Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Thursday, January 14. 2016

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

D Block Geography 12 - To start the class, we will discuss Jared Diamond's book Collapse, trying to make sense of how civilizations in the past collapsed (Maya & Rapa Nui) and extrapolating his findings to our modern society today. We'll look at the twelve major modern environmental problems that Diamond identifies and examine his conclusions about our potential future. Remember to ask me about bunnies and Australia, specifically the 24 bunnies that the British brought with them in 1859 and how much the Australian government spends annually to control them. See Diamond talk at TED here. After, if there's time, we'll watch the National Geographic special Collapse.

From Nat Geo...
Imagine if hundreds of years from now, scientists excavated the abandoned ruins of some of our largest cities, what conclusions would they come to? It happened to the Romans, the Anasazi, and the Mayans and, inevitably, one day our own modern civilisation will also fall. In this two hour special discover how a future civilisation might be baffled as to why the population of these once-great cities would suddenly abandon their technology and architecture, and turn their homes into ghost towns. Some experts believe that there is a very real risk this could happen, and the collapse of the world as we know it is closer than we think. Examining the parallels between cultures separated by hundreds of years, explore whether the key to preventing such a global collapse today could lie in finding renewable alternatives to our dwindling energy supplies and sustainable resources. Can we learn from the mistakes of the past before it's too late?

Remember it's too late to be a pessimist. 




Business Insider asks: Is the Anthropocene real? That is, the vigorously debated concept of a new geological epoch driven by humans. Our environmental impact is indeed profound — there is little debate about that — but is it significant on a geological timescale, measured over millions of years? And will humans leave a distinctive mark upon the layers of rocks that geologists of 100,000,000AD might use to investigate the present day?

C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we'll finish watching the Dianne Downs and Becky Babcock videos from yesterday's class. After we'll watch the DVD "Mothers Who Kill" which deals with Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Marylin Lemack. I'll be intrigued to see how you feel about Andrea Yates, Susan Smith and Marylin Lemack today. After that we'll try to make sense of the women we've taken a look at and the messages crime media sends about women who kill.

A Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue with the glossary of economic terms (NOTE: it is due tomorrow) and then we'll look at the key points and important information about the following British Columbian industries:

  1. Forestry
  2. Fisheries
  3. Agriculture
  4. Mining
  5. Tourism
  6. Other (human and health services or film & television production and technology)
For each industry we'll look for the following data:

  1. An overview of extraction/production methods (what is taken or produced and how it is done)
  2. An overview of the impact on the economy of the province (how much money is made, how many people are employed, where in the province it is done, where the product is sold)
  3. An explanation of the issues associated with the industry (social, environmental, economic concerns).
  4. A job futures explanation (sunrise/sunset, rising/falling, etc...)

No comments: