Today's class 2/28/11

It is the last day of February. I can't wait till spring and warm weather! So today in western civ class we reviewed an old test for Paupua New Guinea and Guns, Germs, and Steel. Mr. Schick told us that we will mostly likely see these questions again when the exam comes up in June. He let us keep the test papers and we circled the correct answers, so it was kind of like a study guide for the upcoming exam. We also discovered that Lauren was part zebra. Wednesday we are starting up our Egypt studies again.

Today's class 2/25/11

Today in western civ class we had our big Skype chat with Sarah, from Egypt.  It was so exciting! I’m really glad we got the chance to talk to her, and she gave us some very insightful information.  It would be really cool, if next time we got to see her, instead of just talking. It was kind of awkward with her being able to see us, but us not seeing her. Everyone’s questions were really great too!  I am very pleased with the way things went today, and I have to say it kind of made my day : )

Today's class 2/24/11

Today in western civ class, we heard Vinny's rap, and discussed more thoroughly what has happened currently in Egypt. We also talked about the video chat with Sarah tomorrow, I really hope it works! For homework we were told to come up with 10 questions to ask her. These are mine:

1. How do you feel about this revolution personally?
2. Do you know anyone who has been taken from the regime?
3. What inspired you to take get involved  in this?
4. How many riots did you go to?
5. What was it like during the protests?
6. Were you a part of the April 6 movement?

7. What do you think about what is going on in Libya right now?

8. Are you seeing a lot of people from Libya coming over into Egypt?
9. What's happening now in Egypt?
10. What is happening with elections?

Today's class 2/23/11

Today in western civ class we presented a few of the egyptian raps. They were really good! Ours was really funny. I can't wait to hear more of them. We also took a look at a website on Mr. Schick's blog. It was about a woman named Gigi, and her "revolution" in her family. She was trying to convince her family that Mubarak being overthrown was a good thing, and should be celebrated. We also talked about possibly getting a video call with one of Mr. Shick's friends from Egypt. I am so excited for that!! It's going to be extremely interesting!

My Egyptian rap lyrics

Today were singing an ancient Egypt rhyme

It is gunna take all you people go back in time

Ancient Egypt is a place with pyramids and things

They hold shiny jewelry and old dead kings

These pyramids are houses of eternity

With hidden trap doors for added security

Twenty years in the making

Pyramid at Giza the seventh wonder remaining

Pharaohs were people that ruled the land

They had servants that answered every command

King Tut, Khufu, and Cleopatra

Lived their lives like a soap opera

Murder, betrayal, and wealth

Pharaohs were not always in good health

Hieroglyphics are how they write

To do this they had to be bright

The people who write these are called scribes

They were the people who always inscribe

Hieroglyphics use figures like animals and people

This is the way they try and make it simple

As we come back to reality

We know it’s not the best quality

But we tried with all sincerity

To honor the traditions of this great society

Today's class 2/18/11

Today in Western Civ class we went to a site where you build a pyramid. It was so hard, and it took everyone a million tries to do. I finally got it after about five tries. It was awful. Then for weekend homework, Mr. Schick assigned to us that we make a rap or song of some sort about Egypt. Our group is pretty big. I have no idea how we are going to do this but we'll try.

Today's class 2/17/11

Today in western civ class we worked on our powerpoints on ancient egypt some more. Then we presented a few of them. My group and another group went today. I'm pretty sure we will continue these tomorrow.  Mr. Schick also shared with us that his daughter has lyme-meningitis. I feel so bad for their family and I hope that she gets better soon!

Todays western civ class 2/16/11

Today in western civ class, Mr. Schick wasn't there today. We had a sub. We were told to work on putting together a powerpoint, prezi, etc. on the notes we took this week on Ancient Egypt. Also, we had to work with people that were not in our group previously this week. I was working with Brad and Olivia. We got alot acomplished today. I think out powepoint turned out very good. Altogether it was a pretty slow day today in class. It was interesting to see who worked with who today, considering that fact that we could not work with people who were already in our group.

Today's class 2/14/11

Today in western civ class we worked some more on our notes for Ancient Egypt. My group ha finished so we had no work to do. From the notes we took, I found out a lot of info that i didn't know, about the hieroglyphs. Like I said in an earlier post, I can't wait to study the mummies and pyramids. The hieroglyphics look cool too. On another note, currently in Egypt, the Egyptian miliatary has been meeting with the protest leaders to find out what they want. They also found out that Mubarak has taken billions of dollars from the Egyptians and people are looking for the money to seize it.

