going over the 5 major religions test

Today we went over our test on the 5 major religions of the world.  I got a 100% on this test.  this is better than I thought I did on this test.  I knew that I did well, but I still thought that I had made a careless mistake that I overlooked, but I did as well as I could.  I studied for this test by going over the powerpoint that Mr. Schick posted on his blog.  I did this for the two nights before the test, and still got a100% because writing down the information about theses religions in class was a major help.  There were only two questions that I was unsure of in this test, but I used the reasoning of the knowledge that I had to answer them, and even though they were not on the powerpoint we still talked about them.  I believe that this test brought my grade up a bit.

Quiz on the 5 major religions

Today we had a 25 question quiz on the 5 major religions of the world.  this quiz was structured in a way that each country was given a letter as an answer on the test.  these 25 questions used the information about each of these religions that we went over in class, there was nothing on this test that was surprising.  I feel like I prepared well for this test by studying the powerpoint several times.  Overall I feel like I did well.  there was only really one question that I was unsure about and it said, What religion is 87% of Indonesia.  The correct answer to this question was Islam.  I checked this on the CIA world factbook.  I knew this because there is a large amount of Muslims in Indonesia.  the only other question that I was a bit unsure about was, what religion was founded in the 7th century.  This was also Islam, and I knew it because this was the newest religion.

continuing with the 5 Major regions of the world

     Today in honors human geo we continued to go over the 5 major religions of the world.  Today we covered Buddhism and Judaism.  Buddhism they are the 4th largest religion in the world with 500 million to 1.5 billion followers. This is a major approximation because in many areas of the world where there are Buddhists they are not closely counted.  the majority of these people that call themselves Buddhists live in Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan.  Their founder is Siddhartha Gautama.  there are several denominations of Buddhists.  These include Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Amadist. these people believe in 4 Nobel truths.  These truths are there is suffering, attachment to desire causes suffering, there is a cessation to suffering, and the eightfold path can lead to the cessation of suffering.  This eightfold path says in order to live an enlightened life one must have right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right dedication.
     We also went over Judaism today in class.  There are about 14-18 million Jews around the world.  6.4 million of them live in Jerusalem, and 5.3-7 million of them live in the US.  They were founded by Abraham.  their holy book is called the Torah and includes the first 5 books of the old testament.  They believe in ethical monotheism and the 10 commandments.
 

Beginning the major religions of the world

Today In human geo, we began to go over the 5 major religions of the world.  The first of these religions that we discussed, which happens to be the most predominant religion in the world is Christianity.  This religion was easier to comprehend because I am a practicing catholic, which made this section easier to understand.  One thing that I did find interesting was how vastly the catholic church has changed in the last 50 years, and how there are still churches that did not follow that change. Also, there are more than 2.2 billion people that are Christians the next religion that we discussed was Islam.  I learned a small amount about this religion in the 6th grade, but I still learned a lot.  This religion is more like Christianity than not.  this is because it is an Abrahamic religion.  Their holy book is called the Qur'an.  there are more than 1.5 billion Muslims that fall into the denominations of Sunni (75-90%) and Shiite (10-20%). Most of these people live in Indonesia, the middle east, and North Africa.  They were founded by Muhamad, and they are monotheistic and follow five pillars to ensure that they are living a life in tough with God or Allah.  these 5 pillars are Testimony, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage.  The third most prevalent religion in the world is Hinduism.  This religion isn't even always classified as a religion and more as a way of life.  They are mostly found in India and Nepal with around 1.1 billion followers.  Their holy book is not truly a book, but rather eternal truth revealed by ancient sages, this is called the Vedas.  there is no distinct founder, but rather many intellectual philosophers. they believe in many ideas such as reincarnation.

getting our tests back

Today in human Geo we got our test back from last week.  I got a 95% on this test.  I got two questions wrong on this test.  one of these questions was matching a population pyramid to its country.  the correct answer to this question was Japan, but I chose Mexico because I forgot that Mexico's population was growing.  the other question that I got wrong was a question about which country had the highest birth and death rates.  the correct answer was Nigeria, but I chose India.  Overall I scored above average on this test and I will use this test to study for the midterm exam which is only 29 days away. I think that I will do well on the tests to come, and the midterm because I will continue to study, and take notes in class.  I am looking forward to what we do next in human geo.

The test

Today in honors human geo we took a test.  I feel like I did fairly well on this test because we had already been tested on most of the material.  The main thing that was different from the last test was that we were tested on a population pyramid.  examples of the types of questions that we had to answer were to pick what country each pyramid went with.  there were also several questions in which we had to use prior knowledge from our last test to answer questions on which of the countries that were given to us had he highest TFR, NRI, birth rate, or death rate.  I know that I got one of these questions incorrect.  This question asked which country had the highest birth and death rate and I selected India because it is soon to be the world's highest population, but the correct answer was Nigeria because Nigeria has a higher birth and death rate than India. Overall I feel like I did fairly well on this test

The fiunal presentation

Today we listened to the final presentation in the groups.  this final presentation was on an extremely crippled nation, Somalia.  this country suffers from large amounts of piracy, and other things that seriously hurt their economy.  It was very interesting to me to hear about the ships that are getting hijacked and boarded by people on small motorized rafts that can take entire ships and hold them for ransom at incredibly high rates.  It seems that all that would need to be done is have soldiers posted around a ship with long-distance rifles to sink the pirate boat.  Their other nation was Japan.  The problem that they identified with this nation was that there are not enough young people to do strenuous labor like construction.  Their method for fixing this problem was to give tax breaks, and spread pro children propaganda.  this was essentially the opposite of what China did to stop people from having too many children which shows that it might work.

