Giada's Honors Human Geography Blog

   Today in class we learned about geography and features of a map. Geography is the study of where things are found on Earth's surface and the reasons for the locations. Two key questions in geography are (1.) Where are people and activities found on Earth? and (2.) Why are they found there? We also talked about cartography, which is the art and science of mapmaking. A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scaled model of the Earth. Maps serve 2 purposes: (1.) As a reference tool to identify an object's absolute and relative location, and (2.) As a communications tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. Also, there is a difference between absolute location and relative location. Absolute location is position expressed in degrees, minutes, and seconds of latitude (north and south of the equator) and longitude (east or west of the Prime Meridian). Relative location is the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other pla...

   Today in class, we talked about the second part of Mr. Schick's blog post, which is about situation. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places. We talked about site yesterday, and now I am realizing they go hand-to-hand with each other. Site is the physical character of a place/location, and situation is the location of a place relative to other ones. These terms are similar because they are both dealing with describing the location of a place, whether it's describing what good characteristics a location has, or describing the location by comparing it with another one. Going further in depth on situation, situation is a valuable way to indicate location for two reasons: (1.) Situation helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing it's location with another one. Mr. Schick gave the example of our town Bel Air, and how not many people are familiar with it. But if you mentioned Baltimore, which is very close to us, more people would be familiar with th...

   Today, our key question was, "How do geographers describe where things are?" This opened up our  discussion about site and situation. Mr. Schick explained to us that geographers can describe the location of a place by site , which is the physical character of a place. Important site characteristics include climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. Next, we read Mr. Schick's blog post from yesterday, which further explained what site is. There were two important parts of the text that I took note of. For starters, people have disagreed on the attributes of a good site. This has been relevant for a long time now, and dates back to the beginning of time. Secondly, humans have the ability to modify the characteristics of a site. For example, humans can expand and develop pieces of land to fit their needs. Battery Park City, for instance, is a 142-acre site designed to house more than 20,000 residents and 30,000 office workers. Overall, ...

We did these practice quizzes on the computer today:) This helped me learn more about North America, Central America, and South America.

   Today in class we reviewed the video that we watched yesterday in class about the Peters Projection Map compared to the map we are used to seeing (which is the Mercator map). We had a discussion today about the idea of having the map we normally see flipped upside-down. In the video, the cartographers presented the government workers with an idea to have it flipped, so that we don't have a "top-bottom" attitude. This is saying that since we read left to right, and consider things "on the top" as "more important", like how America is one of the first things we see on the map, we have an attitude of thinking we are more important than other countries. Also in the video, they talked about how we usually associate size with importance/power. That is why they wanted to show the real size of countries and not distortions or inaccuracies. In class, we said that Peters Projection Map, is indeed, more accurate than the Mercator map, which was invented in 156...

   Today in class, Mr. Schick showed us a regular, flat map of the world. He then showed us another map that looked completely different. On this other map, it seemed more stretched out (vertically). We all thought that this map was either very outdated, when there were no satellites, or was just a very poorly-made map. However, by the end of the class, we realized that it is actually more accurate than the map we are used to seeing! Mr. Schick pulled out a world globe, showing to us what the Earth really looks like, and explained that if you were to travel around the world form the middle of the Earth, it would take longer compared to if you traveled around from the North Pole. This is because the Earth is a sphere, and that is why regular maps are inaccurate. We then watched a video demonstrating an idea (which was the strange-looking map we saw in the beginning of class). It talked about the "Peters Projection Map", and how the size of countries like Greenland and Africa a...

   Today, we had our test on A Message to Garcia and the "Excellence" powerpoint. I went over the notes a little this morning to remind me of all the information we learned, and when I saw the test, I thought I was going to do pretty well. The front page was multiple choice questions all about A Message To Garcia,  the back page was fill-in-the blank questions about Socrates from the "Excellence" powerpoint. The last page (front and back) were two essays- one where we had to explain Socrates' trial and death, and the second was what we would say if we were a jury member in Socrates trial. I would say he is not-guilty. I had to explain my response in detail, in the essay. Overall, I think I did well on the test. I was just sad that I forgot the bonus question. :(

   Today, we finished the "Excellence" powerpoint. For starters, we went more into detail on Socrates. He was a common man, just like all of us. When he was young, he worked as a stonemason and then fought in the Peloponnesian War. These experiences helped shape his mindset and how he viewed the world. Socrates later played an interesting role in Athenian society. Athens was a great city which attracted brilliant thinkers and visitors from all over the world came to share knowledge of all things scientific. Socrates used the "Socratic method" when he met with students outside the agora. He would ask them a series of questions to determine their beliefs and extent of knowledge. He asked questions, without letting the students know how he felt about the topic. He would always introduce thoughts and beliefs that were new to the children, and didn't always represent Athenian teachings, which were centered around Greek gods. Due to this, Socrates was charged with two...

