Tuesday, May 12. 2015

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

C Block Geography 12 -  Today we'll begin looking at Albedo, energy distribution, the greenhouse effect and temperature (if there's time we'll watch the BBC DVD “The Weather” episode on heat... Grrrr, Donal MacIntyre is doing my job!). NASA has a good website (Earth Observatroy Global Warming) that tries to explain the concept of climate change and global warming without a biased political viewpoint for or against the subject. Check it out. You could also look at the Hyper Physics website from the department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University.
Every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.
Data Streme
Envrionment Canada: Weather Office Comox



D Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Over the last two weeks we've looked at media and developed some media literacy skills. This week we'll look at Sociology - given that the course is called "crime, media and society" it makes sense to look at society and how it is structured. Today we'll spend some time looking at types of societies, norms, roles, institutions and culture. Then, I would like for you to consider how have you been shaped by society.

On a large sheet of paper you need to draw an image of you (or print off your favourite photo of yourself) and then you to create a visual map of you in society. What social forces have impacted your life? How has culture influenced you? How have social institutions affected who you are? What are the most important cultural elements of your own social group or subculture? This poster should be a visual representation of the social influences on your life...use symbols, images, words and ideas to graphically depict where you fit into society.

Tomorrow we'll look at groups and socialization and Thursday we'll examine Social Stratification, Inequality and Deviance. A really good on-line book that can help with all of these topics is Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, Brief Edition, v. 1.0.1 by Steven E. Barkan.

B Block Social Studies 11 - Today we'll examine the Cold War in detail. We'll learn about the economic and political ramifications on Canada of an ideological conflict between the two superpowers. We'll watch a bit of the Atomic Cafe movie in class. The Atomic Cafe contains civil defense movies from the 1940's through the 1960's and will help you understand the culture of fear that developed throughout the Cold War. I hope you get a sense of the fear associated with nuclear war and communists (Senator Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunt - the House Un-American Activities Committee which became known as the ideology of "McCarthyism"). We also took a look at the Truman Doctrine (President Truman pledged assistance to "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures") which helps you understand your "Cold War Flashpoints" activity that you'll get tomorrow. FYI you'll have a 20's, 30's and 40's test on Thursday this week.