Friday, September 18, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

Today's schedule is A-B-Lunch-C-D

A - Social Studies 11 - Today we'll spend some time looking at the Legislative Branch of the Federal government. Our focus will be on the "legislative process" - creating laws in Canada.

An idea to make a new law or to change an existing law starts out as a "bill." Each bill goes through several stages to become law.
  1. At first reading, the bill is considered read for the first time and is printed. There is no debate.
  2. At second reading, Members debate the principle of a bill — is the idea behind it sound? Does it meet people's needs?
  3. If a bill passes at second reading, it goes to a committee of the House. Committee members study the bill carefully. They hold hearings to gather information. They can ask for government officials and experts to come and answer questions. The committee can propose amendments, or changes, to the bill. When a committee has finished its study, it reports the bill back to the House. The entire House can then debate it. During report stage debate, Members can suggest other amendments to the bill.
  4. Once report stage is over, the bill is called for third reading debate. Members who voted for the bill at second reading may sometimes change their minds at third reading after seeing what amendments have or have not been made to the bill.
  5. After a bill has passed third reading in the House of Commons, it goes through a similar process in the Senate.
  6. Once both Chambers pass the bill in the same form, it is given Royal Assent and becomes law.
You will have to create a comic strip demonstrating the process of how a Bill becomes a Law in Canada for Monday.

B- Geography 12 - Today I'll show you how to identify location, estimate area, calculate slope, and determine direction on topographic maps. Here are a few webpages to help:
Natural Resources Canada Toporama
Reading Topographic Maps
Mount Union College Reading Topo Maps
United States Geological Survey Reading Topo Maps
Idaho State University Interpreting Topo Maps
Montana State University Interpreting Topo Maps
Natural Resources & Water Queensland Australia Interpreting Topo Maps pdf


Next we'll work on the Prince Rupert topographic map from the Canadian Landscape (pages 20 - 23 & click on the map above). I'll need you to work on questions 1, 2, 3, 4 a&b, 5, 7 a,b,d&e, and 9 a&b. Use Google Earth or Google Maps to help you with this assignment and if you have a problem or question you should post a comment on this blog entry or e-mail me at my school address.

D- Law 12 - Today we will continue our Introduction to Law unit by working on a series of questions from the end of the chapter. You'll need to complete all of the Reviewing Key Terms questions (a through l) along with Exploring Legal Concepts question 2 and Applying Legal Concepts question 8 (R. v Dudley and Stephens). While working on this we'll watch our first Law & Order episode "Angel" from season six. I want you to think about this episode over the weekend and we'll talk about Susan Smith on Monday.

Pau Hana Ohana!

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