Agora - The agora was a central public space in Ancient Greece city-states. It was a gathering place, assembly, or marketplace. Polis - A polis is  a city state in ancient Greece, especially as considered in its ideal form for philosophical purposes. They were political entities ruled by the citizens. The importance of the year 508 BCE to the ancient Greeks - Cleisthenes, an Athenian lawgiver, sets up Democracy in Greece. It was the first time in history a people had revolted against their rulers and took over.  Socrates - Socrates was a Greek philosopher who is best known for being one of the founders of Western philosophy. The death of Socrates - It was known as, "the suicide of Socrates". He was charged with two crimes, both of which he was guilty for. He had to drink poison hemlock and was sentenced to death. The Socratic method - The Socratic method is a way to find the truth through three steps: examining a claim, questioning the claim, and finding true...

   In class today we went over more of the "Excellence" powerpoint Mr. Schick made. We covered topics such as the vocabulary in A Message To Garcia , the message/theme of A Message To Garcia , and the meaning/background of the Greek word, "areté".     Some vocabulary words we reviewed were perihelion, slipshod, imbecility, stenographer, and missive. Perihelion is the point when a planet (like Mars) is closest to the sun, and therefore at its brightest. In line one of the text, it states, "In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion." This is referring to Rowan, and he is being compared to the brightest planet on the horizon. Slipshod  means careless. Mr. Schick told us a story of how a man carelessly nails on a horses shoe to a barefoot/shod horse and the horse slips. This happened because the man was slipshod. Imbecility (from the word imbecile) means stupidity or incapability. In t...

   Today in class we finished reading A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard, and went further in depth about the meaning of the passage. Picking up where we left off yesterday, Rowan is taking the message to Garcia. Then, the narrator discusses his opinion on most people. He thinks that most people will make any excuse to get out of something that they don't want to do because people are lazy and selfish. He also believes that in order to do what they're told, people must fear getting fired from their job or fear physical violence. Rowan was an example of someone completely different: The only one willing to carry a message to Garcia by himself because president McKinley asked this of him. People like Rowan are "wanted in every city, town, and village" and are so kind "that no employer can afford to let him go."    This text relates to the difficulties of high school because at times, you're going to be the person which this story advises against. You a...

   Today Mr. Schick gave us a talk about high school and later showed us a historic writing. He told us about how different high school is going to be compared to middle school and some of the challenges and responsiblities we will have to face. One big issue is time management. This is very important because once we get involved more at John Carroll in sports, clubs, extra-curriculars, etc., we will have to spend our time very wisely and keep school and grades as our top priority. We will become more independent, really learn who we are, and find how hard we are willing to work.    After our talk, we read, A Message to Garcia , by Elbert Hubbard. We did not finish this text today but it took place in 1899, during the Spanish American War. The U.S. is supporting Cuba in their quest for freedom from Spain, one of the strongest empires in the world. U.S. is very close to Cuba on the map, so the U.S. thought it would be better to be friends than foes. 25th president, W...

1.   The best part of my day today was lunch. I feel like that is when I got to meet new people and make new friends. It was interesting to see a bunch of new faces, especially because not many people from my middle school came to John Carroll. Even though I was nervous in the morning, I later had a feeling that I might enjoy high school very much, and that I might make a lot of new friends, too. I look forward to see what's to come in the next four years here at JC.        The worst part of my day today would probably have to be the time spent in between classes. Today, I was having to check my schedule a lot because I did not really know where I was going. However, I feel like this is bound to happen the first couple days at school because I am not used to where everything is yet. It is okay though because eventually it'll get better and I won't end up lost. 2.   I like the seat I was given in class today. To be honest, I would be okay with any seat I ...