class participation

I think i should get a 95% for class participation. Every class if i had a question i asked and when there were questions to be answered, i made an attempt even if it was not right. I tired my hardest when Mr. Schick asked where we are in movies i raised my hand and was willing to tell him where we were and what my last notes i took were. When we went over tests, i had my hand up to take a guess even if the answer was not right. I THINK THIS CLASS IS AMAZING(: The only suggestion i can make is taking notes on our computers instead of our notebooks.

lockin it down

Today in class we had a lock down in the beginning of the class. It lasted for about 25 minutes and we all hid in the corner. When we hid in the corner there were police officers in the halls checking to see if there were a shooter to enter the building if we could be seen. Once the class rooms were all checked and cleared we returned to the class. We watched part 4,5,6 of the Jared Diamond videos on Guns germs and also steel. There were many places in the world that were starting to develop more advanced societies. Also we learned that there are over 2 million animals in this world capable of being domesticated, but only 14 of them have been able to fit the requirements. Goats, sheep, cows, and horses are some of the more popular domesticated animals. This is because they offer the skin, food, and horse power to the people. Other animals like pigs are just for the food but are still domesticated.

LOCK DOWN

Today in class Mr. Schick tired not to scare all of us, but failed. We went over the procedures and what to do if a shooter were to enter our school and we were in his class. Tomorrow we get to practice this. Then he answered a couple of our questions that ended up taking the entire class. Some of the questions were like why don't some of the teachers just have a gun. But that would not be efficient because then the school would have to pay to let all the teachers have gun safety courses so they know how to operate it. Also, we learned that in case of emergency all the doors in the school are to stay locked. When you leave the classroom, and when you come back the person closest to the door is supposed to let you in. At the end of class Mr. Schick talked about how he is pretty sure since we have gone 50 years without anything that nothing is going to be happening this time either. But that is probably what the people in Columbine and Sandy Hook said too, "this will never happen to us."

movie

Today in class we were still watching part of the movie. Here are some of the notes i took during class today:
1. Advanced technology and large populations is something all successful civilizations had.
2. They all also had a well organized work force.
3. Jared Diamond wanted to find a time where everyone in the world lived the same and no technological advancements had yet been made.
4. People were thriving in the Middle East of the world.
5. Sago, barley, and wheat were natural occurring in the Middle East.
6. Drought lasted a long time, and it was harder to find food, but some how the people living in the area managed to live.
7. drah/draa is the oldest village found. this is a archaeological site where evidence of ancient civilization is found.
8. eleven and a half thousand years ago drah existed and people were living there.
9. Corn, squash, and beans were growing in the Americas.
10. China is now going to start growing rice.
11. People began growing their own food and essentially starting farming based societies.

Today

Today in class we started to watch a movie on guns germs and steel. It taught me a lot of new information about the people who live in New Guinea. They do not have any tools and there fore are forced to rely on the materials they can find in the habitat surrounding them. The built houses that sit higher off the ground, and my guess for this is because they don't want natural predators and animals to be able to reach them. Also, they run on a hunting and gathering type of society where they have to go out and shoot their dinner for each night. A while ago people from the Americas landed a plane in New Guinea and they showed them a record player. This symbolized money back then so owning one was a huge advancement. This movie shows that some civilizations were able to advance quicker then others.

Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond was born on September 10th, 1937. He had written a lot of popular science books, one of which called the Third Chimpanzee. He is an American scientist but is known for his writing more. He has 3 total books. He works at the University of California as a professor for Geography.  He is from Massachusetts but he was born into a Jewish family where he learned much about this religion. His first book went into the specifics of human evolution and how it is related to the modern world today and how we are formed. He has a lot of field experience as he traveled to New Guinea for 22 different expeditions. Also he took part of field projects that were for the Indonesian Government for wildlife fund over there. Guns, Germs, and Steel is his most important book. Speaks some of the languages of the tribes that live over there so he can converse with them when he goes over there. He is an american Anthropologist and Sociologist. Jared studies a lot of birds and their evolution and ecology in the world today. He received a publishing award, the Genius award, and many others including best selling author.

Guns germs and steel is a movie as well as a book. This book exposes the forces that played a part in shaping human history over the past 10,000 years. He compares the differences to the world back then to the world today. This book was written in 1997. He tries to argue gaps between the power and technology of people causes environmental differences. Since we started out at hunters and gatherers, he tells that we then switched into an agricultural type of society over a certain amount of time. Eurasia's agricultural advancements arose faster then any other places due to the fact that they have a greater availability of plants and animals. Sub Saharan people mostly relied on wild animals because they had a small amount of area where plants and animals even had a chance to survive. Book title means farm based society conquered other areas. Military superiority refers to how Christopher Columbus was able to take down the people who were already there. They were more technological advanced so they got a advantage and got mostly all they wanted to get. WESTWARD EXPANSION. The first part discussed how some civilizations have advanced and progressed and become more dominant and some haven't.

Presentations

Today in class we finished our presentations. The two groups that went today were both on China's side. I learned that many of the types of shoes we wear are made in China, there for if we did not have trade with them then we would not have shoes like Vans and Uggs. Also, there are some types of cars that we drive here in the states we would also not have if it weren't for our trading with China. After those two groups presented, we started out test review. Ben did our test review mostly for us and made us understand what was going to be on the test. There is going to be short answers versus long written out essays. I also realized that i need to start looking over my notes about thing like and TFR and also Socrates. Lastly, i will also need to start studying my world leaders and the countries they are associated with.