Thursday, February 28. 2013

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

C Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll finish our look at the First Nations peoples (pre-contact) here in Canada. Yesterday I gave you a chart to fill in (5 Themes of Geography for the First Nations of Canada) and we'll finish it today. After I'd like you to use all of the geographic work we've looked at, as well as the text, and try to answer the following:

"How has Geography shaped the culture of Canada?"

This is a big question and I really want you to try hard to think like a geographer here. Thinking like a geographer is thinking spatially in a systems manner. This involves looking for patterns, relationships and connections in order to comprehend large, complex self regulating systems. So what patterns, relationships and connections exist between people and places that help to shape Canada today?

In order to help with the question above, I will have the Over Canada  video on for you to watch; WARNING it's a bit cheezy with overdramatic monologues extolling the wonders of the country and its regions. The video is, nonetheless, really good to show the country especially if you've not been to the locations it shows.

B Block Social Studies 11 - Today I have the notebook lab in the class for you to continue working on your political party assignment. Remember you need to create a party, a platform, a logo, a slogan and a campaign that will convince people to vote for your party. Don't forget that the campaign begins on Monday, March 4^th and lasts until the official day of voting which is Friday, March 8^th. Do not break campaign rules and try to post links or put up posters until Monday and although you may know some of the people who are coming in to watch your speeches and vote, I do not want you to lobby them before the campaign begins - that would break election laws and you really don't want to pay fines - that would bankrupt your party before it even gets a chance to get going. You'll have tomorrow in the library as well. If you need a video camera for campaign ads then you should sign one out of the library today. If you need help, ask.

A Block Law 9/10 - Today we'll continue with our geographic profile map of break-ins for the Comox Valley. We've been looking at November 2012 - February 2013 and used the Comox Valley Crime Map from the Comox Valley CrimeStoppers website. We are going to create a modified Choropleth map that shows the spatial variation of one or two variables (for us one variable - break ins) at a time by using color, shades of grey and/or patterns. So we're showing the Break In Hot Spots for Courtenay/Comox. We placed dots on the map where break-ins have occurred and we are going to group neighbourhoods together. Any neighbourhood where there are five or more break-ins we'll colour red, three to four orange, one to three yellow and none green. What neighbourhoods?

1. Courtenay North (Vanier Headquarters Mission Hill) 
2. Old Orchard/Downtown
3. LTWP (Lake Trail Willemar Puntledge)
4. Courtenay West (Cumberland Rd to 26th and Cliffe to Willemar)
5. Courtenay East (Ryan to Macdonald and Lerwick to Back Roads)
6. Crown Isle
7. Comox

Make sure you can see the dots (break-in locations) that we plotted on the map, have a title, a legend and then on the back of the map try to write out any patterns that you may see. We'll then finish geographic profiling with a look at the David Milgard case and we'll check out the Toronto Crime Hot Spot map here. Geographic Profiling is kind of like the Scientific Method...build a hypothesis / question, develop a method and collect data, analyse the data and evaluate the results