Thursday, March 6. 2014

The schedule for today is D-AG-C-B-A


I'm sorry that the blog has not been updated for the last three days, I was away at the BC High School Alpine Championships with the Vanier ski and snowboard teams. Ms. Nicoll has worked hard in my absence to keep you on top of your work. On to today...



D Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll start by finishing last week's presentations on the physical geography of Canada. After, we'll look at the cultural landscape of Canada along with the First Nations peoples that existed on the land before the European settlers arrived in Canada. We'll focus on how the land shaped Aboriginal society in Canada and see the influences of the land on the way people lived. There are six major cultural regions of First Nations in Canada. From east to west, these are the Woodland First Nations, the Iroquois First Nations of southeastern Ontario, the Plains First Nations, the Plateau First Nations, the First Nations of the Pacific Coast and the First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River basins.

Each Nation possesses its own unique culture, language and history and the practice of identifying all First Nations as a homogeneous group obscures the unique and rich traditions that each First Nation has developed and nurtured. Having said that, although there are many differences between First Nations, there are commonalities as well. For example, all First Nations were dependent on the land for survival and prosperity. All First Nations were hunters and gatherers. Some were also farmers. Without the skills and knowledge to hunt and fish and to gather food and medicines, First Nations would not exist today. Another commonality is that all First Nations lived in organized societies with their own governments, religions and social and economic institutions. Individuals, families and larger groups of people, such as clans, tribes and Nations, behaved according to a broad range of agreed-upon social, political and economic values. A third commonality was trade. All First Nations in Canada and North America as a whole traded extensively throughout the continent. Expansive trading practices contributed to the growth and development of First Nations cultures. These practices also enabled many First Nations to respond to the fur trade as competitive, efficient trading partners with Europeans.



A Block Social Studies 11 - Hey remember that election campaign assignment you were working on? So you have speeches in class on Friday, but you might want to encourage people to vote for you with your glitzy and glamorous visual ad campaign - just sayin (Progressive Conservative members in the 1992 House of Commons = 156...Progressive Conservative members in the 1993 House of Commons = 2...that's a loss of 154 members; now think of members of the House of Commons as your marks...get the hint yet?)

Today we'll continue looking at other ways of influencing government. Yesterday we reviewed lobbyists and pressure groups in Canada and today I'll have you focus on civil disobedience and the mass media. I have two questions that I'd like you to answer today:

1. What is the role of the media in the political process (think news, reporting, campaigns, and advertising)?
2. What is civil disobedience? What are the three "guidelines" for practicing civil disobedience? Should the Sierra Club of Canada allow acts of civil disobedience to be done in their name in order to block the development of either the Keystone XL or Northern Gateway pipelines? Would you? How? Why or Why not?

The types of Mass Media include: Print media encompasses mass communication through printed material. It includes newspapers, magazines, booklets and brochures, house magazines, periodicals or newsletters, direct mailers, handbills or flyers, billboards, press releases, and books. Electronic media is the kind of media which requires the user to utilize an electric connection to access it. It is also known as 'Broadcast Media'. It includes television, radio, and new-age media like Internet, computers, telephones, etc. With the advent of Internet, we are now enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than the old school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones, computers, and Internet are often referred to as the New-Age media. Internet has opened up several new opportunities for mass communication which include e-mail, websites, podcasts, e-forums, e-books, blogging, Internet TV, and many others which are booming today. Internet has also started social networking sites which have redefined mass communication all together.

American abolitionist/author/philosopher Henry David Thoreau lectured on "The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government" from which came the idea of civil disobedience. His belief was that as a citizen you do have an obligation not to commit injustice and not to give injustice your practical support. According to Thoreau, this means that if a law is unjust, and the legislative process is not designed to quickly get rid of it, then the law deserves no respect and it should be broken hence being civilly disobedient. So for us a modern day example may be the Keystone XL Pipeline project or the Embridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project. The Canadian chapter of the Sierra Club recently put an online poll on their website, to which about 1900 supporters responded. About nine in 10 felt “the climate crisis is so urgent that traditional legal campaigns are no longer sufficient.” They have chosen, however, not to practise civil disobedience. Should they?

Protestor's Guide to the Laws on Civil Disobedience
Civil Disobedience, Environmental Protest and the Rule of Law



B Block Geography 12 - Today we're back in the library to continue our research on the Orting College case study. Should the town of Orting, Washington, build a new college to attract people to their community or not? What will the impact of increased population be on the tiny town that sits in the shadows of Mt. Rainier? The assignment is in your week 5 package and was adapted from the following website: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/volcano.html


Websites of help for this assignment:

The following URL’s will help:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Rainier/framework.html
http://davem2.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/volcano.html
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/lahar/index.php
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/cover2.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Rainier/Hazards/OFR98-428/framework.html
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/abtus/ourorg/dem/MountRainier.htm
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/xml/abtus/ourorg/dem/Mt%20rainier%20learning%20to%20live%20w%20risk.pdf
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/xml/abtus/ourorg/dem/EMDiv/MP/PC%20Volcanic.pdf
http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/Abtus/ourorg/dem/EMDiv/Planning.htm
http://www.cityoforting.org/Lahar_Information.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageplanet/01volcano/03/indexmid.html
http://www.uccs.edu/~geogenvs/ges199/rainier/orting.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7886762/
http://projects.ups.edu/gjones/fall2004/AB/BridgeForKids/
http://www.bridge4kids.com/index.html
A note of caution...

What is the greatest danger to Orting? Of all that could potentially happen at Mount Rainier what poses the greatest threat? Now ask yourself what triggers that threat? What causes it to happen? Last think about the statistical likelyhood of that event happening. How likely is the event to occur in the next 5, 10, 100, or 1000 years? Check out the risk analysis section of the COTF website for help here.