Blog Day Fourteen: Grids, Location, Latitude

Today in class we started and almost finished the PowerPoint Grids. We talked about how geographers use grids as a way of describing where things are. We also learned that the first map written down was made by a cartographer named Eratosthenes. Eratosthenes made the map in 195 BCE. The map looked like this:

Maps serve two purposes; one being a reference tool to identify an object's absolute and relative location. The second one being a communication tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Now, back to absolute and relative location. Absolute location is a position as expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude and longitude. Relative location is a regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other place. Absolute location uses latitude and longitude, which we learned next. Latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface. All lines of latitude are parallel and never touch each other; they also get shorter towards the poles and the Equator is the largest line. We lightly touched on longitude, but I will save that for tomorrow's blog.  

Blog Day Thirteen: Situation

Today in class we continued to learn about "Site and Situation." In class we mostly talked about Situation. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. For example if someone didn't know where Bel Air is located I would tell them it is northeast of Baltimore. Mostly likely said person has heard of Baltimore and therefore has a general, relative area that Bel Air would be found in. Geographers use Situation to help us find an unfamiliar place by comparing its location with a familiar one. They also use Situation to help us learn about the importance of a location. Some places are more important because of their accessibility; like Chicago. Chicago is such a big and populated city because it was very easily accessible back when America was growing into the country it is now. Chicago was being accessed by roads, railways, waterways, etc. This caused it to be a main center of trade and increasing its importance in society because of it's center in trade. Site and Situation are two very important things when geographers describe where things are.

Blog Day Twelve: Site

Today in class we started on the PowerPoint Site and Situation. We mostly focused on the Site part of Site and Situation. One thing that I found kind of interesting was that the Bel Air area is across the globe from North Korea. This means that we have about the same climate. I found that really cool and I guess I never really thought about climate that way. Any way, we also talked about how Site describes the physical characteristics of a place. For example things like climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation all are used when describing the physical characteristics of a location. People also want to live where they are used to living. When they move/ migrate they look for similar characteristics in their past and future homes. I do think this is human nature because if a place isn't like our old home we have the ability to change it. And of course, we do change it. In fact in order to increase land sizes people would dump old ships and trash into the water source nearby, put some sand and dirt on top of it and call it land. I found this almost unbelievable. I mean it obviously worked but who would have thought to make "fake land." With all of that, class( and my blog post) sadly ended.

Blog Day Eleven: Test Country Scores

Blog Day Ten! Mercator vs. Peters

Today in class I took notes about the difference between the Mercator World map and the Peters Projection World map.
The Mercator World Map

Facts

• It was used to help people navigate the world
• Created by Gerardus Mercator
• Created in 1569
• Type of map projection
• Distorts the sizing of each country
• Cylindrical Projection map
• Meridians are equally spaced parallel vertical lines
• Enables navigators to plot a straight-line courses
• Less practical for being used as a world map

Peters Projection World Map

• All countries are in correct size in relation to each other
• Created by James Gall and Arno Peters
• Started to gain more popularity in 1974
• Introduced during a press conference in Germany by Arno Peters
• Created in 1885
• Has distortion, Because any flat map won't be able to be a perfect match to a globe 
• Yet has less distortion the Mercator's World Map 
• Accurately shows how Africa is 14x bigger than Greenland

Blog Day Nine: The Top and Bottom Attitude

Today in class we furthered our discussion on the Peters world map. A lot of people had a lot to say about this today. Many people were okay to use this map in regular classes, since it is more accurate in the relative sizing of each country. As soon as the map flipped upside down almost everyone in the class went crazy. Lots of my classmates were saying how there is no point to flipping the map. That by flipping the map it would give the "Top and Bottom" attitude to Australia and other countries below the equator. While people were saying that, I was wondering if that was our "Top and Bottom" attitude showing through. Since America is near the top of the map it might just be our subconscious mind telling us that the map is good the way it is because America is already "on top". I don't know, that was just my thought process during the discussion we had again today. The other thing we did in class today was go over our first tests! I was very happy with my grade. I had a feeling turning in the finished test that I had a few answers wrong. But thank goodness for extra credit! I did get the extra credit correct and I am very glad I was paying attention to the part of class where it was said. Overall today was a good class, and I also had a shadow with me today so I hope she had fun during this class too!

