Geography & Latitude

Geography is the study of where things are. A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of the Earth's surface. Map-making is called cartography. Maps serve two purposes : to show absolute and relative location, and to act as a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of point on the Earth's surface. It is measured in imaginary lines that run parallel to the equator. They never cross each other and get shorter towards the poles. The equator is measured as (0 degrees N/S). That is what we learned today.

Situation

Today we actually talked about situation. It’s where something is located relative to another place. Situation helps people when they are trying to describe how to get somewhere to someone else while talking on the phone. If your asking where a certain place is you can tell them a big landmark to look for so that they can find the place. Situation is very important for people to understand because if we didn’t we would all be lost trying to find our destination. If we had a huge power outage around the world and no one could use their phones or gps than we could talk to each other face to face  and have to describe a place someone is trying to get to. That’s why we use situation.

Site and Situation

Today we talked about site. Site is the physical character of a place. It’s how geographers describe the location of a place. Important characteristics of site include : water sources, climate, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. Good site qualities depend on the cultural values of each individual person. Situation was listed after site. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. It helps us find an unfamiliar place in relation to another place. It also helps us understand the importance of the location of a place. My house doesn’t have that many unique characteristics. It’s just a simple house in a neighborhood. It has a play-set in the backyard and a tree in the front yard. I think site and situation are important for not just for geographers but also regular people to describe places to others.

Map Games

Reviewing Our Test

Today, we reviewed our test. I got a 98 out of 100. The questions I got wrong were the one about the polis and the one about the government revolts. I must have skimmed through the test and not seen the part that said "other than the United States" because I put down the United States as one of the answers. The rest of the test, however, I got right. I did really well on the essay questions. I'm proud of myself because I thought I was going to do a lot worse. All we did today was review our test so it got a little boring in class. We also went over how exams worked in December. Class today was pretty uneventful and I was still tired because it was in the morning. I will make sure to keep my test in a safe place to study for when exams come around.  

Mercator Map VS Peters Map

There are two maps that we have been learning about. The Mercator Map and the Peters Map. The more realistic map is the Peters Map. It shows the countries more proportionate to their actual size. In order for the flat map to accurately show the round Earth it distorts the shapes of the continents. The person who created the map was Arno Peters. He presented it to people and told them that it was superior compared to the Mercator Map. The Peters Map increases the size of each continent the closer they are to the equator. The continents that are closer to the equator on the Mercator map are smaller so they seem less important compared to the other countries. Next is the Mercator Map. It was created and presented by Gerardus Mercator before the Peters Map was invented. It became the standard map for navigation because it showed how to get places in straight lines. Sailors liked this map because it was easy to use a compass with it to get where they were going with the least amount of difficulty. The Mercator Map makes land far away from the equator larger which is because the scale on it is constant. Land like Greenland and Antartica seem larger than they actually are. Mercator map's also have topography and the Peters Map doesn't.

The only map I've ever seen is the Mercator Map. I didn't even know that there were other maps that showed the world in different ways. I think that the Peters World Map shows the world in a more real way but I like the Mercator Map better. It could be because it's the only map I've ever known but I think it's great. I don't really look at maps that often anyway but when I do its always a Mercator Map. Different maps show different things so I think it all depends on what you're looking for at the moment.  

Maps

Today, we looked at three different maps. The first one was used for transportation. It had cities and towns marked and also roads, like interstates. It also had topography, where you could see the different elevations. The second map was of the whole world and was called a Mercator Map. It’s the map that most people look at but it’s not that accurate. It also had topography. The third map was called Peters World Map and it is the most accurate. All of the continents sizes are proprtionate to the real thing. It’s the closet map to the reality. If you flip a map upside down it’s still the same map. It still has everything the other map is just upside down.

TEST DAY

Today we took the test on excellence and a message to Garcia. I thought I did pretty well. The only question that I had trouble remembering was the one about the polis. I looked through the slideshow  before I came to class so it was all pretty fresh in my brain. I'm pretty sure I got the bonus question right too. I thought the essays were going to be hard but they were actually pretty easy. I did keep writing down more and more for the essays because I don't like when I have a lot of blank lines left on the paper. I thought that the multiple choice questions were really easy. I liked how the paper was purple it was different from just writing on normal white paper. I was a little stressed because class was shorter than usual but I finished with time to spare. I checked all my answers before I handed in the test and they looked right to me so I think I did ok.

