Friday, October 9. 2015

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

A Block Social Studies 10 - Today we're back in the library for our last day to work on our web quest dealing with voting and elections in Canada...don't forget, you'll need to find out what the parties like/want to do (goals and methods) and select a party that most represents your beliefs. You'll need to explain why you would choose that party if you were eligible to vote today. You will receive no more library/class time for this activity so try to use your time wisely today...I'll need this activity by next Tuesday. Use the following:

1) Pollenize – https://pollenize.org/canada Looking for student-friendly party platform summaries? Pollenize is a mobile-friendly app that allows users to compare the platforms of several Canadian political parties on 12 themes.

2) I Can Party - http://www.icanparty.ca/en/  I CAN Party is a user-friendly guide to understanding the national political party platforms.  It provides short summaries of the parties’ stances on key electoral issues without analysis or party rhetoric.

3) Vote Compass – https://votecompass.cbc.ca/ Where do you fall on the political spectrum? Vote Compass is a short online quiz that helps students to reflect on their own beliefs and values.

4) I Side With - http://canada.isidewith.com/ iSideWith.com is a short online quiz that helps students to reflect on their own beliefs and values. The site constantly finds and builds new ways to boost voter engagement and education using information, data, and breaking technologies.

C Block Criminology 12 - Today I'd like to start with a discussion about yesterday's Columbine video - focusing on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. After, I'll have you watch a Law & Order Criminal Intent episode "Jones" about a psychopathic killer. From Wapedia...

In this episode, Detective Goren and Eames are investigating the death of a pretty, petite woman found drowned in her bathtub.

The detectives go to work, turning down a more high-profile case because this one looks interesting. Suddenly, they find themselves awash when a second victim is another petite woman found naked and washed up on shore just days apart. Goren quickly deduces she, too, was drowned in a bathtub. But the case turns out even bigger as a third body is found, with similar body type and strangled but not drowned. Later, a fourth woman is killed.

The investigation leads Goren and Eames to an abusive, cocaine-addicted lawyer. The connection is that the women were his clients and he also was taking them for a significant amount of money to help feed his gambling addictions. The detectives dig into the case, knowing that he has one more unknown victim remaining on his list. Since Goren and Eames are unable to get help from his wife, they race in a desperate attempt to save the potential victim.

D Block Geography 12 - Aloha family, today we'll take the class to work on the Koko Head (Hawai'i Kai) topographic map assignment in your Canadian Landscape topographic map textbook.

The scale of the map is 1:24000 which means 1 cm = 240m (.24km)
The contour interval is 40' (12.12m)

1. Study topographic map 1 and describe the relief from west to east across the upper half of the map

a) what is the length and width (in kilometers) of the map? What is the total area (in kilometers squared)
b) Determine the road distance (in kilometers) from BM16 in Hawaii Kai to the park in the northeast. What do you think is the significance of the white area crossed by Lunalilo Home Road?
c) Determine the road distance (in kilometers) from Holy Trinity School near Kuliouou to Halona Point. Suggest some factors that posed difficulties for the construction of State Highway 72

2. On map 1 and Photo 3 locate and name three other craters in Koko Head Park. How are they indicated on the map? How do they compare in size relative to Koko crater? Does Hanauma Bay qualify as a caldera and if so, why?

3. Identify the features labelled A to E on stereo photo 3.

a) What indicates that Koko crater has been inactive for some time?
b) What is the area (in kilometers squared) of Hanauma Bay? What do you think makes it an interesting site for an underwater park?

5. a) Along line XY, measure the distance (in km) from the shoreline to the outer edge of the coral reef. What is the average width of the reefs in Maunalua Bay on map 1?
b) What is the greatest depth at which coral has formed a reef in Maunalua Bay on Map 1?
c) Find the wide break in the coral reef southwest of Kuapa Pond and suggest reasons for this gap
d) Refer to map 1 to identify the features labelled F to H on photo 5.

6. Is map 1 or photo 3 more recent? How can you tell?
a/b) Locate an area of land reclamation on the map and photo, explain why reclamation projects are needed in this area.

7. From a study of both the map and the photos, suggest how the settlement pattern has been influenced by topography
a) How has this pattern influenced population density in localized areas?
b) How has the topography created problems for highway planning? Why might traffic congestion be a problem along the shoreline highway?

Thursday, October 8. 2015

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

D Block Geography 12 - Today we'll start watching Mega Disasters: American Volcano to help understand the explosive eruption of Mount Saint Helens; this is a sweet "what if" disaster video and it explains the dangers of the slumbering giant...Mount Rainier. This will take up about 40 minutes of class time and then you have one question to address in your week 5 notes/package (basically the positives and negatives of volcanoes using Saint Helens as an example). A good article from Popular Mechanics can be found here...it interviews survivors of the blast in 1980. Pictures of before and after the eruption can be found on the National Geographic website here. There's a good article from the May 2010 National Geographic magazine called "Mountain Transformed".



C Block Criminology 12 - Today we will spend a few minutes reviewing our discussion of serial and mass murder from Tuesday and then we'll go back try to our discussion of psychopathology. To better understand the people that commit heinous acts of murder, we'll take some more time to understand what a "psychopath" is. We'll continue our look at Dr. Robert Hare's PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). The diagnosis "Psychopath" is closely related to Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition). After we'll finish our look at mass murder by focusing on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who killed 13 students at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado (for more see school shooters). We'll examine the Department of Justice (FBI) Critical Incident Response Group report "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective" and the Columbine Review Commission report of Governor Bill Owens. In essence we'll look at the background of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as well as the types of behavior, personality traits, and circumstances in the family, school, and community environment that should be regarded as warning signs of school shooters. If there's time we'll also look at the leader of the "People's Temple"- the Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones and the mass suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown Guyana.


