Wednesday, April 13. 2011

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

B - Earth & Space Science 11 - Yesterday I had you complete a few questions from your Earth Science and the Environment text: "For Review" questions 11, 12, & 14 and "For Discussion" question 6 all on page 194. I'd like you to get those questions finished up this morning. After, we shift into mountain building (orogony) by looking at folded mountains today and we'll watch the first two segments of the CBC Geologic Journey episode on the Rockies. So today and tomorrow, you'll need to work on the question handout on the Rockies video.

A & D - Criminology 12 - Today I want to continue with our look at the nature vs. nurture debate that we started yesterday focusing on the history of psychological and sociological criminology. For Monday, you need to create your own theory of why crime happens, using the brainstormed list we did in class on Monday and Tuesday along with the notes you take today on the history of Criminology. Use the Crime Theory Web Site found on this link. Tomorrow we'll watch an episode of Criminal Minds and try to make sense of the reasons why the offender committed the crime.

So today, we'll take a few notes on the history of criminology, then we'll look at the difference between deviance and criminal behaviour (acts that are criminal but not deviant and deviant but not criminal). What is deviant behaviour? A simple explanation of deviant behaviour could be any action that violates cultural norms (formal norms like laws - or informal norms like nose picking). This is a difficult concept because what an individual or sub culture in society defines as deviant is contextually situated (meaning what I think is deviant may be different for you; it is subjective - influenced by personal considerations).

Take smoking in public. You may think that this behaviour is acceptable because an individual has the choice to consume a cigarette and they are merely harming themselves...no problem right? You may, however, think this behaviour is unacceptable. Second-hand smoke is hurtful to others because they could be harmed by someone else's behaviour. So what is deviant in many cases is subjective. What is criminal is the codification of what a society as a whole deems as deviant. Homicide is criminal because as a society we believe that taking another life is unacceptable and deviates from the accepted cultural norm that we wish our country to be like.

So using the text and your brains you need to come up with a list of things that are deviant but not criminal and a list of things that are criminal but not deviant. After you'll need to take one act from either list and explain why it should be criminalized or why it should be decriminalized.

NOTE: A block students...you'll be heading to the gym for a presentation on drinking and driving this morning so we'll begin tomorrow with some of the things we didn't get to today.

C - Geography 12 - Today I'll quickly review yesterday's work on glaciers with you and show you some Google Earth footage of the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. Check out the directions to the Comox Glacier hike here or here. After, we will look at deserts and desert environments. We'll see what Tim & Moby have to say about deserts and we'll analyze the different types of deserts. I'll show you the Namib desert and the Skeleton Coast and then you'll define alluvial fan, playa, yardang, and sand dune. You'll have a question on desertification and there are some good websites to help here:

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
USGS Desertification page
Green Facts Scientific page on Desertification

Tomorrow we'll watch the Planet Earth video on Deserts. Do not forget that you have a unit final test on Monday.