they don't. We spend almost 3% more than they do. This must be why we have such a strong military.

World Facebook Questions

1. What is the population of China, and of India? 
   China: 1,384,688,986 India : 1,296,834,042

2. What is the Total Fertility Rate in Japan?
   1.42

3. What is the death rate in El Salvador?
   5.8 deaths/1,000 population
4. What percentage of the French identify “none” as their religion? Is this statistic verifiable, and why?
   23-28%, It isn't because a law in France prohibits the government from gathering information about peoples' ethnicity or religion.
5. What percentage of Mexicans identify themselves as Roman Catholic?
   82.7%
6. What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in the United States?
   $59,800
7. What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in Nigeria?
   $5,900
8. What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in Luxembourg?
   $105,100

9. What percentage of the United States’ population are Internet users?
   76.2%

10. What is the number of airports in Russia, and in the United States?
    U.S. - 13,513 Russia - 1,218

11. How many people in the world do not have electricity?
    1.201 Billion

12. What is the Infant Mortality Rate in Canada, Cuba, and the United States? 
    Canada - 4.5 deaths/1,000 live births Cuba - 4.4 deaths/1,000 live births U.S. - 5.7 deaths/ 1,000 live births
13. What is the literacy rate - total, for men, and for women - in Afghanistan?
    38.2%
14. What three countries have the highest life expectancy?
    Monaco, Japan, Singapore
15. What three countries have the lowest life expectancy?
    Lesotho, Zambia, Afghanistan
16. What nation has the sixteenth highest Net Migration Rate?
    Monaco
17. What is the unemployment rate in Vietnam, South Korea, the United States, India and Kenya?
    Vietnam - 2.2% South Korea - 3.7% U.S. - 4.4% India - 8.5% Kenya - 40%
18. Military Expenditures are listed by the percentage of each nation's GDP spent on defense.

What percentage is spent by Germany, China, and the United States? 

Germany - 1.24% China - 1.87% United States - 3.16%

19. What three countries produce the most crude oil, and how much do they produce?
United States - 10,962,000 bbl/day Russia - 10,759,000 bbl/day Saudi Arabia - 10,425,000 bbl/day

20. What three countries import the most crude oil, and how much do they import?

United States - 7,969,000 bbl/day China - 6,710,000 bbl/day India - 4,057,000

21. What percentage of the world’s people speak Spanish? Chinese? English?

Spanish - 6%   Chinese - 12.3%    English - 5.1%

Population

We learned about crude birth rate and crude death rate. These two are by the 1000 of the population so even if one country is bigger than the other, you can figure out how much the population is rising in that country and compare it. One analogy we made was a person lifting weight and figuring out how much weight they're lifting according to their own weight and not the overall weight.

Got Test Back

I got my test back today and I got an 81%. I'm not very happy with my score because I knew all the material, but I just didn't understand the wording of some of the questions. We had a discussion about relative and absolute location and how some of the questions on the test we're ones that we thought were relative, but the answer was actually absolute. I think these questions were too vague and didn't make sense which is the reason I got a lower grade than I wanted.

Population and Settlement

• Over 7.6 billion people on the planet right now
• Increasing by 73 million a year
• 90% of the populations growth happens in developing countries
• U.S. life expectancy: (79.68 total:     77.32 Men,     81.97 Women
• Crude birth rate: number of births per 1000 of the population
• Crude death rate: number of deaths per 1000 of the population
• Rate of natural increase is found by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate
• People migrate for many reasons 
• Total Fertility Rate (TFR): Average number of children born per woman 
• For a population to remain the same, the TFR must be 2.1

Maps Quiz

I think I did very well on the test I took today. If I had to predict my score, I'd say I got every single one right. I felt very confident going into the test because I had listened intently during class to what Mr. Schick was saying. The questions were really easy too, especially since I didn't even need to look at my notes to answer any of them. I should start putting my notes more into my blogs incase we have another test like that because I don't really have any notes in my blogs at the moment.

Pop Quiz

Today in class we had a pop quiz. After going over it, I got a 9/10. I should have had 10/10, but I rushed and messed up on a really easy one. I felt pretty dumb when I was so confident to answer the question, and then was wrong. I'm not mad about a 9/10 however, because it's only 10 points and it's still an A.

Test Questions

1. What lines on a map run east-west?

Lines of latitude

2. What lines on a map run north-south?

Lines of longitude

3. Who created the first world map?

Eratosthenes

4. The art and science of mapmaking is _____.

A. Biology

B. Cartography

C. Astronomy

D. Geography

5. The Prime Meridian passes through _______.

A. London, England

B. Washington D.C.

C. Greenwich, England 

D. Southampton, England

6. Lines of longitude are known as ______.

A. Meridians

B. Parallels

C. Degrees

D. Seconds

7. Lines of latitude are known as _______. 

A. Degrees

B. Meridians

C. Parallels

D. Fractions

8. What does GMT stand for?

A. General Meridian Time

B. Greenwich Mean Time

C. General Mean Time

D. Greenwich Meridian Time

9. There are _____ time zones. 

A. 24

B. 25

C. 23

D. 58

10.  How many time zones make up the United States?

Six

Time Zones

Yesterday, I forgot to blog but we don't have class today. We talked about time zones and how different areas of the world go by different times. We talked about how some countries want the whole country in one time zone and how some are fine with their country being split into different ones. We also discussed the idea of having one time for the entire world. This theory would work but would take some getting used to because in some places the sun would rise at 6:00 PM and other places it would rise at 2:00 AM.

