G-20 Conference Conferences

I want to do brief conferences with each of you to talk about your individual G-20 Conference grades. We'll discuss what you did that was great, what could improve, and talk about ways to improve public speaking and to increase skills in presenting material.

We will probably do half a class Mex presentations and half conferences for the next two class sessions.

Today

Human Geo: Please email me your PowerPoints or links to your Prezis. Then work on editing your research papers; I would like you to get together with two or three other folks and do peer review before you begin work editing. If you do not have your essay or are finished, please start collecting pictures of famous people / celebrities from Western Europe who do not look like the traditional stereotype of people from those countries with regards to ethnicity, race, religion, etc. Next class we start looking at immigration in Europe.

The following students need to get Google Docs to me ASAP:

Connor D.
Grace L.
Chris M.
Emma W.

Konnor D.
Meghan G.
Brendon H.
Erika L.

You all owe me Apartheid papers. If you've already added me as an editor to your Google Doc, please send me the link to your paper as for some reason you are not showing up in my list on Google.

Also, for everybody: I am going to make the last day before Winter Break the day final drafts and re-edits are due on those. You may earn up to full credit, but no credit will be available after that date.

Research Papers

As I am completing the research papers, I am commenting within the original Google Docs. So please, if you want to edit and re-submit, do that directly onto the Google Doc and then email me to let me know that you have re-submitted. You may receive up to full credit for edited drafts.

APA Format

Looking over the research papers. Lot's of problems with APA style. Those of you who did not cite sources using in-text citation at all need to re-do your papers; they have a grade of 60 in PS right now. Everybody should look over this document and edit your paper to be in compliance with the proper style. If you don't have specific page numbers (i.e. web page), just give author/editor/website name and date of publication: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

The 'Real' G 20

G-20 Conference

This year's G-20 Conference is being held at John Carroll!

The participants will be debating the following:
Should pollution laws and regulations be mandated internationally for all countries?

Requirements:

1. Bring your country's flag.
2. Wear national costume or bring national prop / choose a name.
3. Bring national anthem.
4. Bring pop music from your country,
5. Bring national food.
6. Bring photos (from Wikimedia Commons).
7. Read / Research your country on CIA Factbook, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet, and the official government websites.
8. Know the issue and be prepared to debate from the point of view of your country,

South Africa Mini Research Paper

In a three to five page (12 pt Times New Roman / Double-spaced) essay, answer the following:

Why did it take so long for Apartheid to be ended in South Africa?


Look at and research the following:

1. What was Apartheid? How and when did it start?
2. Who benefitted from it? Who suffered?
3. What were/are the demographics of South Africa?
4. Who was Nelson Mandela? How does he fit into the story?
5. What was Sun City? Why was there a boycott?
6. How did Apartheid end?
7. What was the 'Truth Commission'? What is the ANC?

Please use APA style in-text citations and proper bibliography. You must use both print and digital sources available through the JC library and media center. You must use authoritative web resources such as the CIA Factbook and the New York Times.

Due Fri for early section; next Mon for later.

Q. Where should I submit my paper?
A. Go to Google. Click on 'more' at the top left. Scroll down to 'documents' and click. Click on 'create new'. Choose 'document'. Put title in title box. Cut-and-paste your paper into the new Google Doc. Re-format as necessary. Click 'share' in top right corner. Add my gmail address: blakeplock at gmail.

Expert Groups: By Region

Organized into a Prezi (200 points -- due Oct 29th)

1. Map w/ major cities (including population), waterways, places of major natural resources.

2. Overview: a) Capital city b) current President/Prime Minister/King/Leadership c) GDP d) Life expectancy and median age

3. Brief history (1-2 paragraphs on ancient history; 1-2 paragraphs on modern history)

4. Photos (demonstrating all regions of the area -- please give link to each picture you use)

5. Current conflict in the region with sources to major newspapers/media (i.e. NY Times, NPR, etc...). Explain in 2 to 3 paragraphs what conflict is taking place.


Required Sources: Google Maps, CIA Factbook, NY Times
Recommended Sources: BBC, NPR, Lonely Planet

Letters from Senators

As you receive letters from your Senators, please read them and then bring them in to put on our wall!

Sustainability in Food Production and Distribution Project

300 points (100 for each part)

1. Complete food journal detailing everything eaten over our timeframe. The only way to get full credit is to have gone to the grocery store and found out where your produce came from.

