Room 611: Friday, November 17. 2023

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Legal Studies - Today you'll work on and finish your "Key Components of Criminal Code Offenses" worksheet, which you'll got yesterday. You may work on this activity in partners. For the Elements that Must be Proven section you will need to identify both the Actus Reus (yes that means explain what the physical act or omission that it is which constitutes the crime) and the type of Mens Rea (yes that means explain what the Intent, Knowledge, Recklessness or Willful Blindness is for the crime - you have this in your text but you do not need to worry about general intent or specific intent for this activity) in each scenario you're given. For the Maximum Penalty section feel free to use the Wikibooks Canadian Criminal Sentencing/Appendix/Offence Charts for questions regarding narcotics you'll need to look at the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and the Cannabis Act

B Block Human Geography - Today we'll try to answer the key question, "Why Do Folk and Popular Culture Face Sustainability Challenges?" The international diffusion of popular culture has led to two issues, both of which can be understood from geographic perspectives.

First, the diffusion of popular culture may threaten the survival of traditional folk culture in many countries.
Second, popular culture may be less responsive to the diversity of local environments and consequently may generate adverse environmental impacts.

So we'll examine these two things today. We'll start with the potential loss of folk culture through assimilation which is a process of giving up cultural traditions and adopting social customs of the dominant culture of a place, acculturation which is a process of adjustment to the dominant culture of a place all while retaining features of a folk culture, and syncretism which is the creation of a new cultural feature through combining elements of two groups. See this site here. To help think of:

Or the story of Chanie Wenjack set to the music of Gord Downie (the Tragically Hip singer who died of brain cancer in 2017).

Your Term/Semester long Urbanization project will be to build a city with the computer game SimCity Buildit (or another program like it such as Pocket City Free Android or Apple, City Island 5 Android or Apple, or Designer City Android or Apple). There is a “Freemium” version of “Sim City Buildit” for iOS Apple (at the Apple Store) and Google Android (at the Google Play Store) products.

The concept of SimCity Buildit is just like every other entry in the series (SimCity). You have a plot of land, you section off some zones for residential, commercial, and industrial, and you start to grow your city. BUT… like for all “free” games you’ll get the basic entry, but a premium (AKA money) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (offline) goods that expand the functionality of the free version of the software. I DO NOT WANT YOU SPENDING MONEY FOR THIS PROJECT OPTION (yes that's me yelling this aloud at you!). SimCash, is the in-game currency that can be used to buy more Simoleons (fictional game money that is used to purchase missing items needed to upgrade buildings or speed up the construction of things “in-game”). Please do not purchase SimCash…since you’ll be doing this game over time you do not need to speed things up. You can play this version on your phone or tablet and there are some services that allow you to play it on your pc at home as well.

You can play the classic DOS game SimCity 2000 online at:

Play DOS Games SimCity 2000
Classic Reload SimCity 2000
Play Classic Games SimCity 2000

Now notice the name… “SimCity 2000”; it’s old and slow, however it is easier to start with (especially with the videos and the tips and tricks below). If you choose to play the game online please note that you cannot save it, so this will limit your game play to one, possibly, very loooong experience (NOTE: If you own a copy of a newer SimCity, like SimCity4, that’s fantastic you should just play it). You can find out how to play it at:

If you'd like to read how to play SimCity 2000, the manual for the game can be found here.

You can find tips and tricks for game play at: Zealgames, Dark Brick Abode, or GameBytes Magazine

Now, you could download SimCity 2000 from TechSpot (Note: This game is for DOS and to play it on computers with newer versions of Windows you will need a DOS 'emulator' like D-Fend Reloaded). Please be very careful to check what site you choose to download a free version of the game from; I do not want you to get malware on your computer. I have checked the SimCity 2000 from TechSpot (above) and it appears clean, however if you are unsure then just play it online.

You could also play Micropolis online where you can save your game play. In January 2008, the SimCity source code was released under free software license and renamed to Micropolis. You can also play it at Micropolis JS

You could also play 3D City online.

