Blog Day Fifty- Eight: Last Blog and Class of Human Geo

Today in class we all decided that we didn't want our test back. The test were about Guns, Germs, and Steel. I got a 92 and I am very proud of myself because I didn't study as much as I could have have and still got an A. Overall Human Geography has been fun. Our next semester course is Western Civilization and lucky me, I have Mr. Schick again for that class. I will be creating a new blog account for Western Civ. I am also excited for that class because I am in the smaller class of about 13 kids. But back to Human Geo, I have had my ups and downs with this class. Coming from middle school social studies to this class was a big adjustment because the test were challenging and hard to get used to because I actually had to study. Normally I could just wing it and get an A in middle school, but here I had to work to get the grade I deserved. I definitely don't think this is a bad thing, because studying the material that was taught to us actually helped me better understand it and learn it. Human Geo was a fun class and I think I will miss typing these blogs every night and taking the class everyday. Goodbye blog, Until Western Civ.

Blog Day Fifty- Seven: Test on Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we took our test on Guns, Germs, and Steel. Overall I think the test was fairly challenging. there was a few questions that I did not take notes on and did somewhat kind of remember them being in the video. One of the things I dislike the most about having tests on videos is the fact that you could be taking notes constantly, but miss out on one thing that the video says that is on the test. Maybe that's just me, I don't know. I am hoping that I did well enough on the test to have earned an A. Mr. Schick did something different this test, which was playing soothing, relaxing music while we completed the test. I don't think adding the music helped me do better on the test. If anything I'd say it distracted me more because instead of silence there was noise. I would find myself focusing on the music rather than the test and that would be wasting my time. It was nice hat Mr. Schick was trying to do something to ease our test anxiety, but for me music during a test just doesn't work. This was the last test of this quarter and semester for this class. With that being said tomorrow will be our last day of class and therefore the last day of my Human Geography blogs.

Blog Day Fifty- Six: Test about Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we went over all the things that will be on our test about Guns, Germs, and Steel. Mr. Shick told us we needed to know about the author of the book, Jared Diamond. Here are a few facts about him; he wrote the book in 1997, he was/ is a professor at UCLA, he is a biologist, specialist in human physiology, his real passion is studying birds. Also Papua New Guinea is the last place where people are still hunters and gatherers. Three things that make up great civilizations are advance technology, large population, and a well organized workforce.  Another thing we need to know is Yali's questions which is, "Why you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?" Cargo is defined as material goods Europeans brought to New Guinea. One thing that new Guinea has is wild sago. This is a type of food that New Guineans get from a tree. It takes about three days to process all 70 pounds of food. It has no nutrients and does not last very long after it has been harvested. Draa is one of the earliest settlements to have been discovered. It was discovered around 11,500 years ago. In this settlement it had a place called a granary. A granary is a place where food can be stored year round. It has humidity control and stored grains like wheat and barley. As settlements started to take place, plant domestication started to occur. Plant domestication started when the ice age people started to stay in one place and farm. They selected the plants they wanted to grow and plant domestication begun. Along with plant domestication came animal domestication. This was when people discovered they could use animals for more than just their meat. They could use animals for their milk for protein, their hides for clothing, their power for farming, and their waste for fertilizer. There was one major thing that Diamond pointed out in his theory, and that is geographic luck. That in and of itself covered the differences between the advancements of all the civilizations in the worlds. A few facts that support the theory of geographic luck are that none of the major domesticated plants or animals were domestic to New Guinea. The fourteen animals that have been domesticated are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalos, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mitans, and bali cattle. None of which are native to New Guinea. On the plants side of things, rice is indigenous to China, corn, squash, and beans are indigenous to the Americas, barley and wheat are indigenous to the Middle East, and sorghum, millt, and yams are indigenous to Africa. With some of these plants people kept replanting them and destroying the soil of the land, like they did in Mesopotamia. Eventually people had to find a new home away from the fertile crescent, as after a few hundred it became to so fertile. Overall, I think I have hopefully covered all the facts that will be on the test about Guns, Germs, and Steel.

Blog Day Fifty- Five: The Fertile Crescent and Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we finished the video about Guns, Germs, and Steel. Something I found interesting was the fact that Papua New Guinea had no native animals that were part of the list of the 14 different types of animals that were successfully domesticated by humans. This fact helps support Jared Diamond's theory that Geographic luck take part in the success of a civilization. Most of those 14 animals came from Asia, North Africa, and Europe. One species did come from South America and that was the llama. Mr. Schick paused the video to have someone guess which animals came from South America, and I guessed the llama correctly. Also the fertile crescent had many of these animals and had good vegetation to grow and eat crops. After about 1,000 years later the fertile crescent was so overused the people who lived there had to move and find others places that are not as barren as they had made the fertile crescent. Overall the video was very interesting and I learned a lot from it.

Blog Day Fifty- Four: Domestication and Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we continued to watch the video Guns, Germs, and Steel. I took notes about the thing that, after research, Jared Diamond thinks makes great civilizations. That thing is geographic luck. American, European, and Asian countries have been more fortunate to have better places to get food from and animals that can help with everything. In places like Papua New Guinea, they don't have nutritious food, like wheat and barley, to eat and grow more of like people did in other places. Goat and sheep were the first every animals to be domesticated followed by bigger farm animals. These animals were more than just meat, they had hide to keep the people warm, the people got protein from the animals milk, and natural fertilizer for the plants as well from these animals. Papua New Guinea had pigs, but they can't do as many things that animals like sheep and horses can do. At the very end of class we guessed how many animals were domesticated and I guessed 17. Unfortunately, I guessed incorrectly and there are only 14 animals that humans domesticated. They include goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mitans, and bali cattle. I am looking forward to finishing the video next class.

Blog Day Fifty- Three: Dogs and Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we watched the video about Guns, Germs, and Steel. At the beginning of class we had a visit from someone very special, a dog! It was quite nice to have had a dog in the classroom at the start of the day. The dog even showed us trick and fetched a ball when Mr. Schick threw it. Once we started the video I started taking notes. A few notes I took were the three things that Jared Diamond thinks make a great civilizations; advanced technology, large population, and well organized workforce. I do agree that these things make up a great civilizations because they all are the things that advanced civilizations now have. I also learned that in Papua New Guinea people still are hunter-gatherers. Wild sago is something that the gatherer gather. It is a good source of food in Papua New Guinea since is does produce about 70 pounds of something edible from the tree. The downside is that it takes at least three days to produce that food from the tree, it has no protein or vitamins, and it will go bad after few days, so you have to eat it quickly. I am excited to learn more from the video next class.

Blog Day Fifty- Two: Intro to Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we started our final unit of Human Geography. We started learning about Guns, Germs, and Steel. At first glance these words seem like they don't mix. After a Google search I found of that these four words are the title of a book written by Jared Diamond in 1997. Jared Diamond is a very interesting person, kind of like Hans Rosling. Diamond is a professor at UCLA, a biologist, and a specialist in human physiology. Although you might think that those careers take up most time in his life, Diamond's real passion is studying birds. He even goes as far as Papua New Guinea to study them. He is currently the leading expert on birds on the island. While visiting the island, a native named Yali asked Diamond, "Why do you white men have so much cargo and we New Guineas have so little?" This question intrigued Diamond and he started to wonder why there was such a difference in development between places like Papua New Guinea and places like the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Those thoughts lead to Diamond writing the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel."