Wednesday, December 10, 2008

"Where did you come up with that idea?!"

With the current lesson we are learning about in class (terrorism), we need to first establish some of the ideas people have about terrorism, discuss where they come from, and then only think about how do these ideas influence our course of action as a country. In order to get to that last step of action, we need to untangle ideas and stereotypes that accompany the concept of terrorism.

MAKE SURE YOUR POSTINGS ANSWER ALL OF THE QUESTIONS, REFER BACK TO THE ARTICLE, AND ARE WELL THOUGHT OUT!!!

Your job is to read through the following article AND answer the following questions:

1. What were some of the ideas and stereotypes you have about terrorism and the Middle East, in general?

2. Why do you think these ideas exist?

3. What did you learn and how does that change your understanding about the Middle East?

Here's the link:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/mideast/questions/types/index.html

Monday, November 17, 2008

Who wants extra credit?

For our lesson on economy vs. environment I found 3 news stories from National Public Radio. In these stories you will listen to people being interviewed along the Yangtze River about different benefits and consequences of the Three Gorges Dam. Your job will be to complete a 54321 on all three stories. This will replace your lowest homework grade.

Part 1: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=17723829&m=17774456
Part 2: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=17784497&m=17805705
Part 3: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=17810431&m=17840813

This will be due on the first day back from Thanksgiving Vacation. ODD: Mon 12/1 EVEN: Tues 12/2

Thursday, October 16, 2008

China From Above

We'll now be starting the new unit of material on China. China will have some similarities of themes that you might have noticed when we studied India. It can be said that both: are ancient civilizations that are in the process of modernization, many diverse people inhabit the land, the environment greatly varies from one region to another, and both will play a major role in the this new century.

The following is a link from National Geographic that provides a photoessay of different regions in China. POST about: 1. About how you imagined China compared to what you see 2. How do people's relationship with the environment change from one section of China to another.



Here's the link: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/aerials/steinmetz-photography



POSTING WILL BE DUE ON: OCT 29 (Period 1 &3) OCT 30 (Period 4)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Rich and Poor

As a country India's gross domestic product grew last year by 9% (normal growth is around 3-4%) but yet 40% of the population lives on less than $1 per day. How can that be? Read the following photoessays and POST a comparison of the lives of the rich and the poor of India.

Here are the links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_bangalore/html/1.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/06/dharavi_slum/html/dharavi_slum_intro.stm

Your posting is due on September 30th (Period 1 & 3) or October 1st (Period 4)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Incredible India!

Two years ago when my wife and I took our trip to India we came across the advertisements of "Incredible India" which was supposed to boost tourism within India. We found the the phrase kind of cheesy and had several laughs about it during the trip. But as we were doing our flight check in at Delhi International Airport at 2 AM (in the midst of our 40 hour journey home) we saw the sign again and laughed. This time was because we had to agree, India is in fact, incredible.
He now have the opportunity to study this incredible country in geography class. What I want you to do is to read through the following photo journals about different aspects of life within India, and compare them to what you already know. Post about what surprised you? What interested you? What did you learn?

Here are the links, enjoy!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/south_asia_indian_postman/html/1.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/south_asia_indian_rail_journeys/html/1.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/south_asia_indian_family/html/1.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/south_asia_india0_a_kite0s_eye_view/html/1.stm