2. Food Distribution Map: make a Google Map of as much of your food journal as you can. Then add up the approximate total mileage your food traveled. For full credit, estimate how much gas that represents by researching what kind of mileage a big rig (or in some cases a cargo ship) gets and multiplying that by the current price of gas (check at your local gas station).

3. Reflection Essay: 1,000 word personal essay about your feelings about sustainability and un-sustainability in food production and distribution based on everything you learned in class. Are you going to change your diet? Are you going to think about buying organic? What surprised you?

Due on your blogs as three separate blogposts by the end of the day (11:59PM) Friday.

USDA Organic

Here's the official information from the USDA on Organic foods: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/nop

Calendar now on blog...

... see below!

Sources on Human Action Contributing to Global Warming and Climate Change

Sources on the scientific evidence for human action contributing to global warming.



National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

The greenhouse effect is unquestionably real and helps to regulate the temperature of our planet. It is essential for life on Earth and is one of Earth's natural processes.... So, the concern is not with the fact that we have a greenhouse effect, but whether human activities are leading to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect by the emission of greenhouse gases through fossil fuel combustion and deforestation.

Human activity has been increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide from combustion of coal, oil, and gas; plus a few other trace gases). There is no scientific debate on this point.

Global surface temperatures have increased about 0.74°C (plus or minus 0.18°C) since the late-19^thcentury, and the linear trend for the past 50 years of 0.13°C (plus or minus 0.03°C) per decade is nearly twice that for the past 100 years. The warming has not been globally uniform. Some areas (including parts of the southeastern U.S. and parts of the North Atlantic) have, in fact, cooled slightly over the last century. The recent warmth has been greatest over North America and Eurasia between 40 and 70°N. Lastly, seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001 and the 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1995.

Global mean sea level has been rising at an average rate of 1.7 mm/year (plus or minus 0.5mm) over the past 100 years, which is significantly larger than the rate averaged over the last several thousand years. Depending on which greenhouse gas increase scenario is used (high or low) projected sea-level rise is projected to be anywhere from 0.18 (low greenhouse gas increase) to 0.59 meters for the highest greenhouse gas increase scenario. 

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

From the Our Changing Planet report signed by the George W. Bush Administration's Secretaries of Commerce and Energy (as reported in New Scientist):

The document reports that global warming in the first half of the 20th century, estimated at 0.2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, "was likely due to natural climate variation", including increased solar activity.

But the approximate 0.5°C rise over the second half of the century, most pronounced in the last 30 years, can only be explained when factors related to human activity, such as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, are taken into account.

"There's nothing else we can blame it on, really," says Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, where computer simulations produced the result. "If we don't put the changes in carbon dioxide into our models, we don't get global warming out."

Thomas Graedel, an industrial ecologist at Yale University, has reviewed the US government's climate change research strategy and says the report's acknowledgment of a human influence on global warming is encouraging.

"Well over 98% of scientists competent in this area would agree with that," he told New Scientist. 

Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis -- a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change


(Internationally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), is the most senior and authoritative body providing scientific advice to global policy makers. -- NOAA)

The simultaneous increase in energy content of all the major components of the climate system and the pattern and amplitude of warming in the different components, together with evidence that the second half of the 20th century was likely the warmest in 1.3 kyr (Chapter 6) indicate that the cause of the warming is extremely unlikely to be the result of internal processes alone. The consistency across different lines of evidence makes a strong case for a significant human influence on observed warming at the surface. 

Anthropogenic change [i.e. change caused by human activity] has been detected in surface temperature with very high significance levels (less than 1% error probability). This conclusion is strengthened by detection of anthropogenic change in the upper ocean with high significance level. Upper ocean warming argues against the surface warming being due to natural internal processes. Observed change is very large relative to climate-model simulated internal variability. Surface temperature variability simulated by models is consistent with variability estimated from instrumental and palaeorecords. Main uncertainty from forcing and internal variability estimates (Sections 9.4.1.2, 9.4.1.4, 9.5.1.1, 9.3.3.2,9.7).  

http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch9s9-7.html

World Meteorological Association

The build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during the 20th century has resulted from the growing use of energy and expansion of the global economy. Over the century, industrial activity grew 40-fold, and the emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) grew 10-fold.

http://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/causes_of_global_warming.php 

Info on Climate Change from NOAA

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

What are you doing about Darfur?

