Giada's Honors Human Geography Blog

   Today in class, we read textbook pages on Egypt and took notes. We also went over the Egypt section of the powerpoint that also included Mesopotamia information. Here are a couple of notes that are important: Around 3100 B.C. the two lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) were united under a single king or “ pharaoh ” ( Narmer , AKA Menes ) The Nile river was the major provider of life for the Egyptians and was much revered in lore and writing Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped as a god, and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called “ maat ” (personified by the goddess Maat; ideological opposite of goddess Isfet) - kinda like harmony/balance of heaven and hell in Christian faith Egyptians believed in an afterlife ( ka ), and they mummified bodies to preserve them for this post-death journey All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and be...

   I wasn't in class today because I had to go to a basketball game. However, today was the Mesopotamia quiz day so I came into his class during 2nd mod and took my quiz the same time the SuperWesternCiv class took their quiz. I thought the quiz was easy because I looked over my notes yesterday and had a good understanding of the topics we were discussing. I think I got an A on it.

   Today in class, we went over what we need to know for tomorrow's quiz. It is on Mesopotamia and I think I can do good on it if I look over my notes. We also listened to the Mesopotamia song and it actually had some good information in it. I remember listening to it in seventh grade and I love it. After this, Mr. Schick pulled up a video of this guy talking about the difference between baseball and football. I didn't really like the video because it was kinda boring. But then, we went to the YouTube channel for the broadcasting production crew Mr. Schick is in charge of. We watched these videos from like 5 years ago, which was fun. Mr. Schick pointed out this one girl in the video and told us that she was on American Idol. So, we watched her audition on YouTube and it was really good! Anyways, we ended class with a quizlet review that Dan made for the Mesopotamia quiz tomorrow.

   Today in class, we went over some of the terms we will need to know for the quiz on Mesopotamia this Wednesday. He told us that one part will be matching the term to definition and another part will be descriptions and we have to say what it is. This is all based on our notes from the reading we took last week. Some terms we went over include cultural diffusion, ziggurat, Hammurabi's Code, city-state, etc. I took a couple extra notes in my notebook while he was talking. This is what I wrote: New Stone Age (Neolithic Era) = advanced tools Old Stone Age = Paleolithic Era Political unit = city-state Epic of Gilgamesh = story of great flood (like Noah's Arc) Silt = Soil left behind when flood water is received 282 laws in Hammurabi's Code. Laws were posted on stone plaques all around the city-state A recent military attack occurred at the Tigris  river

   Today in class, we went over another slide in the powerpoint and took notes on it. We also talked about moon stages. The Sumerians invented a calendar based on the moon and thought of the concept of hours/minutes. A waning moon gets smaller (goes from full to half to crescent to nothing). A waxing moon gets larger (goes from nothing to crescent to half to full). The cycle never stops. Mr. Schick told us about how he helps his wife work with the horses. He told us how during a full moon, its brighter than normal and he can see the poop he needs to clean up better. When he was a cab driver in college, he would pick up people and they acted extra strange on full moons. Later in class, after we went over the slide, we talked about Hammurabi's Code and his concept "an eye for an eye". We all looked up a list of laws and we found some very strange ones. These punishments would definitely not be used in todays society. It was interesting to see how different the laws in Babyl...

5.   What areas of life did Hammurabi's Code cover? Hammurabi's Code covered everything that affected the community, including family relations, business conduct, and crime. Hammurabi's Code covered principles like the principle of retaliation and the principle that government had a responsibility for what occurred in society. These set of law/codes were made by collecting a bunch of existing rules, judgements, and laws into the Code of Hammurabi. It was formed in order to help unify the diverse groups within Hammurabi's empire.

PAGE 34 OF WESTERN CIV. TEXTBOOK NUMBERS ONE AND THREE: 1.) Fertile Crescent : A desert climate that dominates the landscape between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea in Southwest Asia. The regions curved shape and richness of land is why it is called the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamia : Land facing the Mediterranean Sea (between Tigris and Euphrates rivers) City-state : City-states included their own government and their own ruler (like an independent country today functions) Dynasty : Series of rulers from a single family Cultural diffusion : The process in which a new idea/product spreads from one culture to another. Polytheism : The belief in more than one god (Sumerians were polytheistic) Empire : An empire   brings several people, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler. Hammurabi : He created Hammurabi's code and ruled the Babylonian Empire 2.) These were the three environmental challenges to Sumerians: Unpredictable fl...

