Room 611: Thursday, September 17. 2020

Today's classes are:

9:15 - 11:50 D Block Social and Environmental Sciences

12:30 - 3:05 A Block Criminology

D Block Social and Environmental Sciences - Remember, please enter the school in the back by room 115 and hand sanitize either at the back doors or when you come into the room. This morning we are back down to Towhee Creek looking at the lower portion, from mid stream by the turf field down through the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds to the mouth. Remember this is not just a walk along the course of the creek. Benton and I are asking you to map out (inventory) some things and make notes about what you see. Your goal "on the river" is to collect as much scientific data as you can during one short day. Don't get distracted, remember that the purpose of the day is gather observations that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy? - our assessment.

We want you to assess and evaluate the physical features of the Towhee Creek system and look at the impact of a river drainage system on water quality seen through soil, slope, and flow. We also want you to consider the effects of agriculture, development, and transportation on Towhee Creek and water resources. Further to this we'd like you to monitor and document the number of living organisms in Towhee Creek. The variety of living organisms in a water environment, which may change as the water quality and quantity increases or decreases, should also be monitored and documented (remember Towhee Creek is an intermittent stream).

When we're done (if), we'll head back in to Benton's room (134) and he'll work on water quality assessment techniques with you, considering what to look at. Tomorrow, I'll help you with basic cartography and plotting appropriate data on your maps.

A Block Criminology - Yesterday I asked you 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. Today, we'll start with some time to finish the list up and then we'll share together as a class. After we share, I need you 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. So, I'm looking for you to justify your response and you may use the text for help if you need it.This will help us understand the Conflict, Interactionist and Consensus views on crime - of which we'll go over together as a class. We'll also go over a brief history of the codification of criminal laws to understand the sources of Canadian Criminal Law.