Assignment:

Using your knowledge about Darfur and what we've learned about the Sudanese Civil Wars and the forced migrations, you will be writing a letter to Senators Milkulski and Cardin asking them what their record has been on the Sudan Genocide, what they are currently doing with regard to bringing the perpetrators of the crimes in Sudan and Darfur to justice, what future they see for Sudan / U.S. relations, and what importance they put into the United States being involved in global issues of genocide and forced migration.

Rough Drafts of these letters will be due -- handwritten -- on Monday in class. They must be handwritten and expect to send a handwritten copy to the Senators (handwritten letters are much more likely to get their attention than emails).

You will be graded on the content of your letter accurately describing the history of the genocide and forced migrations in Sudan.

Resources:

God Grew Tired of Us: http://www.godgrewtiredofus.com/
The Devil Came on Horseback: http://www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com/
John Dau Foundation: http://johndaufoundation.org/
Save Darfur: http://www.savedarfur.org/
Google Map of Sudan: here
Radio Dabanga: http://www.radiodabanga.org/
PRI's The World on Sudan: http://www.theworld.org/?s=Sudan
New York Times on Sudan: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html
BBC on Sudan: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/820864.stm
USHMM on Genocide: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/genocide
USHMM on Violence in Sudan: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/atrisk/region/sudan/violence
USHMM on Witnesses to Sudan: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/ismail

Notes on Darfur

Reading and Watching Assignment (for when you group is finished the Darfur film)


Please read: What Has Happened in Darfur? http://savedarfur.org/pages/primer

Read: What is Genocide? http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/genocide

Read: Acts of Violence in Sudan: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/atrisk/region/sudan/violence

Please watch: http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/ismail


Be ready to discuss. (Class discussion grade 100 points)

Important: Please Read

Check PowerSchool. If you do not see a grade in Human Geo, it is because either you did not post your blog info on the class wiki or you did not put your name on the 9-11 report.

If either applies to you, please see me immediately.

Due on Friday for Blog Check / Grades

1. 9-11 Report (100 pts)

2. Terms, Language Map, Urdu Podcast Summary (100 pts)

Please make sure your info is on the class wiki (please only access wiki from home -- IP issues cause multiple edits from school to erase one another).

Recap of Indo-European Language Discussion

What we did in Section 2:

1. Listened to the Urdu story here: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/

2. Played a game where we had to give directions in Urdu to a blindfolded friend.

3. Looked at the history of Indo-European language; (Here's a link to the Indo-European language map.)

4. Used Google Maps Streetview to explore places where Indo-European languages are spoken.

5. Discussed how English and Urdu are related.

Tonight, please finish up the Language Region Google maps. We'll use those next class. And remember to check our Twitter feed for announcements/updates. Thanks.

Language and Humans

What we did today:

1) Review of how a human geographer can use the "Soda Pop" map to analyse migration patterns. Here's a link to the map: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-sD7sQz-eSOLi0auVeFvyrVttq5HoI9x2cAOMjrLreB9vANsKQ8Zu8d9DkadSW3mDmMdP8MvtQst_xQUH1KkMcTLuMihaXbuv15nkvGGDIAWydw0Q8OWYM74tmusIJQTOSEdaJK8dWk/s1600/Pop_vs_Soda.gif

2) Listened to a podcast about Dual-Language Schools: http://www.theworld.org/2010/09/08/learning-in-two-languages/

3) Debated whether immigrants to the USA should have to learn English.

4) Used Google Translate to read news in German and Korean.

Here's the podcast to listen to and summarize for homework: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/ (20 minute program -- spend about ten minutes writing brief three or four sentence summaries of each part of the program).

Welcome Parents

I am teaching this evening my weekly course at Johns Hopkins University; please pardon my absence. I would like to meet you all and look forward to doing so. You are welcome to contact me anytime via email ( rwojewodzki [at] johncarroll [dot] org ), Twitter ( @TeachPaperless ), or via Skype for a video conference. We can also easily set up a face-to-face appointment.

Please find the course outline in the sidebar to the right. It covers course objectives, procedures, etc.

I am looking forward to working with your students this year, and I am looking forward to seeing them learn.

best,

Mr. Wojo

How Did 9-11 Effect Air Travel Internationally?

Links to resources:

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/briefing/

http://www.ustravel.org/news/press-kit/travel-facts-and-statistics

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL31617.pdf

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ni_911_wp.pdf

Your final report should be three pages in length + illustrations / pictures. Please cite properly and give links to anything online.