The Presentation

Today in class we presented our presentations on a post-industrial and a developing nation.  Overall I feel like our group did very well in this presentation. We all were able to speak and make eye contact with our class.  We also were familiar with our information.  I feel like I could have done better with my presenting skills.  Eye contact was not a problem for me, and I remember to look around the room, but my main problem is that I say "um" too many times.  I attempt to make myself remember to not say this. 
     For our presentation, I opened and closed the presentation, and I went over the solutions to the problems that Afghanistan faces.  Then after we presented the information about Afghanistan we moved onto the information and problems in the US.  This led to a lively discussion because all of this information was so close to home and relatable.

Preparing further for the presntation

      At the beginning of the class, we decided that we would get an extra day to prepare for this presentation.  We used this time to establish who had each slide in our presentation on the US and Afghanistan.  I am opening the slide show, and I am giving the solutions to the problems that Afghanistan faces.  with the information that I am giving to the class, there are also statistics regarding the two nations, the problems that each nation faces, and the solutions for the US. 
     For Afghanistan, we identified many problems.  These problems include a lack of basic necessities, a lack of education, and the fact that they cause many pother countries in the world to become their enemies.  for solutions, we came up with the fact that classroom supplies could be sent to Afghanistan to assist in the teaching of both male and female students.  This can only be done once the relations have been healed between Afghanistan and other nations.  The relations can be repaired by offering oil at a reduced rate to other nations.

Human geo presentation

Today we finished our presentations that are going to be shared on Tuesday of next week. For this project, we have the US and Afghanistan.  For each of these nations, we had to identify the problems with them and come up with a way to help these problems.  For Afghanistan, we discovered that they are extremely lacking in education, and they are good at making enemies.  for this problem, they would first need to heal relations between them and other nations.  They could do this by offering oil to other nations at a reduced price.  Then after this to combat their lack of education the US could send the necessary materials to make a proper learning environment.  We could only offer to do this if they offered these learning services to males and females so that they will not be missing out on half of the brainpower in their nation.  then for the US the major problems that we identified were the abuse of drugs in massive quantities and domestic violence.  To combat these ideas instead of focusing solely on the Mexican border we would place drug patrols on the major seaports, and airports.  We would also open up low-cost mental health clinics to attempt to help people that are going to use drugs or commit violence for psychological reasons. 

Oral presentation

Today in honors human geo we began working on our oral presentations.  wee began the class by picking groups in an unconventional way.  Captains were picked and then we wrote the names of the people that we wanted to work with on a sheet of paper until the entire class was chosen.  Then once we were placed into our groups we each chose a post-industrial nation, and a developing nation.  For our developing nation we chose Afganistan which is an extremely problematic nation.  for our post-industrialized nation, we chose the USA.  For this project, we have to find the problems with this developing nation and attempt to come up with solutions to assist them in their problem.  we are figuring out these problems through the CIA World Factbook.  Then we are using the statistics that we find about each nation that will help us to compare them to our post-industrial nation.

going over questions on the exam

Today in human geo we went over questions that are going to be on our semester exam.  This was a helpful review of the information that we went over in class on this unit.  These questions included vocabulary where we were given the definition.  Then there were other questions that asked about the general population, imports, and exports of certain nations.  We also went over how the essay questions on the test are going to work. For the essay, we will be given 5 possible questions to answer for the exam, then we will answer two questions on an essay before the test.  Writing an essay before the test is a good way to study for the test because you are reviewing the information that will be on the rest of the test, including the multiple-choice.

population facts 11/4/19

1.  The TFR of Afghanistan is 5.02 children born per mother.  This is very high, meaning that the population is to be growing at a relatively high rate.

2. The TFR of India is only 2.4 which is bearly over the replacement rate of the population.

3. The government of Syria calls itself a republic but is an authoritarian regime in comparison.

4. In 2017 the inflation rate of Venezuela exceded 2000% which means it is nearly impossible for the people of Venezuela that are in the working class to buy many essentials.

5.  The exact population growth of Japan is -.24% meaning the population is decreasing steadily which will cause Japan to lose people to do many of the hard, or menial tasks in their nation because of the lack of young people.

Because of the shape of Italy's population pyramid, the population is scheduled to slowly increase.

The population pyramid of Iran shows that the population of Iran will grow slowly because of the number of people in their reproductive years.

The population pyramid of Zimbabwe shows that the small population should grow at a moderate rate because of the large number of people in their reproductive years, and a large amount of people moving to their reproductive years.

Belarus's population  pyramid shows that the population will grow slowly because the majority of the population is in the middle of their lives

The population of Monaco will grow slowly if at all because the majority of people are in their post-reproductive years


Italy pop. growth rate - 0.16%
Iran pop. growth rate - 1.19% 
zimbabwe pop growth rate - 1.68%
Belarus pop. growth rate - -0.24% 
Monaco pop. growth rate - 0.3% 

200 years in 4 min

Today in honors human geo we started the class by discussing how to help the African nations that still occupy the sick and poor part of the graph.  one way that we discussed on how to help these nations was by sending in American oil companies to assist these nations in their economy.  the American oil companies would go in and show these countries how to use the technology that they possess to drill for and collect oil.  then once they left these countries economies would prosper, and the US oil companies could gain money from this deal.  There were many pros to this including, we could earn a new trade partner, these countries would prosper economically, and with their health system.  then there were also several cons, for example, these countries do not have the best democracies, and their governments are quite corrupt, because of this, the governments might just keep the money for themselves, and the Oil companies could only sign with countries that have stable democracies.  then after this, we took a quiz on the 200 years in 4 min.  This quiz was quite easy, and I believe that I got full marks on it.  These questions focused on main points in the video such as what brought the countries up or down on the graph, and where the US, China, and Ghana