Friday, February 8. 2013

Today's schedule is D-C-B-A-X

C Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue with our work in the Geographic Understandings book (they're the green geography books in the class). Friday we worked on scale direction and distance and today I'd like to work on map symbols, relief and contours. You'll need to work through the following:

1. Page 20 questions 1, 2, and 3
2. Page 21 questions 1 and 2

The Natural Resources Canada website Toporama is a great resource to understand topographic map basics. Check out their Tips and Hints site here. There is a good tutorial on building topographic profiles on the Idaho State University Department of Geosciences website here. There's also a great tutorial here as well.

After this we'll go through what the Five Themes of Geography are (part of the map conventions handout that you got this week).

B Block Social Studies 11 - Today we'll continue with our look at the federal and provincial government stucture in Canada. Yesterday I asked you a kinda big question and told you not to work on it...so today:

You've been hired to be a member of Premier Christy Clark's British Columbia negotiating team and are going to Ottawa in order to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet. Your job is to convince the Federal government to transfer two areas of control to the Provincial government of British Columbia (and maybe the other provinces too). Don't forget the Federal Government looks after things like national defense, foreign policy, criminal law, aboriginal affairs, most natural resources and taxation (see the list HERE). So choose two that you think should be transferred to the provinces and then come up with an argument for each. You should have two to three main points for each and then write a speech outlining your request and the reasons why the Federal government should give those powers to the provinces (Dear Mr. Prime Minister...)


I also said I'd ask you a big thinking question about Canada, identity, regionalism and diversity this week. So first, I'd like you to watch the Shane Koyczan spoken word performance of his poem "We Are More" from the opening ceremony at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver...

...but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change...

So from (of all places) the British Broadcasting Corporation here's my question:

Canada is anything but a homogenous Commonwealth state; nearly one million indigenous people rub shoulders with immigrants from around the world, including many from Asia. What does it mean to be Canadian now? What are the traits which help make up modern-day Canada? This is a question that we'll come back to over and over again in the course and I'll ask you to revisit your answer in June, but for now write me a paragraph or two about what you think it means to be Canadian (the traits that make up modern day Canada) and I'll take it from you on Tuesday.

A Block Law 9/10 - Today we'll watch an episode of Criminal Minds from season 1 "What Fresh Hell". From tv.com..."When a young girl is abducted in broad daylight from a playground in a seemingly safe neighborhood, the BAU initially believes her father is responsible. When he is able to provide an alibi, the team is forced to look for clues near where the girl lives to determine who is really responsible".

So I'll ask you today why do people abduct children? Think of all the theories we've looked at and tell me what you think. In the episode the BAU members say that the unsub (unknown suspect) fits in: he walks his dog, does yard work, but pays a little too much attention to the neighborhood kids. He is a white male in his late twenties to thirties, has a menial job and is socially marginal. He will have an extensive collection of porn in his home – at least some of which will be child porn. He may actually own a dog named Candy. This type of unsub is hiding, he will not inject himself into the investigation, but he will be watching the news.