Lines of Longitude

Eratosthenes made the first world map.

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface.

The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich, England and is given the position of 0 degrees longitude.

Lines of latitude are known as meridians

All are equal in length

Run in a north-south direction

Lines of Latitude

We talked about lines of latitude in class today. Lines of latitude are a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface. We also talked about absolute location which is position expressed in degrees, minutes, or seconds of latitude and longitude. Relative location, which is the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places. Also, we learned that cartography is the art and science of mapmaking.  

Situation

Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. It is valuable for finding an unfamiliar place and understanding its importance. Many locations are important because they are accessible to other places. We talked in class about the importance of China and why most goods are made there and not in the United States. We talked about how it's cheaper there because the cost for labor is much lower than here in the U.S.

America Map Game

Test Score

Today I got my test back on A Message to Garcia and Socrates. I'm very happy with my score of 94. I am frustrated I got the question about words with the same origin as polis. I didn't understand that the question meant to have words like political and metropolis. I thought it meant other words that were used or started in Ancient Greece. I felt pretty stupid putting down idiot and republic, but at least I got the plus two points. I also did really well on the essays which I'm pretty happy about.

Mercator World Map VS Peters World Map

A Mercator map is a conformal map projection of which the meridians are usually drawn parallel to each other and the parallels of latitude are straight lines whose distance from each other increases with their distance from the equator. A Peters Map is an equal-area projection map. The Mercator map dates back to 1569 when it was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The Peters Map was first introduced when Dr. Arno Peters introduced the map at a Press Conference in Germany in 1974. These maps have been debated about ever since with one side debating that the Mercator Map is more accurate and should be used while the other side says that the Peters map more accurately represents the size of countries and continents.

Map Comparisons

For class today, we compared three kinds of maps. The first map was map of the U.S. The second and third maps were world maps. The third was a little different than the second because it looked very elongated. We wrote down descriptions of each map and then we had a discussion about it. The discussion got pretty heated when we started talking about the difference between map 2 and 3 because some people thought it wasn't accurate and some thought it was.

Excellence Test

I feel I did well on the test we took today. I think my last essay should have been longer, but I still believe I got a good answer across. I had some trouble on the question asking about words with the same origin as polis, so I don't think I got that right. I know I got the extra credit right, so it shouldn't be too bad of a loss.

Socrates and 9/11

In Human Geo today, we learned more about Socrates and what he taught and why he was put to death. I learned that he was a Greek philosopher who would teach people about how there are more ways to think than just what Greek mythology teaches. We also talked about how Socrates used his method of questioning to figure out peoples' underlying opinions and beliefs. The final thing we talked about was 9/11. Mr. Schick told us his experience with what happened on 9/11 and how emotional of a time it really was.

Excellence/Ancient Greece Research

Agora - A public open space used for assemblies and markets.

Polis - A city state in Ancient ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes. It can also mean body of citizens.

The importance of 508 BC to the ancient Greeks - In 508 BC, democracy is introduced in Athens by Cleisthenes. The first revolution took place.

Socrates - A Greek philosopher who is credited with laying the fundamentals of modern Western philosophy.

The death of Socrates - Socrates was found guilty of impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens. He was then put to death by drinking hemlock(an herbal poison.)

The Socratic method - The Socratic method, which is also known as the method of Elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals.

Ancient Greek meaning of idiot - Idiot meant someone who didn't contribute to politics or the community.

More on A Message to Garcia

Today we talked more about what Elbert Hubbard meant when he wrote A Message to Garcia. We learned that it was published in 1899, it was reprinted as a pamphlet and a book, it sold over 40 million copies, and it was translated into 37 different languages. It was also made into a movie twice. We also learned that Garcia is a revolutionary seeking Cuban independence, Rowan is an army officer, McKinley is President William McKinley who was assassinated six months into his second term and was there was even a mountain named after him.

A Message To Garcia

Today in class, we read Elbert Hubbard's Message to Garcia. This was an essay written to show an example of a hardworking man and stating that there should be more people like him. Elbert complained in the essay about how theres so many people who do the minimum amount of work and don't try their hardest to do their job. This also applies to people today because there is a lot of people that just slack off and do nothing. However, they still expect to be paid the same as the people who do their best.

First Day

1.)The best part of my first day at John Carroll was lunch because I was super hungry before it. The worst part of my day was when I got to school because I was later than I wanted to be and I had to rush to get to my first mod.

2. I do like the seat I was given in class today because its in the back and I can see the board easily.  I also like that I can get up easily and don't gave to walk through a row of people.