Notes on the Pyramids and Hieroglyphics

HIEROGLYPHICS:

·  formal writing system used by ancient Egypt

·  use figures like animals, objects, and people

·  logographic and alphabetic elements

·  they represent real or illusion elements 

·  it is read alone of its visual characteristics

·  mostly written on papyrus paper or on the Pyramids

·  hieroglyphs means "Writing Words of God"

·  before they were used to write on pyramids they used them for recording something like a census

·  use a rebus-pictures are used according to the way they sound

·  ex. i believe -"eye, a bee, and a leaf"

·  the people who write them are called scribes

·  3 types

o ideogram-a picture used to symbolize an abstract idea 

o phonogram-a picture whose name is close to the desired sound

o pictograph-a drawing of the literal word

·  first written language for ancient Egypt

·  over 2,000 different symbols 

THE PYRAMIDS:

• Ancient Egypt was actually located in North Africa.
• About 80 pyramids in Ancient Egypt
• Built as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens

·         The pharaohs usually referred to them as their “House of eternity”

o   Began planning their houses of eternity as soon as they took the throne

·         All sides of the pyramids were to face directly north, south, east, and west

·         Large stones were cut from quarries and used to build the pyramids

·         Most of the workers were farmers who worked during the flood season, when their fields were under water.

·         Four main chambers:

o   King’s chamber

o   Grand Gallery – leads from ascending passage to the king’s chamber

o   Queen’s chamber- not actually meant for the queen to be buried there, possible used as a place to store the king’s funerary objects

o   Underground chamber – almost like a trick chamber, many different views on what this tomb was used for

Today's class 2/11/11

Today in Western Civ class we discussed the current events in Egypt. Mubarack finally stepped down and the people of Egpyt are extremely happy. We also discussed some things about Ancient Egypt. We talked about the pharohs, the pyramids, the heiroglyphs, and mummies. We then got into groups and worked on finding some information about the different things we had talked about. Some of the things I learned about the pyramids were that they were built as tombs for the pharohs and their queens and that overall there are 80 known pyramids in Egypt. I can't to learn more about the mummies! Thats my favorite topic out of all of Egypt.

Ancient Egypt notes 2/11/11

• Ancient egypt was actaually located in North Africa.
• About 80 pyramids in Ancient Egypt
• Built as tombs for the pharohs and their queens

A. Describe the transition from hunter gatherers to farmers. 2/10/11

     A hunter gatherer is a nomad. They build shelters wherever there is food , and once the food runs out there, they move to the next place available. A farmer can live in once place for a long. They grow their own food, usually have a surplus of it, and are able to continue living their once the growing season is over due to their surplus of food.
      The transition from a hunter gatherer to a farmer begins when the people of the ancient civilizations began to domesticate plants like  wheat and barely into their area. Once they learned this it was possible to start building villages and communities such as Draa'. Draa' was the first ancient civilization and held the first granary. The people of Draa' were the first farmers in the world. People were also able to learn new jobs now that they had enough food and everyone did not have to run around gathering enough food for that day. They learned jobs like how to make plaster, how to work with fire, and also some weavers and people who made clothing.
       Changing from a hunter gatherer to a farmer made a huge impact on the advancement of civilization. Once you learned how to domesticate a plant or animal and farm them, you open up a world of opportunities for people. Learning new jobs, building permanent houses, and starting a community. This all leads the greater society of today.

Today's class 2/9/11

Today in class we reviewed for our test on modern Papua New Guinea and Guns Germs and Steel tomorrow.  Some of the things we reviewed were the characteristics of domesticated animals and plants, why Papua New Guinea never succeeded like the other places did, why people couldn't live in the fertile crescent anymore, Draa', and finally Jared Diamond. The characteristics of domesticated aninals are
being over 100 punds, be friendly with people, be able to be tamed, horses and goats tend to be herd animals : if you take the "lead" animals, you control the rest (social hierarchy) provide some sort of manual labor, being able to provide meat, milk, being able to reproduce and often. The charcteristics of domesticated plants are being more nutritous than other plants in that area like taro or sago,easy to prepare, easy to plant,able to be stored for a while,  versatile (used for many different things). People could no longer stay in the fertile crescent because it got too dry or arid, and they could no longer grop crops. The people started moving east and west along the lines of longitude. Draa' was the very first ancient village or community, comleter with a granery and all. They were the first people to build a house the correct way. Jared Diamond is a bird watcher and a proffesor at UCLA. He is also a cultural anthropologist.

Today's class 2/7/11

Today was the most awesome class yet. Our class was ahead of every other group so we really didn't have anything to do today. I drew a picture. It was great to relax in class instead of working constantly. I could have done some homework, but I didn't have any seeing as I only had 2 classes that morning. Our test in western civ is on Thursday now. We will review on Wednesday. It's kind of nice being ahead of everyone. I think we should do it again sometime. Maybe bring some cookies! Mr. Schick said we are going to start studying Egypt on Friday, I think that will be pretty interesting.

