Last Day of First Semester

Today in class we took our test on Jared Diamond and "Guns Germs and Steel". Today was also the last day of the first semester, which means that we will be moving on to new classes. Some people will be leaving Mr. Schick and going with Mr. Powell to learn about Western Civilization. Others will just be learning Western Civilization with Mr. Schick. I am one of those people who will be staying, but a lot of my classmates will be leaving tomorrow. I hope that it goes well in the next unit, and that I may continue to have the enjoyment of learning with Mr. Schick as I did in Human Geography.

So today we took the last test of this class. I thought the test was fairly easy. Also, someone in my class actually brought in donuts, so after we finished our test we got to pick out a donut. We also shared some interesting facts when everyone was finished. I can't wait for the next semester!

What I think my Grade for Class Participation Should be and What I did Today in Class.

I think my class participation grade in the class should be an 85%. I believe that there is much to improve on if I want to get a good grade in this class. I answer questions occasionally, but I feel like I am not participating as much as other people are. In Western Civ, I want to try to be a bit more outgoing and to try to participate as much as I can.

Today we took an end-of-the-semester survey on the internet. The survey involved questions related to the the teachers teaching performance and how much we had learned during the class. I thought Mr. Schick did an excellent job teaching us this year. After we finished the survey, we looked on the C.I.A World Factbook and researched Papua New Guinea. We found some very interesting facts on the economy, transportation, population, etc. Some of them are that the unemployment rate is only 1.9%! Another fact is that Papua New Guinea's economy is the 12th fastest growing economy in the world.
Not only were the facts related to Papua New Guinea, we heard some very interesting facts about other countries as well, like that 50.5 % of the world's population live in cities, and that for the first time ever in the United States, more woman are getting Bachelor's Degrees and Master's Degrees than men are. 

Friday, January 11th 2013

Today we watched more of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond believes that New Guineans didn't have a chance to advance in their culture, because they spent too much time and effort feeding themselves. However, in the Middle East, people were able to advance because of the large amount of crops and plants that lived there long ago. Hover over time, the people of the Middle East started to destroy the environment, and the soil started to become useless. As a result. people began to expand eastward and westward of the Fertile Crescent, into Europe and into Asia. Some of the most powerful ancient civilizations, like the Greeks, Romans, and the Egyptians, are believed to be a result of this eastward and westward expansion.
we also learned that Jared Diamond believes that the answer to Yali's question lies in geography. Diamonds believes that if New Guinea shared the same geographical benefits as other countries, then they could have been one of the first to advance.

Lock-down Drill and Jared Diamond Notes

In today's class, we had a lock-down drill. Mr. Schick had told us the procedures that would happen yesterday, so we were well prepared. We heard one of the teachers over the intercom say that the lock-down would be occurring at this time. We had the lights turned off and we all went into a corner of the room which no one outside of the room could see. As we were all in the corner, we were told to be quiet. I heard lots of whispering and there was actually a game of 'would you rather...' being played next to me. After about 10 minutes, the lock-down ended and we resumed our time learning about Jared Diamond and his studies.

We learned how domestication of crops and animals can affect the advances of different cultures. Diamond inferred that sometimes, a cultures development could depend on where you were located, or in other words, geographical luck. Sometimes it could depend on where you were located and what resources were located where. Jared also wanted to know what kinds of animals people domesticated back then. Jared found out that there are 148 different kinds of species that are over 100 pounds and that can be domesticated. Of those 148, only 14 different species back then were domesticated. The list of the domesticated species are:

>Goats    >donkeys                >Reindeer
>Sheep    >Bactrian Camels   >Yaks
>Pigs       >Arabian Camels    >Mithans
>Cows    >Water Buffalo       >Bali Cattle        
>Horses  >Llamas

We also found out that none of these animals were native to the entire North American continent, Australia, and South Africa. They were however native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia.  