So, for this project, I will need you to build a city and as you play, you’ll need to keep a track of what you did, why you did it and what the results were. One way to determine what to build, where to build, and how much to build is to list all the possible requirements a city’s citizens might have. As you build your city, use these questions to help design a city that is well planned:

How will you lay out your city? What kinds of industrial, commercial, and residential areas will you build? Where will you build them?
How will your city pay for infrastructure and basic services?
What services (police, fire, medical, education) will your city provide? Where will you place them?
What kinds of parks and recreation areas will be in your city?
How will you provide power to all areas of your city?
Do you have renewable energy sources?
How will you make sure all areas of your city have water?
How will your city dispose of waste and recycle?
How will you manage pollution (water and air) in your city?
What types of transportation will be available to move citizens and goods?

How can you keep a track of things while playing? You can do this by taking screen captures of your game play and then writing things down or speaking them into an audio file. You can record your game play (on something like Bandicam) all of this is for the report/presentation (to me).

So what is the submission aspect of this (AKA...what do you need to hand in to me)?

You will need to make a presentation (video, podcast, website, prezi) with a written a narrative (minimum 500 words) describing your city’s key features and design attributes. The purpose of the City Narrative is to give me a quick overview of your city’s infrastructure and its public services. Think of the City Narrative as a marketing piece. What unique features does your city offer? Why would someone want to live in your city? Are there any special benefits to living in your city?

Use the planning questions above and these questions to help write a city description.

What basic information should people know about your city (such as the name, population, age, and location)?
What is important to know about your city’s physical components (landmarks, parks, and recreation areas) and infrastructure (transportation, energy, waste disposal, pollution control)?
What services (such as police, fire, medical, education) does your city offer?
What features make your city innovative and unique?
What did you learn about urban planning and city design?

This can be as a written report with photos (word document or online blog), as a podcast (spoken word audio file), or as a video file. The report and game play are based around the following key issues/outcomes from the course:

Where Are Services Distributed?
Where Are Consumer Services Distributed?
Where Are Business Services Distributed?
Why Do Services Cluster in Settlements?
Why Do Services Cluster Downtown
Where Are People Distributed Within Urban Areas?
Why Are Urban Areas Expanding?
Why Do Cities Face Challenges?

C/D Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - Today we'll begin a look at Borneo and the palm oil industry. Here's the question we will start with...

Is a plantation a forest?

So what is a plantation? Plantation agriculture can generally be defined as the growing and processing of a single cash crop (mono-culture) on a very large scale for the purpose of export sale.

So, planting a forest of palm oil trees so that palm oil (an edible vegetable oil derived from the reddish pulp of the fruit of the oil palms) can be harvested is a Palm Oil plantation...Is that a forest? Today we'll watch the Eden: Untamed Planet episode on Borneo. From their website

Borneo is the richest rainforest island of all; home to 40,000 species of plants and animals. 6,000 of them are unique – and more are discovered almost daily.

What are the impacts of clearing rainforests, like those on Borneo, to make way for palm oil production? From the Global Oneness Project

Some palm oil producers put profit before social and ethical responsibilities. As corporations create oil palm plantations, huge swaths of primary forests are decimated, including rainforests that help mitigate global CO2 emissions. Habitat for the Sumatran tiger and orangutan in Southeast Asia are being destroyed, threatening the survival of these and other species. Palm oil production has also had significant human costs. The clear-cutting of forests for plantations have displaced indigenous residents. Human rights abuses against migrant farmers are not uncommon, as men, women, and children have been trafficked—coerced against their will—into low paying jobs with no rights due to their immigrant status. Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, claims some of palm oil's top producers engage in child labor, forced labor, gender discrimination, and do not protect their workers from exposure to toxic chemicals.

So this is a human and environmental rights issue. Check out what palm oil plantations look like in Myanmar through the work of photographer Taylor Weidman.