Wednesday, October 26. 2011

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

B Block Geography 12 - Today we're looking at water. The USGS diagram below shows the distribution of water on the planet and explains the amount of water available for "human use". You'll note that there is precious little water available for 6.7 billion people. Then consider that the flora and fauna of the biosphere require water as well and you can see the importance of water to all forms of life on the planet.

Today we'll look at the properties of water in its three phases and then you'll need to sketch a diagram of the hydrologic cycle (page 253 in Geosystems). Next you'll need to define: condensation, evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, sublimation, percolation, aquifer, zone of aeration, and zone of saturation. Lastly you'll need to complete questions 2 & 5 from page 210, 1 from page 278, and 14, 16, & 18 from page 280 all in your Geosystems text. To help look at the United States Geological Survey Water Cycle website and ther University of Kentucky Geology Department flash animation site.

A Block Criminology 12 - Today we shift our focus and look at White Collar Crime. We will begin by learning how to identify a pyramid / ponzi scam (for more take a look at How Stuff Works). After, we'll quickly look at individual exploitation of an institutional position, influence peddling & bribery, theft and employee fraud, client fraud and corporate crime. We'll end the class with a discussion about business and corporate culture. What is it that makes a successful business person and what kind of ethical behaviour is valued by corporate culture? From the Business Ethics Forum blog site:

An outstanding in-depth article on the Value of Corporate Values can be found in an article by Reggie Van Lee, Lisa Fabish, and Nancy McGaw in this month's S+B. Based on a survey at 365 companies in 30 countries, the authors claim "increasingly, companies around the world have adopted formal statements of corporate values, and senior executives now routinely identify ethical behavior, honesty, integrity, and social concerns as top issues on their companies’ agendas". The highlights of the survey and article are:

1. A large number of companies are making their values explicit. That’s a change — quite a significant change — from corporate practices 10 years ago. The ramifications of this shift are just beginning to be understood.


2. Ethical behavior is a core component of company activities.


3. Most companies believe values influence two important strategic areas — relationships and reputation — but do not see the direct link to growth.


4. Most companies are not measuring their “ROV.”


5. Top performers consciously connect values and operations.


6. Values practices vary significantly by (continental) region.


7. The CEO’s tone really matters.

The article provides quantitative data about these 7 findings and concludes with "A commitment to corporate values may be in vogue, but the public will remain suspicious until corporations both understand and can demonstrate that they are committed to using values to create value". What we are looking at is what makes people abuse the public trust in corporations. We will look at stings, swindles, and chiselling and discuss ImClone (Martha Stewart) and Bre-X. For more on Corporations look at the website for the documentary The Corporation (which we'll watch part of tomorrow)

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today we'll finish up the chart activity that I asked you to work on in yesterday's class. We'll spend time today looking at Vimy Ridge (1917), the first time that all four Canadian Regiments faught together as one force. Vimy is widely seen as the birth of Canadian nationalism and we'll watch the Canada: A People's History documentary on it today.Your chart on the four battles will be due at the end of class today. After looking at Vimy and Passchendaele (third battle of Ypres) we'll find out about the war in the air (along with Canada's ace Billy Bishop) and the role of the Canadian Navy (along with the effect of the munitions mishap in Halifax harbour between the Imo and the Mont Blanc). There will be a few questions from Counterpoints to end the class.

C Block Law 9/10 - Today we'll finish the questions I gave you on Monday. To review they are:

1. What is "Burden of Proof" in a criminal trial and who has it?


2. In your own words explain what "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" means


3. List the steps in selecting juries for trials and explain the role of a jury in a criminal trial


4. Which side (Crown or Defence) presents first in a criminal trial and why?


5. What is a "leading question"?


6. What is cross examination?


7. What is the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence?


8. Criminal Offences activity (in your package there is a page titled Criminal Offences and it asks you to match the categories of offences with the pictures on the page)


9. Criminal Defences activity (in your package there is a page titled Defences and it asks you to try to define the defences associated with the pictures on the page)

After, you'll go through the three court levels in BC (Provincial Court, Supreme Court and BC Court of Appeals).