Blog Day Eight: Peters World Map

Today in class we had a discussion about our world map. The map that we are use to seeing is actually highly inaccurate when it comes to the size of each country. On the map we are used to seeing, Greenland looks almost as big as Africa. But in reality Africa is 14 times bigger than Greenland. If this doesn't show how incorrect the map is, I don't know what does. The fact is that any flat map will be inaccurate. This is because our world is a sphere and when it is shown on a flat map the proportions will always be off somehow. Thankfully there is a map that is much more accurate than the previous world map. That map is called Peters World Map. This map shows more accurately the sizes of each country/ continent. When showed this map at the beginning at class I thought that all the countries looked weird and out of place/ shape. I was very surprised to find out that Peters World Map is more accurate to the real sizes of each country. I was even more surprised to find out the map could be flipped upside down and it really wouldn't change anything. At that my thoughts spiraled. I realized that even though we feel and think about the concept of "up" and "down", there really is no "up and down" in the universe. I refused to let myself go down any deeper in that rabbit hole and let myself ponder on that fact for the rest of the day. In the end today's class was very interesting and I learned something that I probably won't ever forget.

Blog Day Seven: The First Test!

   Today in class we took a test. In my opinion it was a pretty good test to start off the school year. The test wasn't too hard but I can see where it would be difficult if you didn't pay attention in class. Thankfully I looked at my notes right before the test started. There were a few things I probably wouldn't have remembered if I didn't look at them. I also studied last night before bed which definitely helped me remember things we did towards the beginning of last week. The two essays were also not that bad. Personally, I really dislike opinion essays but the one on this test wasn't all that bad. I think this opinion essay was easier to me than other essays because I payed attention in class and the facts to support my answer came up easily in my brain. The other essay was also not that bad. Once again it was based off facts that came up easily in my brain because I payed attention in class. The moral of this story is to pay attention in class in order to get good grades.

Blog Day Six: Socrates and his Seminars

   Today in class we finished the Excellence PowerPoint. Some of the notes I took were:

• Socrates was a common man who fought in the Peloponnesian War and was a stonemason when he was younger
• Socrates was charged for the corruption of youth and impiety( not believing in the gods)
• Out of 500 men only 279 of them found Socrates guilty of his crimes
• An idiot in ancient Greek culture was someone who was too self centered to vote in the democracy

  We also had a mini Socratic seminar about gun violence in America. During the entire discussion Mr. Schick did not say anything about his beliefs on the topic. This is just what Socrates would have done when he was having discussion with his students. All Mr. Schick and Socrates did was ask follow up questions that helped the students further their ideas on the topic. I think that method was very helpful back in Socrates time because it showed the younger generation how to use their brains and think.

Blog Day Five: Important Definitions/ Information

Terms we defined in class today:

1. Agora~ A public open space used for assemblies and markets. A place where you could meet and talk to people. It was "the place to be" and the center fo all town activity. 
2. Polis~ a city in ancient Greece. It is like Baltimore city and Baltimore county. The smaller city is inside the countryside and people from the countryside go into town to of their business. Political entities ruled by the people who live there.  Origin of words like metropolitan and politics. 
3. The year 508 BC importance to ancient Greeks~ Democracy is introduced into Athens by Cleisthenes. He established a constitution called the "Father of Athenian Democracy." Formalized Democracy. Cleisthenes was the leader of this democracy. First time in recorded history the people revolted against their rulers. 
4. Socrates~ Was a Greek philosopher, credited as one of the founders of western civilization/ philosophy. 
5. The death of Socrates~ He was poisoned after being turned on by the politics of Greece. Known as the suicide of Socrates. He was charged with two crimes that had the punishment of poisoning.  
6. The Socratic Method~ It is a form of philosophical questioning. It is used to dispute or prove wrong a statement. Cooperative argument, dialogue, based on asking and answering questions, to stimulate critical thinking.  
7. Ancient Greeks meaning if idiot~ a private person, layman. A person who was label after not voting because they were self centered and didn't want to be attached to the community. someone who blowed off the responsibility of voting.   