Talking about school shootings

Today's class was spent talking about the upcoming lock-down drill that we will be having tomorrow. We started out by saying what we would do when the lock-down occurs. We would first hear on the announcements that the lock-down would be occurring at that time. Next, we would shut off all of the lights, lock the door, and all gather into a corner of the room so that we can't be seen from the outside. If there were ever an intruder with an armed weapon in the school, he/she would not be able to see us from the outside of the classroom.  This also brought up the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the other shooting that took place at Columbine High School. We learned about some stories from the people who were victims or witnesses at both shootings. We also talked about gun laws in the United States, and which guns were legal and illegal to own. I am glad we reviewed over all of this, and I am prepared for what is to happen tomorrow.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today we continued to watch the documentary "Guns, Germs, and Steel". In the portion we watched today, we learned how the locals in Papua, New Guinea are at a disadvantage to the other groups of people around the world. We learned that in Papua, New Guinea, many of the exotic plants that grow on the island, one of them being the Sago tree, contain little to no nutritional value, and do not have enough calories to support the large population. Plus, hunting for animals can be unreliable, so the New Guineans usually depend on gathering as their main food source. Back in the prehistoric ages in the Middle East, what and barley was being grown, which provide much more nutrition than the Sago tree. Diamond believes that the availability of food was one of the factors he thought depended on the success or failure of societies.

Later in the documentary, we learned about an archaeological site called the Drab. The discovered ruins at the site is believed to be the oldest settlement known to date. Also, there is evidence that there could have been people growing food 10-15000 years ago. There was a building discovered there that was believed to be a storage for harvested crops too. The archaeologists believe that the discovery of 'growing crops yourself' is a factor that shaped history. For once, people did not have to worry about hunting for food 24/7. Now, people could get a good amount of food, and start focusing about developing a society for once. Soon after the people in the Middle East started growing food, many other groups were doing the same thing. China grew rice, America grew corn, squash, and beans, and Africa grew sorghum, millet, and yams. The way plants or crops are changed through human nature is called domestication. At the time people didn't know it, but the development of domestication became to be one of the most important discoveries in human history.

Friday January 4, 2013

In today's class, we continued to learn about Jared Diamond. We learned about his studies in Papua, New Guinea by watching a documentary that was written about him and his work. We found out in the documentary that Jared Diamond had originally came to New Guinea to study the exotic bird species that lived there, but he had also found out that the people who lived there were just as interesting as the birds. Throughout the years, he has learned to speak their language, and he has learned many skills and their culture from them. In Diamonds career, he had one person named Yali ask him a question that would completely change his studies. Yali had asked Diamond why white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans did not? In other words, Yali has asked why some groups of people had more resources than others. This led Diamond to ask himself; "what had led other groups to succeed over the other?" To answer this question, he would have to go back in time so far, where history became pre-history.

Starting the New Year

After a long break from school, we finally got back into the routine. We were handed out our essays and Finals during class too.
One of the assignments Mr. Schick told us to do was to look up information on Jared Diamond. Here is some facts on Jared Diamond.

Jared Diamond was born September 10th, 1937. He is known for his popular science fiction books, and is an author and scientist. Some of his most famous books are Guns, Germs, and Steel, and How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He is now currently a Professor of Geology at the University of California in Los Angeles. He has made many trips to Papua, New Guinea. He had originally came o New Guinea to study the native birds that lived there, but he had soon realized that the locals who lived there were more interesting than the birds. He then started to study about the locals cultures and way of life instead.

Guns, Germs, and Steel was one of Jared Diamonds most popular books. The books title is a reference to which Military power, natural resource, and natural causes could result in either a country's success or failure. Diamonds main question is this: What are the factors that could effect a countries success or failure? And what had allowed some groups to succeed over the other? For thousands of years, people have been hunting and gathering their whole life, but with agriculture discovered, it made life so much easier for people. Now that the food problem had been solved, people could start to work on how they can develop their life even more. This factor is just one of the reasons Diamond believes that some cultures can develop more than others.