Tuesday, February 5. 2019

Today's schedule is CDAB

C Block Criminology - Today we'll look at the difference between deviance and criminal behaviour (acts that are criminal but not deviant and deviant but not criminal). What is deviant behaviour? A simple explanation of deviant behaviour could be any action that violates cultural norms (formal norms like laws - or informal norms like nose picking). This is a difficult concept because what an individual or sub culture in society defines as deviant is contextually situated (meaning what I think is deviant may be different for you; it is subjective - influenced by personal considerations).
Take smoking in public. You may think that this behaviour is acceptable because an individual has the choice to consume a cigarette and they are merely harming themselves...no problem right? You may, however, think this behaviour is unacceptable. Second-hand smoke is hurtful to others because they could be harmed by someone else's behaviour. So what is deviant in many cases is subjective. What is criminal is the codification of what a society as a whole deems as deviant. Homicide is criminal because as a society we believe that taking another life is unacceptable and deviates from the accepted cultural norm that we wish our country to be like.

So using the text and your brains you need to come up with a list of things that are deviant but not criminal and a list of things that are criminal but not deviant. After you'll need to take one act from either list and explain why it should be criminalized or why it should be decriminalized. This should be based on an evaluation of harm...in other words how deviant or not is the action? If the action would cause great social harm then perhaps we should criminalize that behaviour. If the action causes minimal social harm then perhaps we should decriminalize that behaviour.

This will help us understand the Conflict, Interactionist and Consensus views on crime.

BC Open School Intro Sociology text Chapter 7
Relationship between Deviance and Crime (Jlaw)
Cliff Notes Theories of Deviance


D Block Law - Today we will have a discussion in class about your rights that you have guaranteed through various legal documents in Canada (including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the Canadian Human Rights Act and the BC Human Rights Code a great BC Human Rights Code pdf/booklet can be found here). I'll have you back in partners to work through the Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (2006) case on pages 41-42 of the All About Law text. After we discuss the case I'd like you and your partner to choose four of the items/statements/scenarios from the list below. If you need to, use your All About Law text and then we'll figure out whether or not Section 2 of the Charter covers the following...





A Block Physical Geography - Today we'll do a brief introduction to topographic maps and I'll show you how to identify location, estimate area, calculate slope, and determine direction on them. We'll look at large versions of the 1:50000 scale topographic maps for the Comox Valley (92F10 and 92F11). For a large copy of the Forbidden Plateau 92F11 map click on the Online - En ligne (PDF or TIFF) at the GEOSCAN Fast-Link site. Using these maps we'll try to make sense of topographic maps in partners.


Here are a few webpages to help:
Natural Resources Canada Toporama
Reading Topographic Maps
Mount Union College Reading Topo Maps
United States Geological Survey Reading Topo Maps
National Wildfire Coordinating Group Reading Topographic maps pdf
Natural Resources & Water Queensland Australia Interpreting Topo Maps pdf
How Stuff Works Reading a Topographic Map


B Block Human Geography - Today to help answer the Key Question: Why Are Some Human Actions Not Sustainable? we'll examine the concept of possibilism connected to sustainability and cultural ecology. Yesterday we looked at the United Nations Sustainable Development goals and today we'll examine two examples of how human beings have altered the physical environment in the Netherlands and in Florida. From the text...

Few ecosystems have been as thoroughly modified by humans as the Netherlands and Florida's Everglades. Because more than half of the Netherlands lies below sea level, most of the country today would be under water if it were not for massive projects to modify the environment by holding back the sea. Meanwhile, the fragile landscape of south Florida has been altered in insensitive ways.

So I'd like you to identify in point form the problems in both these locations and explain what have humans done (Describe the human modifications and adaptations to these two environments).







At the bottom of the page in our week 2 package I'd also like you to answer the following:

Both the Netherlands and the Florida Everglades face threats to sustainability. Which is better positioned to face future challenges? Explain your answer.