Blog Day Four: What is Areté?

  Today in class we continued the PowerPoint Excellence. When we started talking about the vocabulary words, the one that stuck with me the most was slipshod. This was probably because of the word were it may have originated from, shod. When a horse has it's shoe put on it has been shod. If the job was done poorly the shoe could slip off. This could be a major problem since the horse could hurt itself without the shoe. For the horse's shoe to be put on so poorly that they slip off the person putting them on has to be extremely careless. Slipshod is define by careless and lackadaisical. I thought that was interesting how the two words in the whole word relate to the meaning of the whole word.
  The other thing we discussed in class today is how advanced the human species is. In that we learned about areté. Areté is the fullest potential one has. The highest human potential is knowledge. On top of that the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge. Kind of confusing if you ask me. In my opinion areté is a very helpful philosophy and more people should know about it.

Blog Day Three: The Start of Excellence

Today in class we finished reading A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard. I found this reading very interesting. To summarize, Hubbard thought people didn't have initiative to do anything, and that we should all be like Rowan; who can be asked to do the impossible, still say yes, and do the job well. Hubbard has very high standards of those in the work force. In contrary to that Hubbard also has low expectations of those in the work force. He mainly thinks that people will try to find any way to get out of doing something. Like making excuses. Hubbard hit on this one big time; he had a whole list of questions/ excuses that people will make in order to get out of something they have been asked to do. Hubbard also emphasized that people won't do anything without the right motivation. This type of motivation includes threatening to fired said person, threatening to hit them with a club, or literally kicking them in the butt. For me, this seems a little extreme; but you know whatever works, I guess.
   We also started a PowerPoint titled Excellence. What was really surprising to me was that over 40 million copies of  A Message to Garcia were sold. It was also translated into 37 languages, had two movies made from it, and was formatted into a pamphlet and book. I guess a lot of people related to it? I don't know, I have a feeling some people didn't realize that Hubbard could be talking about them too. The last thing I remember the class talking about was how Former President McKinley had a mountain named after him after was was assassinated. That Mountain was formerly called Mount Denali by the natives that lived there.

Blog Day Two: High School...

   Today in class we talked about one of the hardest things in our educational career. High school. We discussed how important time management is. Most people get up around six in the morning and don't stop going until nine o'clock or later. In between that time we have to go and learn for about eight hours, go to practice for sports for about two hours, do homework for about another two hours, plus adding in the travel time, that totals up to about fourteen hours of nonstop work. This is a lot to handle for 14-18 year old kids. And not to mention the pressure put on us to get good grades. The cushion of middle school has been pulled right out from under us and for some people that can be a rude awakening. With all of this I agree that high school is the hardest part of our educational careers.
   In class we also started to talk about how amazing this guy Rowan is. He was given an assignment to find Garcia, the leader of the Insurgents, and deliver a message from the United States president. The only problem was that Garcia was nowhere to be found. Rowan was basically given an almost impossible mission and he still took it. I think that is the coolest part about him, he took what everyone thought was an impossible job and showed that it wasn't.

Blog Day One: The First Day of School

Blog Day 1
1)
   The best part of my day was Advisory in the morning. I enjoyed meeting the upperclassmen and seeing who I would be sending the next few years with. I really like my Adviser, Mrs. Pleiss, she reminds me of my favorite science teacher from middle school. The upperclassmen in my Advisory are really funny which made my morning less stressful and a little less serious-feeling.
   The worst part of my day was my morning, before school started. Both of my parents were in the car with me on my way to school which was very stressful. I had lots of nerves walking into school. I really just didn't know what was going to happen and was very stressed about it.

2)
   I like my seat that I was given in class today. Since my last name is towards the beginning of the alphabet I am usually seated more towards the front of the classroom, so it was nice to be seated more in the back for a change. My seat is also towards the middle of the room which is nice. Being in the middle means you can see the screen without an obstructed view.