Human Geography

  Most of today in class was spent reviewing last weeks test from last week. Class was last mod today so everyone was more lethargic than usual. Since I was the only person to get a 100% on the test I really didn't need the review. The only plus side of reviewing was I had time to write the answers on the test so I could use it without my scan tron sheet. The rest of class time was spent taking notes on the population power point. We discussed immigration and emigration and why. We used the example of Canada and why people would want to immigrate there because their rate is so high. We came to the conclusion that the healthcare paid for by the government was a pull factor in people's decisions to move to Canada.

    Today in class we continued the power point on population. We also were given our tests back from last week. I was the only person who got a 100 on the objective part of the test, which gave my confidence for school a boost. Before we went over the power point I had already known about the earth's population and how it could affect us in the future. Such as how at around 11 billion people most of the arable land on earth will be used up and we will start to have a problem. This unnerved me because how I thought the earths population is expanding I believed that we could reach this in the near future. But after looking at the statistics on how many years it has been taking for the earth to grow a billion people I became more comfortable because it seemed like the growth was leveling out. What also could happen is that countries that have a high birth rate will become more developed so that their culture will change to lower their birth rate.

    Today in class we took the test on this unit. As I have said before I was confident before the test and I feel good about the test now. I don't feel like I missed any of the multiple choice questions because almost all of the we talked about in class the past two days. When It came to picking the two essay questions I chose the question on manufacturing goods overseas because I felt I had a better answer for that question. compared to other answers for essay questions in other classes I wrote a lot to answer the question fully with all of its parts. Even though it seems to be that I could have gotten an one hundred on the test I feel like there is something I did wrong. Whenever I feel this way about a test I always make a mistake which is what i am nervous for now.

Know two definitions of culture ( to take care of and to care for or care about) Why is globalization important In class we all explained our questions that we used in our blog last night.I forgot to do a blog, so I had to make a question up on the spot. As I was listening to my other classmates ask questions I wrote down The two questions above because these were the important topics I did not fully understand. As of now I have studied using my other blogs and the notes that I took a picture of during class to study for this test. I was pretty confident for this test before I studied but now I m prepared.

    Today in class we focused on the second assignment you had posted last night on where everyday items are made. The results were that most items were not made in America but made in Asian or other less developed countries. Even the companies that are based in America had their products made overseas. We concluded that this is because companies find it cheaper to make their products in other countries because they do not have to pay for their employees minimum wages. Companies also don't have to pay for healthcare and other necessities that American workers have. This makes it cheaper for them even though they have to ship their products across oceans. In class we used Jimmy's dad's company for an example. Jimmy told us the reason that his dad uses factories overseas is because it would be much too expensive to pay an American factory to do the same job.

   Today in class while the sub was in we went to your blog and did the assignment posted. My computer is quickly dying so I am trying to get this done before it dies. The blog posted focused on how geographers use scale and the term globalization. The definition for globalization used in the was how it is becoming easier and easier to communicate with other humans from around the world. The definition on dictionary.com says that globalization is the act of extending to other parts of the world.  Another definition was that it is worldwide integration and development which is very similar to the definition put on the blog. For the items I use most at home I chose my computer and my phone. My laptop was manufactured by Lenovo which is a company based in China my computer was also made in China. My Phone is made by Apple which is based in the United States, but my phone was built in a different Asian country most likely China.

      Today in class we focused on the phrase Thinking globally and acting locally. We spent a lot of time in class discussing what this meant and concluded that we can take action at home that if many others take part in will make a difference globally. One example we used in class was that the local action we would make is growing food in a garden which if many people did you create less of a carbon foot print than buying the foods you would grow in your garden. Another example of this is changing from a gas powered car to an electric car. This example is more useful than the garden example because making this change takes away much more of a carbon footprint which better helps the environment of the world. We also talked on class about how geographers when researching a certain place tend to look for unique features whereas when researching a large region or the whole world they tend to look at trends.

     Over the past two days in class we used the CIA website to do research on countries where they are located and some interesting facts about them. On the website we went into the world fact book which has information on every country. The first day we used this website I forgot to do my blog, but what we did was research the top 25 most populated countries and where they are located on a map. This was very easy for me because I already knew where all the countries. The one fact that shocked me was that Bangladesh was the 8th most populated country. This was so interesting because Bangladesh  is a very small country and yet it has over a billion and a half people. This gives it a population density of 1,200 people per square kilometer compared to the united states 35. i used this fact in the second day where we used this sight because I Thought it was very interesting.

     Today in class we talked about cultural regions and how it makes every place on earth unique. The word culture has two main meanings used in this topic. The first is that culture is to care for something or to adore and worship something. This is used to describe people's beliefs, ideas and values. This is people's people's religion, language and ethnicity that effect how they go through their daily lives. The second definition for culture in this topic is what people take care of or cultivate. This describes people's possessions like food, water and clothing. This is used in geography to describe how people in an area live based on their possessions. A person's income is also apart of this second definition because a person's income dictates what they can by and how they can live.

    Today in class we started talking about time zones and why they are in place. I had to leave c for football so I cannot complete a blog.

     Today in class we worked on and explained how cultural landscape. A region can be defined as an area of land that has similar characteristics. A regions cultural landscape is  the combination of both cultural and physical characteristics that define a region. Such as, language of the people, topography and climate. The exercise to go with this lesson was to define regions in the united states based on their location and what the most popular votes were in the 2004, 2008, and the 2012 presidential elections. In this exercise we found states that voted either republican or democratic in every election and grouped them together with the states that voted the same way. This helped us find the connection between how the cultural landscape and the region it defines.

     Today in class we discussed region and how it relates to its cultural landscape. To recap a region is an area of land in which the land has one or more defining features. A regions cultural landscape is the combination of both physical and human feature of a region. This means that cultural landscapes define the region. Another important piece of information is that a region can be any area of land bigger than a point and smaller than the entire planet. This is important because it shows that the features in cultural landscape cannot apply to the whole world for example that every person in this region breaths oxygen.To practice in class we defined regions by where they are located compared to what the majority voted in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 elections. This helped us find the relation between regions and their cultural landscape.