Monday February 1. 2021

Welcome to Term 3! Today's classes are: 

9:15 - 11:50 A Block Physical Geography

12:30 - 3:05 D Block Legal Studies

A Block Physical Geography -Welcome to Geography, the most important class you'll ever take in your life...no, really!

Today we'll work on learning to observe as a geographer would. Why would we want to be observant and think like a geographer?


Observing as a Geographer means we'll look beyond simple observations and try to see a larger picture with connections to the wider world (think of the following three big concepts: Interactions, Interconnections, and Implications and the questions "what", "where", "why there" and "why care"). We'll practice an analysis of two photos in class and one in your week 1 handout.

After we get into practice, you'll start working on your first assignment for the course which is a geographic analysis of a photo from a Canadian Geographic magazine (or an online photo source). You'll need to use the Observing as a Geographer Would questions (in your week 1 package that you'll get today...maybe) to help with your analysis along with the acronym “OSAE”

O - Observe. What do you see? What's going on? Work from obvious to complex. Be precise!
S - Speculate. Why is something there or not there? Write open ended Qs and make sense of your observations.
A - Analyse. How come? What is the real reason why it's here or not here? Find answers to your questions.
E - Evaluate. In what ways could this landscape change? Consider social values here. Justify your opinions.​

D Block Legal Studies - Welcome to Law/Canadian Legal Studies. Today we will go through the course outline package and then we'll talk about career paths that are available with Law. Law 12 is an intense one semester course that deals with the foundation, the structure, and the key principles and concepts of the Canadian legal system. We will try, as much as possible, to cut through the “Legal speak” so that you can simply become a legally literate person. In February we'll look at the foundations of the Canadian legal justice system along with civil and human rights. The rest of the third term sees us look at criminal law in Canada while in term four we'll focus on civil and family law in Canada. Today I'll have you partner up in groups of three and discuss:

1. what is crime (come up with a definition), 
2. why do we have laws (there are five big reasons), 
3. give 15 examples of Canadian Laws - What are Canadians not allowed to do? (without looking at the Criminal Code)
4. what is the difference between what is legal what is moral and what is ethical. 

We'll partner up and get our ideas on big sheets of paper with some smelly felts so that we can have a discussion on the topic...

don't look below yet because that would be unethical...not immoral or illegal

The Oxford Dictionary defines a crime as 'an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law'. So we may do something 'wrong' that is not a crime. Lying to a friend may be wrong but it may not be a crime. On the other hand we may do something 'right' which is a crime. So, a crime is a fact, a matter of law. It is not an opinion. As society changes, some actions which used to be criminal, for example, are no longer criminal. Likewise, some actions, such as smoking in covered public places are. Laws are made by the Government, a government we elect democratically, for the good of us all. We may not agree with the law but there are democratic opportunities to change it.

• Morality governs private, personal interactions and different social groups have differing moralities...groups tend to agree (consciously or subconsciously) on a set of rules for how they’ll behave around each other. Things that are considered immoral have personal consequences.
• Ethics governs professional interactions. Codes of professional ethics are often established by professional organizations to help guide members in performing their job functions according to sound and consistent ethical principles. Things that are unethical have professional consequences
• Law governs society as a whole, often dealing with interactions between total strangers. People in a society are subject to the laws that reflect society's collective morals and ethics (that are codified as law). Things that are illegal have personal and social consequences.