Sunday, January 22, 2017

Monday, January 23. 2017

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

A Block Geography 12 - Today we'll be in the library to work on your BC renewable energy activity. In this activity you will need to examine three of the six most common renewable energy sources (hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, biomass, tidal, and solar)…you will need to:


1.       Give a definition and an explanation of how it is produced

2.       Provide three examples of how the source is used (globally)

3.       Detail three advantages and three disadvantages of using the source

4.       Assess the potential for developing that source of energy here in BC

5.       Choose the best option out of the ones they listed to develop here in BC (think cost to make and transmit and return on investment)


You will have tomorrow and Wednesday in the library to finish this. Remember you must look at three of the six renewables (not all six) and provide sound reasoning as to why you believe their top choice should be chosen as an energy project here in BC. Here are some links for you to use:

BC Sustainable Energy Association
Energy Alternatives
Clean Energy BC
Government of BC Electricity and Alternative Energy
Pembina Institute: Renewable and Energy Alternatives BC
Energy BC
Sierra Club BC Alternative Energy
Tyee Mapping BC's Clean Energy
Canadian Wind Energy Association BC
BC Geothermal Estimates
Canadian Geographic Energy IQ
BC Hydro Green Energy Study


B & C Blocks Social Studies 11 -Today we are going to examine the impacts of developing countries relying upon one mono culture crop as a major source of export income. We'll be in the library today to gather data on an export crop and a developing country that relies heavily on it for economic development. 

You and a partner are going to create your own info-graphic on one of the following resources/topics: Bananas, Coffee, Cocoa, Cotton or Tobacco. The end product will be a hard copy poster (I'll give you poster paper tomorrow) that shows the devastating effects of a developing country relying on one mono culture agricultural crop for the majority of its income.

The goal of this assignment is to understand the connections between the social problems (gender, health, children, etc.) in HIPC's with economic development.


Take Ethiopia...coffee is its largest export crop and the staple of its export economy (some estimate that 60% of its economy is based on coffee exports). 15 million of its 75 million people in Ethiopia depend on the coffee industry for work. The problem is that on the UNDP Human Development Index Ethiopia ranked 170th out of 177 countries and the quality of life for those in the coffee industry is low. If the price of coffee goes down, then so does the amount of money that Ethiopia can generate.


This is one example so try to make a connection with your industry and a country that depends on it.


Once you've chosen your topic, look at point three below for an information sheet of data on your topic. It is your responsibility to search out more data on your topic (specifically population and the human development index rating for a country where that crop is relied upon). So today look for information about a developing country that relies heavily upon a "Legitimate" agricultural crop (no Colombia and Coca nor Afghanistan and Opiates). You can find information at:


CIA World Factbook
Show at World (click on planet and crop resources)
CIDA Developing World Map

Infographics are a great way to graphically depict statistical data so what are they? John Emerson wrote a great little document called Visualizing Information for Advocacy An Introduction to Information Design (http://backspace.com/infodesign.pdf) and his explanation of Infographics/Information Design is that… 



Information design uses pictures, symbols, colors, and words to communicate ideas, illustrate information or express relationships visually. Effective design is not just a matter of making text pretty or entertaining, but of shaping understanding and clarifying meaning. Information design adds seeing to reading to make complex data easier to understand and to use...Some familiar forms include charts, graphs, maps, diagrams or timelines. These can be big or small, simple or complex, published in print or electronic media. Information design can help you present your information in a clear and compelling way, persuasively convey facts or ideas or discover something new in your data.

So where can you find examples of Infographics?

  1. GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. GOOD is a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.
  2. Information Is Beautiful is the media platform for David McCandless an independent data journalist and information designer. McCandless’ passion is visualizing information – facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions – all with the minimum of words.
  3. New Internationalist magazine formed the basis of the data we used in today’s class. You can find the issues here: Coffee; Chocolate; Bananas; Tobacco; Cotton
Tools to help you create infographics can be found at:

Pie Color This delightfully easy tool simply asks how many slices you want the pie to have and then begins work. Once you select the number of pieces, the next screen asks for the values, provides options to set the colors of the pieces and the background, as well as the size of the pie graph.
Star Planet This site includes three options--Stat Planet, Graph Maker, and Map Maker. Star Planet has a wide range of already developed maps and graphs while Graph Maker and Map Maker have users create Flash-based maps and graphs with data sets provided from their own research or from various reputable sources available at the web site.
Creately is an easy-to-use drop and drag interface for creating a wide range of charts, graphics, and info pictures. The free version allows you to work on a single diagram at a time. Registration is required for saving diagrams as well as exporting as an image, PDF, Creatly file, or emailing

Other sites include Wordle and Tagxedo
Here are two examples to give you an idea of what this assignment may look like:



D Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today you need to

1. finish previous work:

2. Work on your Individual Media Monitoring Project:

Don't forget Your task will be to watch, read, investigate and then report on 10 days, episodes, entries, or instances of media coverage of crime.

If you are reviewing a daily news source(s) you should include a full listing of the number of crimes covered by category (e.g. murder, robbery, rape, property crimes, white-collar crime, computer crime, government deviance, etc.), along with specific details on "high profile" stories. For fictional sources, you might want to choose a theme or crime type, and then pick examples of the media source that features it. For example, serial crime, white-collar crime, street crime, drug crime, crime inside prisons, police deviance, sex crimes, psychopathology, war-related crime, terrorism, computer crime, hacking, family violence, school crime, etc. would make good topics. If your media source is movies, then locate a set of films that all focus on that type of crime.

So what do you need to report on? You need to become an expert on one type of crime media. You`ll need to give an overview of what it is along with what it shows. Describe what crimes were shown or reported including as much criminological information (type of crime and why it was perpetrated) and sociological information (age, gender, race, ethnicity, class) about victims and perpetrators as you can find.

3. work on our last on-line discussion piece Media Magic Wand

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