Wednesday, December 19. 2012

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

B Block Geography 12 - Today we'll go to the library to play the Stop Disasters game. The scenario I would like you to work on is the Caribbean Island Hurricane simulation. There is a population of 330 people in your coastal town, but only 180 are currently housed. You will need to develop some housing for the people in the town. You will need to build a hospital, a school, and anchor all the boats in the port. You have a budget of $50,000 to work with and don't forget to develop some defenses to protect people, buildings, and livelihoods. When you click on an object square you will likely get three choices: info, develop, & defences. Read through your options and try to uncover all 15 key facts (which will give you extra points). When you finish keep a track of your highest score (you might get through two games) and respond to this post with things you learned and what your scores were. Have fun playing and learn something.


A Block Law 12 - Today we'll be in the class watching the documentary Hot Coffee. Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today is all about Constitutional Reform in 1982, 1988, 1992 and the 1995 Referendum. You'll need to work on Questions 5 and 7a from page 200 in Counterpoints and Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 from page 204 in Counterpoints along with your flow chart on Quebec and Canada from 1980 - 1995. While doing this you'll watch the Canada: A Peoples History episodes The Night of the Long Knives” for 1981 constitution and “Honour and Enthusiasm” for Meech Lake and the Charlottetown Accord.

C Block Crime, Media & Society 12 - Today we'll continue our look at the Russell Williams case from 2010. Yesterday in class we watched the CBC Fifth Estate documentary "Above Suspicion" on the case and it reflected the Canadian coverage of the case. Today we'll look at the American coverage of the case, specifically the CBS 48 Hours Hard Evidence documentary: "Name, Rank, Serial Killer". We'll look at the "Cross Border Crime Stories" handout I gave you and after watching the episode perhaps you'll have a better grasp on the differences between our two legal cultures when it comes to crime coverage in the media. The biggest difference is the limitations on what can be reported about criminal prosecutions. Consider the differences in what was reported and how it was reported.