Review Begins Thursday

We have finished the Unit 2 questions and will now go on with review for the Unit 2 test.

Unit 2 Questions

Today we went over Unit 2 questions. It is likely that we will finish these questions on Wednesday and move on to a review in preparation for a unit test.

Keep working on your project --March 3 is coming up!

Last Day in Lab Coming Up...

A reminder that your last lab day is Monday. Tuesday, February 24 we are back in class.

The deadline for the Road Trip project is Tuesday, March 3, 2009.

On Tuesday and Wednesday next week, we will be going over questions and likely reviewing for the Unit 2 test on Thursday or Friday.

Happy Trails. :)

Unit 2 - Long Term Project - Planning a Road Trip

Here is the Unit 2 Long Term Assignment

Planning a Road Trip – Geography 20G Unit 2 Long Term Project

How much do you know about the geography of North America? What places have you visited? What do you know about each of the locations? Part of geography, the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena, is the study of places and regions. Today, with globalization, it is more important than ever to understand different places and regions around the world.

In this activity, you will learn about various towns, communities, and cities by planning and taking a two-week trip.
During your trip you must:
· Visit a major city
· Visit a state or provincial capital
· Visit a small town/community
· Visit a geographical landmark
· Visit a museum
· Take in a major or minor league sporting event
· Take in a collegiate sporting event
· See a play
· Attend a concert
· Visit the birthplace of a famous person
· Do it all on a $3000 budget

The project must be completed in a binder and will feature the following headings:
· Table of Contents
· Itinerary
· Budget
· Transportation
· What I Saw on My Road Trip
· Sources

The project will be graded using the following scoring:
· Table of Contents 5 marks
· Itinerary 10 marks
· Budget 20 marks
· Transportation 10 marks
· What I Saw on My Road Trip 100 marks
· Sources 10 marks
· Spelling/Grammar* 20 marks
· TOTAL 175 marks

*Note: These are your 20 marks to keep. Every error results in a deduction of 1 mark to a maximum of 20.

Sources – You are required to use 10 different sources. Each is worth 1 mark. If you are using web sites, you must have 10 different domain names. Use the APA style guide

What I Saw on my Road Trip – Each item on the list of trip requirements is worth 10 marks and should cover roughly a page. In that page, you will be expected to write a description of what you saw (6 marks), include a picture (1 mark), and include suggestions of other things you might do while in the area (3 marks).

Transportation – Describe the vehicle you will drive. Write a review for it and include:
· A fuel economy rating (city and highway) (1 mark)
· An evaluation of the cargo space for your purposes (2 marks)
· A review of its performance capabilities (3 marks)
· A Summary of why you chose the vehicle (2 marks)
· A photo (1 mark)
· Sticker price (1 mark)

Budget - You will be required to make a full budget for the trip which includes a detailed estimate of costs for fuel (3 marks), lodging (5 marks), meals (5 marks), all entertainment/sightseeing costs (5 marks), and any incidentals (2 marks).

Itinerary – 1 mark for accounting for each of the 10 stops on your way

Table of Contents – 1 mark for each of the 5 headings

Please note: Standard margins and Times New Roman 12 point type. This is the default setting in Word. Don't change it.We will be working in the lab Tuesday through to the following Monday, February 23.

Labs:

• Period 2 in Room 115
• Period 3 in Room 114
• Period 5 in Room 115 until Thursday, Friday and Monday in Room 227

Developed, Developing and Newly Industrialized Countries

Today we continued our discussion concerning how countries are categorized as outlined in Chapter 28 of the text.

We shared a variety of different definitions and looked at some on the board. In general, we agreed on the following:Developed countries have the ability to best meet the economic and social needs of their citizens. They have generally stable political systems. Developing countries are least able to meet the economic and social needs of their citizens. They often have unstable or ineffective political systems. Newly industrializing countries are in a transition phase between developing and developed. As such, they share traits of both to a greater or lesser degree depending on how far they've moved along in terms of their development. The addition of new industries helps to create employment and new wealth for the citizens of these countries that in turn creates greater demand for consumer goods and services.The textbook also looked at some of the categories that help us determine where a country fits in terms of these definitions.

These categories included:

• life expectancy
• wealth
• population growth
• food supply
• education level
• health care

You can find this material between p 417 and 420 in the text.

The World Community

You were asked to read Chapter 28 and answer the following question:

What is the difference between a developed, developing, and newly industrializing country?

We will go over this on Thursday's class.

Also, please remember to put in about 30 minutes tonight working on your assigned questions, as it looks like we will be taking these up on Friday.

Unit 2- Methods of Geographic Inquiry

You should now be finished reading Unit 2 (p. 17-71).

The following questions were assigned today.

p. 15 1, 2b
p. 26 1-7, 9,11,12a and b
p. 40 2-4, 7,10,13
p. 47 1-6, 8-9
p. 58 1a, 2-4
p. 66 1-3,5
p. 67 1
p. 68 2 and 3
p. 70 1,4b,c,d; 5b,c
p. 78 1a

We will go over these questions beginning on Thursday or Friday.

Exploring Canada - A Study in Connections

You were to read Chapter 1 and think about the connections that you have in your life to the following areas:

• local
• regional
• provincial
• national
• worldwide

Refer to Figure 1-1 in the text to view an example.

After taking a few moments to write down the connections that you could think of individually, we broke into groups and put all the data together in a pie chart posted at the front of the class. The purpose of this was for us to see whether there was any consistency from group to group in terms of the percentage of connections by level.

Our findings showed a fairly strong consistency. Specifically, that there was little difference between local, regional,provincial, national, and worldwide connections (around 18-22%).

This activity showed us the usefulness of pie charts in terms of how they allow for the quick comparison of data. Throughout the course, you will be asked to assemble data in this manner using a variety of different charts and graphing techniques.

As well, this activity allowed us to do some basic analysis with respect to the data itself (a skill we will be developing throughout the semester). For example, what general conclusions could we draw from the data?

A basic conclusion would be that, "For students in Grade 10 Geography at River East, most of their connections to the world around them are evenly distributed between local, regional, provincial, national, and worldwide."

From this conclusion, we asked the following question:

"If we were to compare Grade 10 students today with Grade 10 students 10 years ago, would we find the same results? Why?"

The class agreed that probably a greater proportion of our connections 10 years ago would have been local and that there would have been a sliding scale of sorts where proportionally the percentages would get smaller from regional to provincial to national and finally to worldwide.
The class further surmised that the reason for this difference would have been the degree to which technology and the Internet in particular make the world a smaller place and increases the likelihood that we make connections with other parts of the world.

We also discussed the way in which the Internet and the Information Age world has changed our patterns of thinking and what we believe to be real, true and possible. In particular, we looked at how we define intelligence differently in the Information Age versus the Industrial Era.
In the Industrial Age, we saw an intelligent person as someone who knew a lot of facts about a wide variety of subjects -- a sort of "Jeopardy" intelligence. In the Information Age, the amount of information being added and the nature by which it changes (look at how long it takes before a new version of a computer application is upon us) has caused us to think of "smart" in another way. In this new era, we consider intelligence to be the ability to find, sort, process,analyse, and evaluate information.

Ultimately, this discussion helped introduce the kind of analysis that can be done once data is gathered. As well, it helped us understand that more and more, we are part of a larger world and as such we need to better understand what that world is all about and where we fit in it. This brings us to our next discussion concerning the world community.