9:05 – 9:25 Homeroom
9:30 – 10:35 A Block
10:40 – 11:50 B Block
11:50 – 12:30 Lunch
12:35 – 1:50 C Block
1:55 – 3:10 D Block
A Block Legal Studies - Today, I'll have you partner up in groups of three and discuss:
- Why do we have laws? (Hint - there are five big reasons),
- What are rights, what kinds are there and why do we have them?
- Give 10 examples of Canadian Laws - What are Canadians not allowed to do?
- Give 5 examples of Rights Canadians have - what are guaranteed to us?
- 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...
It's nearly as old as me (so needless to say that's really old) but let's check in on Shiver, Gobble, and Snore...
And although it is from Michigan in the United States of America, Mr. Carpenter makes a pretty decent summation
B Block Human Geography - Ahhhh, we got stuck on bananas yesterday. Today, I'll give you your Introduction to Human Geography workbook and we'll try to work on the Key Question: How do Geographers describe where things are?
Remember, Human geographers ask two simple questions: Where are people and activities found on Earth? and Why are they found there? What tool do geographers use to do this? Maps!
Okay, first let’s get this out of the way right now. I’m a cartophile. I love maps. When I was a kid I immediately took the maps out of my parent’s National Geographic subscription when the magazine arrived in the mail. I used to love the Canadian Automobile Association flip maps that my parents would get for our many road trips south into the United States. I always had an atlas in my room. And I read books about maps. Look at letters 2-3-and-4 of the word Cartography…there must be a reason why I’d point that out...Paul Hardy from ESRI (a massively influential GIS company) wrote “Cartography has been defined as the art, science, technology, and craft of making maps and is a discipline going back 30,000 years to cave paintings locating woolly mammoths”
Professor Michael Peterson from the University of Nebraska (Omaha) states that:
The purpose of a map is to show the world at a smaller scale so that we are able to get a sense of where things are located in relation to one another, and that we can have a better understanding of different patterns in geographical space. Maps are also valuable in that they are useful for gaining knowledge of patterns in geographic space and expanding our understanding of navigation. They are important to show trends in things as weather, population and growth. They are a visual source where spatial messages are transmitted from a cartographer to everyday people like you and me.
Maps don’t just help us get from place to place. They help us understand Earth and how its physical processes and features can shape human activity and vice versa. When data is organized by its locations, we can see geographic patterns that allow us to develop a better understanding of how systems work and interact with one another. But...
From City Lab’s “When Maps Lie” by Andrew Wiseman…
Maps are representations of the world where certain things are highlighted and certain things removed. This often is a good thing: if there’s a map for a specific purpose, it should only include things that are helpful (road types, names and cities on a road atlas, for example) or maybe for clarity’s sake you reduce how jagged or complicated something is, like the lines on a subway map. But it can be hard to tell when something has been manipulated or removed, so it’s important to think about the choices the cartographer could have made.
From National Geographic in an interview with Frank Jacobs…How to be a Critical Map Reader
“A map is always a bit of a lie because there is always something that is not on the map,” Jacobs says. “For instance, the typical map is flat while the world is round; there’s already one whole dimension that’s missing. When you read a map, you’re ingesting the point of view of the mapmaker. A map is not as blindly objective as a photograph; it’s an artifact that has been crafted to tell you a story”. The first step to becoming a critical map reader is to always question the intentions of the mapmaker.
The main question that you can ask with any map is, ‘Why?’ Why did someone make this? What’s the point? What’s the story and who is telling it?” Jacobs says. “Every map is an attempt to convince you of something; it’s like an argument. It’s in your best interest to know who is trying to convince you…Take any map that surprises you, that seems somehow ‘strange.’ Why does it stop you in your tracks? What is different about it? Can you relate why it attracts your attention to who made it, and to what purpose?” Jacobs says. “If cartography is the art of wrapping up a story in a map, then map reading is like a journey of discovery for that story.”
So maps are a Geographic media and all media has a bias. What you choose to put on a map shows your bias. To understand Cartography and why maps lie check out...
Next, if there's time, we'll look at the five themes of geography and take a look at our key question Why is each point on Earth unique?
C/D Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - This afternoon, we start in 115. With Young, we'll quickly begin our look at the spectrum of Environmental Worldviews which are connected to Environmental Value Systems (we'll look at both these topics in more detail later next week).
People disagree on how serious different environmental problems are and what we should do about them. These conflicts arise mostly out of differing environmental worldviews - how people think the world works and what they believe their role in the world should be. Part of an environmental worldview is determined by a person’s environmental ethics - what one believes about what is right and what is wrong in our behavior toward the environment (also called an Environmental Value System).
Some environmental worldviews are human centered (anthropocentric), focusing primarily on the needs and wants of people; others are life- or earth centered (biocentric), focusing on individual species, the entire biosphere, or some level in between.
So why this topic? Our work this upcoming week is to do a qualitative and quantitative analysis/assessment of the health of Towhee Creek. Knowing which value we place on the Towhee Creek catchment area (our biases) determines what evidence we need to consider in order to determine the health of the creek.
With Benton you'll take a look at what assessment, data, data collection, and analysis is. This, of course, is connected to the "Western" scientific method which is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge to form replicable or testable explanations of phenomena which lead to predictions and theory development. As is well known, there is an argument to be made that mainstream "Western" science is just one of the many sciences that exist and that many local cultures (such as Indigenous populations) have produced their own "science" and contributed to the stock of human knowledge. Such belief systems are called variously as "Indigenous Knowledge" (or ‘Indigenous Science’) and "Traditional Ecological Knowledge". This is going to be an issue we come back to over and over again in this course.
So, evidence collection is important to "Western" science because in the philosophy of science, evidence (for us, we'll take that as what objects or phenomena are observable, in contrast to unobservable or theoretical objects) is understood as that which confirms or disconfirms scientific hypotheses. What evidence you collect (qualitative and quantitative) and how you collect it (experimentation and observation) is determined by the question you are interested in analysing…notice the highlighted words? Evidence and Analysis 🤔 In general, when scientists interpret data, they attempt to explain the patterns, trends, or anomalies uncovered through analysis, bringing all of their background knowledge, experience, and skills to bear on the question at hand and relating their data to existing scientific ideas.
All of this is connected to the big ideas we'll look at all throughout the course of Worldview, Science and the Understanding of Nature.
Outside, we are going to start an inventory and analysis field study of Towhee Creek, which is an intermittent or seasonal stream that flows between the Comox Valley Sports Centre and G.P. Vanier, through the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds to the Tsolum River.
Intermittent streams have flowing water periods during the wet season (winter-spring) but are normally dry during hot summer months. Ephemeral streams have less flow than intermittent streams, are typically shallow, and have flowing water for brief periods in response to rainfall. So Towhee Creek is an Intermittent, rather than an Ephemeral stream. Towhee Creek is important due to superior capacity for nutrient spiraling and fish habitat (particularly Coho and trout) providing winter habitat for Tsolum River salmon populations in the watershed. The headwaters of Towhee Creek is a rare 5.53 hectare Garry oak woodland behind G.P. Vanier Secondary School. This protected Garry oak woodland is a remnant of the most northern ecosystem of its kind in Canada. It also hosts a variety of unusual vegetation species.The afternoon sees us look at the headwaters through to mid stream (just past the turf field).
Benton and I are asking 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). Your goal "on the river" is to gather and collect as much scientific data as you can through observation and inference that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy? - which is our assessment.
FMI Check out the SD 71 - Vanier Oak Property Ecological Assessment and Protection Plan from Current Environmental, Raincoast Applied Ecology, and MDI Design Inc
Today's Fit...
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