Today's Class 2/4/11

It's Friday yay! Today in Western Civ we took half of the mod to work on gathering information on Papua New Guinea from the CIA Factbook. The other half we spent presenting the info we found on Papua New Guinea. Like how more females are fit for the military, people speak up to 860 different languages, and their religions are all Christian. Their terrain is mostly mountainous and their climate is tropical. The capital is Port Moresby and they have 562 airports. Their population is 6,064,515 and the average life expectancy is 65.99 years. Papua New Guinea’s Independence Day is September 16, 1975 from Australia.

Paupa New Guinea, CIA 2/4/11

Area Comparative: Slightly larger than California

Location: Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the coral sea and the south Pacific ocean, east of Indonesia.

Natural Resources: gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries.  

Climate: tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation

Geography: mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills

Population: 6,064,515

 Average Life Expectancy: 65.99 years

Languages: Tok Pisin, English, and Hiri Motu are official languages; some 860 indigenous languages spoken

Religion: Roman Catholic 27%, Evangelical Lutheran 19.5%, United Church 11.5%

Literacy: 57.3%

Capital: Port Moresby

Independence Day: 16 September 1975

Phone main lines: 60,000

Phone cell lines: 900,000

562 airports

Ports: Kimbe, Lae, Madang, Rabaul, Wewak

Military: 16 years of age for voluntary military service

More females are fit for the military- 1,107,479

*relies on assistance from Australia to keep out illegal cross-border activities from primarily Indonesia, including goods smuggling, illegal narcotics trafficking, and squatters and secessionists7,479*

Today's west civ class 2/3/11

Today was Student Appreciation Day!!! Mr. Schick gave us cookies today. There were pink ones and regular chocolate chip. We finished watching the Guns Germs and Steel movie. More people settled into villages, and since they had enough food on hand, people could learn new things like how to work with fire and make plaster. The Middle East was named the Fertile Crescent. Later on the climate became too dry and the ecology too fragile. No one could farm and they migrated to areas around the Fertile Crescent. they brought their crops and animals with them which in turn caused civilization to thrive in other areas such as Egypt and Europe. At the end of the movie Jared Diamond said "People and fundamentally similar." I believe this is very true.

Notes 2/3

Notes...

• More people in villages
• Specialized workers
• New Guinea was still using tools in the 1960s
• food surplus - more food then needed
• New guinea was incapable of this
• The Fertile Crescent
• climate was too dry and ecology too fragile
• could not farm anymore
• people abandoned the villages
• over exploited environment
• located in the middle of Eurasia
• most places that share the same latitude often have the same length of day and other similar characteristics
• people could migrate around to to pther places near the Fertile Crescent
• Egypt
• once the animals and crops reached Egypt, there was explosion of civilization
• suddenly there was enough food for everyone
• Europe
• Europe took these domesticated animals and crops to America
• People are fundamentally similar

Today's class 2/2/11

We had off yesterday because of ice, now if only we had 2 hrs late today I would have been happier. Today in western civ we watched more of Guns Germs and Steel. Its getting alot more interesting. We are starting to actually learn about the very first civilizations. At this point people are learning new things, have domesticated animals, and created bigger villages and such. These are the animals that have been domesticated and there are only 14 species : Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Cows, Horses, Camels, Camels (2), Donkeys, Water Buffalo, Llamas, Reindeer, Yaks,  Mithan, Valley Cattle.

Notes on Guns Germs and Steel

Notes.....

• Animal Domestication
• meat, milk, hair and skins used for clothes
• wool
• after the harvest period, animals could eat the leftovers and in turn the dung used for fertilizer
• Goats and sheep were the first domesticated animals
• The Plow
• A horse harnessed to a plow allowed farmers to grow more food
• New Guineans only had pigs, no other animals
• Pigs can't plow
• Only give meat
• only muscle power in New Guinea was humans
• Almost all farm work is done by hand
• Best animals to farm are plant eating animals
• in Africa they never domesticated the elephant
• in Asia they have used elephants as work animals but not domesticated
• domesticated animals must get along with humans
• Every Domesticated animals (over 100 pounds)
• 14 different species
• Goats
• Sheep
• Pigs
• Cows
• Horses
• Camels
• Camels (2)
• Donkeys
• Water Buffalo
• Llamas
• Reindeer
• Yaks
• Mithan
• Valley Cattle
• None of these animals came from Australia or New Guinea
• Middle East was home to some of the best animals, Pigs, Sheept, Goats, Cattle
• The reason why they advaced was because they had good crops and animals
• The Fertile Crescent
• people were geographically blessed
• sowing of wheat and having goats lead to first civilization
• Freed from farming, people were able to learn new things
• making plaster
• understanding how to work with fire
• first steps to making steel

today in class 2/1/11

Today we did not have school because of the ice and snow. We weren't going to have class anyway because we don't have Western Civ on Tuesdays.