Reviewing For A Test Tomorrow

So tomorrow we have a test on A Message to Garcia and Excellence. Today we reviewed what will most likely be on the test. There will definitely be questions about Socrates. There will be a multiple choice section, a fill in the blank section, and two essay questions. There will be a question on what it means when the Greeks called you and “idiot”. We will probably need to know when A Message to Garcia was published (1899). We’ll need to know what was important in 508 BC - birth of democracy. After our review in class I now know what I should really focus on when I’m studying.

The Amazing Socrates

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who was one of the founders of Western philosophy. He was a stonemason when he was a younger. He taught kids right outside of the agora. He cane from a working class family and fought in the Peloponnesian War. He went on trial for two reasons : corrupting the youth of Athens and impiety. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning. He didn’t even apologize for what he did, and it shows his loyalty for the new democracy. Anyways, Socrates was considered an intellectual hero. He stood up for what he thought was right and didn’t let anyone change his mind.

Some Important Things To Know

• agora - public open space used for assemblies and markets
• polis - city-state in Ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical  purposes  
• the importance of the year 508 BC to the ancient Greeks - democracy is introduced in Athens
• Socrates - classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought 
• the death of Socrates - went on trial and was found guilty of corrupting the the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety, and as punishment sentenced to death, caused by the drinking of a mixture containing poison hemlock
• the Socratic method - a form a cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and t draw out ideas and underlying presuppositons  
• what the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot -  it means you did not contribute to the community or politics - came from the word "Idios" which means the self

Lazy Workers

Today we finished reading A Message To Garcia. Elbert Hubbard has a unique view on American workers. He feels like people are lazy and incompetent and he just want to beat them with a club. People now a days don't work hard to get stuff done. They take more time making up excuses to get out of it then just doing what they're asked to. The essay was written into a book and a pamphlet sold over 40 million copies. It was translated into 37 different languages. Not only was the small essay written into a book, it was also made into a movie twice. I think that this is insane because the essay was only three pages long and they made it into all of this stuff. Hubbard thinks that although we sometimes pity those who work in sweat shops we should really pity those CEOs that can't find the right people to work for them. They have to keep firing people because they don't do their jobs. Some of these beliefs still hold true today but now people actually understand that they have to work hard to keep their jobs. People who become known as reliable are going to be valued and people who are known as lazy are not going to get far in their jobs.

Sending A Message To Garcia

I didn’t get home until late tonight because of a soccer game I had. So I guess I really had to “send a message to Garcia” since I had to finish the homework I got. I had to take notes for Biology that took longer than expected. My hand got cramped up a few times because of how long it took to write. It’s only the second day but I think things are going pretty well for me. Except when I forgot my laptop in my locker. It took me three tries to get it open, so I was worried that I wouldn’t get to class on time but I made it. High school is a big transition from middle school so I’m glad that I’m getting the hang of it. I think that Rowan, in the essay, was a pretty cool guy. He just took what he was given and ran with it. No one told him where he was going, he just figured it out himself. If everyone tried “sending a message to Garcia” the world would probably be a much more productive place.

First Day of School

My first day at John Carroll has been pretty good. I had Advanced Algebra 2 first mod with Mrs. Pleiss. We were given four warm-up questions to accomplish. I was very excited when I was able to open my locker by myself because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to. My second mod was Honors Spanish 1. We introduced ourselves to the class while speaking Spanish. Next, I had Human Geography. We put ourselves in reverse alphabetical order to find our seats. It took us five minutes to get in the right order. After that we had 30 minutes of lunch. I sat with my friends that I found pretty easily. Right after lunch I went to Intro to Bible with Mr. Huber. The best part of my day is when I saw my sisters and they were able to direct me where the classroom I was looking for was. The worst part was the assembly because I was squished between everyone the bleachers. I like my seat in Human Geo because it is on the edge. I don't like being in the front and being the center of attention. All in all, I think that today was a pretty good start to my Freshman year.