   I was not in class today because Emily Nelson and I really had to finish a STEAM project that's due tomorrow, and since we were not doing anything important in class, Mr. Schick let me go. It is okay because I have Mr. Schick next semester for Western Civilization. This semester had it's ups and downs, but overall, I think it went pretty well. I ended with a's in this class and I'm proud of it. Although social studies has never really been my subject, Mr. Schick has made Human Geography a lot better. I hope he will continue to be as enthusiastic and as kind as he's been this first semester. I'm hoping that there is more jeopardy and more pictures of dogs to come next semester because they make class even better :)

   Today in class, we took our Guns, Germs, and Steel test. I studied a lot for it last night, but I don't think I did well. I know I got a few wrong because some of the information on the test wasn't in my notes. This is really stressing me out because I have a 92% in this class, and I really don't want it to turn into a B. This test was pretty hard, but I just hope for the best. However, I'm confident on many answers including the 14 domesticated animals, the plants from America/China/Africa, etc. While we were taking this test, Mr. Schick was playing this meditation music. I liked it, along the images that played. It was fun to look at the comments after this test. Many people wrote comments about peace and love.

   Today in class, we went over some key concepts in the Guns, Germs, and Steel video we watched, along with important notes we wrote down in our journals. Mr. Schick answered any questions we had about the test tomorrow, and after we had a lot of extra time. Since Mr. Schick is a huge Jeopardy fan, he put on an episode of Teen Jeopardy. It was fun to try to answer the questions and see if we knew them. Mr. Schick would pause the video a lot so we could answer the question, and we actually got many answers right! The questions were still pretty difficult, but I'm very surprised that I knew a couple answers. Watching Jeopardy was the best part of Human Geo class for sure.

   Today in class, we continued to watch the Guns, Germs, and Steel video in class and take notes. We continued learning about domesticated animals/ the 14 animals that were domesticated at the time. Then, we proceeded to learn about the Fertile Crescent, which is located in the Middle East. The Fertile Crescent was "geographically blessed", meaning that animals native to this land were perfect for domestication and the crops there were plentiful/nutritious. We also learned that Papa New Guinea was not nearly as geographically lucky as the Middle East. Their crops couldn't last long and were not nutritious. They also did not have animals to domesticate (other than pigs, which couldn't do much at all). The video ended with Jared Diamond's theory of geographical luck, and how animals and little pieces of wheat can affect the outcome of different nations in the world. The full video had two other parts we could watch, but we stopped here (finishing with part 1 only)....

   Today in class, we started where we left off in the Guns, Germs, and Steel video. These were the notes I took today: Stone Age people were becoming farmers- first farmers in the world Plant domestication=farming      starting to control nature Places were farming developed: Middle East- wheat and barley, China- rice, the Americas- squash, corns, beans, Africa- Sorghum, millet, and yams Where farming emerged- relatively advanced civilizations followed (not Papa New Guinea) New Guinea plants cannot be stored for long periods of time and aren't nutritious So little proteins in highlands, they would sometimes resort to eating spiders People with access to most productive plants would have a productive society- it came down to GEOGRAPHICAL LUCK Humans start to interact differently with animals- animal domestication - controlling breeding, etc - using for meat, milk, cloth, and more - new way of life Animal domestication also helped with plant domesticat...

   Today in class, we watched more of the video Guns, Germs, and Steel, but we had a two hour delay, so our class was shortened. However, in the very beginning of class we got to see/pet a dog and he was very cute and fluffy. This was the highlight of class for me, along with seeing the pictures of Mr. Schick's dogs. We also saw pictures Mr. Schick took over the break where his daughter got engaged! After this, we had to get started with class, so he turned on the video while we took notes on it. Here were the notes that I took today: All great civilizations have these three things: advanced technology, large population, and a well-organized work force Diamond had to study pre-history (13,000 years ago where people were hunter-gatherers) in order to answer his questions/curiosities One of the only places people still live like hunter-gatherers= Papa New Guinea New guineans would gather trees (Sago trees) to cook, prepare, and eat Women would do the gathering in Papa New ...

   Today in class, we got to see our exam scantron. Mr. Schick called us up one by one to see our scores and I got a 92! I was satisfied because I thought that the exam was kinda difficult so I'm glad to know I got an A. While he was calling people up, he told us to look up "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and find information on it. I found out that this was a book written by Jared Diamond. When everyone saw their exam scores, he started the National Geographic movie "Guns, Germs, and Steel". We learned that Jared Diamond loved watching and studying birds so he went to Papa New Guinea, where there is a lot of nature and birds. He then become fond of the birds, the nature, the people of Papa New Guinea, etc. He grew more curious of the people there and then he was asked a question. The was called Yali's question. Europeans/westerners would come into Papa New Guinea so the people were very familiar with them. Unlike the Europeans, Jared did not believe in their racis...