Andrew's Western Civ Blogs

Today in class we watched Hans Rosling's video where he was "animating data in real space". What his video showed was countries life expectancy and average income. This graph shows counties from 1810 to 2009, with a top lifespan of 75 years and top income of $40,000. This graph shows poor and sick countries at one end and rich and healthy people in the other. The graph shows in 1810 basically everyone is sick and poor, and life expectancy is around 40 years old. In 1948, or the end of world war 2, counties are very spread out on the graph and shows very sudden spikes or declines for different reasons. In general, the counties that haven't started their Industrial Revolution yet are stuck mostly in the poor and sick region. Well, that's all for me today, see you soon!

Today in class we looked at the video we saw yesterday about the population pyramid. A population pyramid is a graph that shows the number of people in five year intervals. One side of this graph shows the male population while the other shows females. This graph has gap in the middle where the ages are shown, which starts at age 0 and ends at 100 years and above. A wide base shows that a population's growing quickly, and shows a pre-industrial age. A graph that has growth in the middle shows that a population will grow slowly and an industrial age. The last one, which has growth in the post reproductive years shows a declining population, and also a post-industrial age. That's all for now, see you soon!

Today in class we got back our tests on Population and Migration, and I was surprised on how well I managed to do. I liked how we got to go on the CIA World Factbook because it was different then any other tests I've taken. There was only question that I didn't get, and that was the one that asks what a measure of a country's economic output that accounts for it's number of people. I said this was the population pyramid, but as we learned today, that wasn't the right answer. With these population pyramids, they compare the number of people of a certain age, and includes numbers for men and women.

Welcome back! Tomorrow we have the last test of the first quarter, so today in class we reviewed some of the things that should be one the test. We also said out loud what we think some of the test questions should be about, so now we have a general sense of what to expect on the test. This test will have 15 questions that we need the CIA world factbook to help us answer. We will also have to do some math on this test, which will include having to find the Net Migration Rate and the Rate of Natural Increase. Some of this will be having to divide the population by 1000 or subtracting the birth rate by the death rate. Well, see you on Test Day!

Today in class we took a look at the questions we did for homework last night. What he had to do was look at the CIA's world factbook. We learned that America is not the best compared to other counties in rankings such as the Infant Mortality Rate. We also saw that the average net worth for america was very low compared to countries like Monaco, but high compared to a country like Nigeria. Thats all for me for today, see you tomorrow.

1.        What is the population of China, and of India? The population of China is around 1,384,688,986. The population of India is 1,296,834,042. 2.        What is the Total Fertility Rate in Japan? The total fertility rate in Japan is 1.42. 3.        What is the death rate in El Salvador? The death rate in El Salvador 5.8. 4.        What percentage of the French identify “none” as their religion? Is this statistic verifiable, and why? 23-28% of French people identify as none as their religion. This statistic is not reliable because the last time the data was collected was in 1872. 5.        What percentage of Mexicans identify themselves as Roman Catholic? 82.7% of Mexicans identify themselves as Roman Catholic. 6.        What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in the United States? The GDP- per capita (PPP) in the United States is $59,800. 7.        What is the GDP - per capita (PPP) in Nigeria? The GDP-per capita (PPP) in Nigeria is $5,900. 8.        What

Today in class we leaned about measuring population. We learned about crude birth rate which is the number of births per 1000 people, and the crude death rate which is the number of deaths per 1000 people. The find the rate of natural increase, you have to subtract the death rate by the birth rate. This gives the annual growth rate in percentage form. We also talked about the Net Migration Rate which is the difference between people entering and leaving. A person leaving a country is called an emigration while an immigrant is someone who enters a country. That's all for now, see you later!

Today in class we learned about life expectancy and growth of the population. We learned about the difference in the number of years between hitting another billion people on the Earth. We hit one billion people around 1804 and had another 123 years until we hit two billion. after that it started to go down in years until it seems to settle at another billion each 12 years. We also talked about life expectancy. Life expectancy is the average number of years lived by a group of people born in the same year. We also talked about whether we think the older generation will live longer then we will. We took in effect eating habits, smoking, and other health problems. 

Today in our 40 minute class, we started on the population and settlement lesson. First off, we needed to write down words that we will learn throughout the lesson. We learned that there are currently around 7.6 billion people living on this planet, and increases by 73 million every year. If you were to do the math, that would mean there are 200,00 people born every day, and 149 born every single minute! 90% of this growth occurs in the countries that are still devolving, such as the ones in Africa and Asia. Well, that's all for me, see you soon!

 Today in class we reviewed our test and took a closer look at the questions that were difficult for us. The one question that confused everyone was the one asking whether certain coordinates were relative or absolute location, or even neither. The location was around 93 N, 95 E, which makes the location neither because coordinates cannot exceed 90 degrees. Another difficult question was UTC because our class didn't go over the slide. Instead of being Universally Translated Coordinates which is what I thought, it was actually Coordinated Universal Time. That's all for today, see you tomorrow!

Today in class we had a test on longitude, latitude, site and situation, and I think I did pretty well on it. I like the way we took the test, with how we have to fill in bubbles rather then writing the answers out or circling the answers on a packet. I liked the test and I think that is was fair and didn't have too many difficult or confusing questions. I definitely liked it and it's not something to worry about before you take it. See you Soon!

Today in class we finished up speeches for maintaining or getting rid of time zones. I was surprised to learn all but one of those who were unsure voted to keep time zones. We also took a surprise pop quiz on longitude and latitude. It also had questions about time zones which we have been working on mostly for a few days. I feel prepared for the test tomorrow, as I think I know all the material on it pretty well. This includes site, situation, longitude, and latitude. This is also our first time in geography using the fill in the bubble papers.

Today in class we had our debate over whether time zones are worth keeping, and I said time zones should be kept. I'd say the debate was a success because almost everyone got the chance to present their points, and people were offering counter arguments to most of the points brought up. If I was to do the debate any differently, I would have each side sit with their group, and other sides of the argument can comment during a presentation if they feel inclined. So I would say I enjoyed the debate and I would if we did do one again.

Today in class we talked about if time zones were really necessary. We were given the opportunity to have debates in class and make points on what we think is best. I said it is best to stay using time zones because of all the reasons it is helpful to everyone. One of the points that it is helpful and should stay is because it serves as a constant for when the sun rises and sets around the world. Another reason is that if you are traveling long distances and crossing multiple time zones, people wont know when the sun is going to go down and when they should go to sleep. A third reason is that if time zones are taken out, the population will take a long time to adjust to the change and schedules will be interrupted. Finally, if making a long distance call, you wont know if that person is asleep or awake based on the time, because its all the same. That is why time zones are important and should stay.

Today in class we learned about longitude and time zones. We went over some of the facts about longitude again, such as the Prime Meridian. This gets its name from the lines of longitude which are also called meridians. A time zone is described as a region of the planet that observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, official, and social purposes. These follow boundaries of countries or regions, and can sometimes be very off due a country being especially large. each time zone is around 15° each, as there are 360 degrees divided by 24 hours in a day. Some think time zones are not helpful, but they were outvoted in conferences around the world.