Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Wednesday. June 10. 2015

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

B Block Social Studies 11 - Today we will make a connection between the social problems (gender, health, children, etc.) in HIPC's with economic development. We will examine traditional economies which are based in primary industries and subsistence farming and compare those with developing and developed economies.

There is an excellent news story on the CNN Freedom Project called Chocolate's Child Slaves.

From the CNN site: It may be unthinkable that the chocolate we enjoy could come from the hands of children working as slaves. In the Ivory Coast and other cocoa-producing countries, there are an estimated 100,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create the chocolate delicacies enjoyed around the world.

This story is a good example of the social problems associated with development and the reliance upon monoculture for economies in developing countries.

So today's question I would like you to tackle (which connects to our Infographic activity tomorrow and Friday) is:


  • Three conditions that seem to be linked to the lack of development of countries are: political instability; lack of technology; and domestic and international conflict. Explain how each factor contributes to a lack of development.


This is question 5 from page 418 of the Counterpoints text. Look at Chapter 14 along with pages 403-409 to help.

D Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we'll look at gender connected to moral panics and crime waves. In Gender, Youth, Crime and Justice Loraine Gelsthorpe and Gilly Sharpe claim that "recurring moral panics regarding girls’ behaviour, seem to have shifted their focus in recent years – from girls’ sexuality and ‘status’ offending, to their apparently increasing violence and alcohol use – and dwell on the resultant punitive turn towards girls and young women". This turn towards vilifying young female crime can also be seen in crime media. Today we'll look at the Madonna-Whore complex in crime media which is most clearly covered through the topic of rape (think Law & Order: SVU). This complex refers to a dualism in Western patriarchal discourse, which seeks to explain the behavior of women and the desires of men. On one hand, women are rewarded for being the sexual play objects of men (i.e., whores), and on the other hand, women are given clear messages that true grace only derives from marital chastity (i.e., Madonna). We'll see how women are portrayed as victims and as perpetrators in crime media and see if the Madonna-Whore complex applies. To do this we'll watch the DVD "Mothers Who Kill" which deals with Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Marylin Lemack. After that, if there's time, we'll watch "Deadly Women" which deals with Diane Downs and we'll try to make sense of the women we've taken a look at.

C Block Geography 12 - Today we are going to make sense of ecosystem evolution and community succession (thrown in will be the terms establishment and extinction). We'll try to understand how species co-evolve and adapt to create complex communities (self regulation and emergent properties) and then we'll look at Mount St. Helens to understand primary and secondary succession. We'll watch the last portion of the DVD "Fire Mountain: The Eruption and Rebirth of Mount St. Helens" in order to better grasp the rates of recovery for ecosystems around the volcano. The embedded video below from PBS is also a very good (specifically chapters 3 "The Blowdown Zone" and 5 "Bouncing Back") You'll need to complete questions 21 and 22 from page 662 of your Geosystems text along with a question on fire ecology and the effects of modern fire suppression. For more on ecosystem services and conservation see the National Geographic Earth Pulse website

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