A Block Social Studies 10 - Today we're in the library for our first day to work on our web quest dealing with voting and elections in Canada -  specifically focusing on political ideology and the current political parties that follow specific ideologies. A political ideology deals with goals (how society should work) and methods (how to reach the goals). You'll look at the major political parties in Canada: Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, Green, and Bloc Quebecois. You'll need to find out what their platforms (goals and methods) are and select a party that most represents your beliefs. You'll need to explain why you would choose that party if you were eligible to vote today. You will receive one more library/class time for this activity so try to use your time wisely today...I'll need this activity by next Tuesday. Use the following:

1) Pollenize – https://pollenize.org/canada Looking for student-friendly party platform summaries? Pollenize is a mobile-friendly app that allows users to compare the platforms of several Canadian political parties on 12 themes.

2) I Can Party - http://www.icanparty.ca/en/  I CAN Party is a user-friendly guide to understanding the national political party platforms.  It provides short summaries of the parties’ stances on key electoral issues without analysis or party rhetoric.

3) Vote Compass – https://votecompass.cbc.ca/ Where do you fall on the political spectrum? Vote Compass is a short online quiz that helps students to reflect on their own beliefs and values.

4) I Side With - http://canada.isidewith.com/ iSideWith.com is a short online quiz that helps students to reflect on their own beliefs and values. The site constantly finds and builds new ways to boost voter engagement and education using information, data, and breaking technologies.

Wednesday, October 7. 2015

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

A Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue our look at the current election in Canada specifically focusing on political ideology and the parties that follow specific ideologies. A political ideology deals with goals (how society should work) and methods (how to reach the goals). Tomorrow we'll be in the library trying to find information on political party platforms and making informed choices about which political party best fits your own set of beliefs. You'll have a Web Quest to work on for me.

As a citizen of Canada you have the right and the responsibility to vote so, why should you vote? Leon Wieseltier wrote in his book "Insurrections of the Mind"...

"Here's why you have to think...an open democracy places an extraordinary intellectual responsibility on ordinary citizens because we are governed by what we think...we are governed by our opinions. So, the content of our opinions and the quality of our opinions basically determines the character of our society and that means a thoughtless citizen of a democracy is a delinquent citizen of democracy."

So an educated ordinary citizen means you should be aware of what political parties represent and stand for. Voting means making an educated critical decision in other words "thinking". For help on why you should vote see:

Elections Canada Young Voters Site
Elections Canada Electoral System explanation
Compulsory voting in Australia explanation
Electoral Reform in BC First Past the Post or STV
About.com First Past the Post vs Proportional Representation
Fair Vote
Historical record of Canadian Voter turnout
2011 Election Results CBC

There will be two members of parliament representing the Comox Valley after this federal election, now the Electoral Boundaries Commission has decided to draw a line through our Regional District.

Comox and Electoral Areas B and C will remain with the North Island, while Courtenay, Cumberland and Area A will join a new 'Courtenay-Alberni' riding.


D Block Geography 12 -  I have the library reserved for the class so that you may continue working on your Orting college development project. Ask yourself, what is the greatest danger to Orting? Of all that could potentially happen at Mount Rainier what poses the greatest threat? Now ask yourself what triggers that threat? What causes it to happen? Last think about the statistical likelihood of that event happening. How likely is the event to occur in the next 5, 10, 100, or 1000 years? Check out the risk analysis section of the COTF website for help here. I'll remind you that this assignment is due next Tuesday and it is crucial that you hand it in to me as we will be at the end of our unit. Today is our last day in class for research and creation

C Block Criminology 12 - We'll watch the recreation of the 1961 Stanley Milgram experiment on "Obedience to Authority".  From ABC News "Basic Instinct: The Science of Evil"

In the experiment, conducted at Yale University over a period of months in 1961, an authority figure -- "the experimenter" -- dressed in a white lab coat and instructed participants to administer what they believed were increasingly painful electric shocks to another person. Although no one was actually receiving shocks, the participants heard a man screaming in pain and protest, eventually pleading to be released from the experiment. When the subjects questioned the experimenter about what was happening, they were told they must continue. And continue they did: Two-thirds of Milgram's participants delivered shocks as they heard cries of pain, signs of heart trouble, and then finally -- and most frightening -- nothing at all.

So if we are studying violence and we categorize violence as "evil" then shouldn't we understand what makes people do "evil" things? The ABC Primetime News team recreated Milgram's experiment and we'll watch it today.

Tuesday, October 6. 2015

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

C Block Criminology 12 - Today we'll finish your "Roots of Violence" notes and then we'll try to make sense of mass and serial murder. I'd like you to:

Explain the types of serial and mass murderer along with the reasons why they commit these crimes.

You can find the answers to this in the work of Jack Levin and James Alan Fox "Multiple Homicide: Patterns of Serial and Mass Murder". The summary of their work is on pages 209 and 210 of the textbook in the Criminological Enterprise section. For more info look at the work of John Douglas (former FBI profiler) on mindhunter.com (look in the article section and there is a great read entitled "So, you want to become a profiler..."). To better understand the people that commit heinous acts of murder, we'll also review what a "psychopath" is. Too often people throw the term psycho around without really understanding what it means so we'll look at Dr. Robert Hare's PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). The diagnosis "Psychopath" is closely related to Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition).

In order to understand mass murder and motives we will dedicate some time this week to the murders at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado over a decade ago. We'll examine the Department of Justice (FBI) Critical Incident Response Group report "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective" and the Columbine Review Commission report of Governor Bill Owens. In essence we'll look at the background of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as well as the types of behavior, personality traits, and circumstances in the family, school, and community environment that should be regarded as warning signs of school shooters. After we finish our look at mass murder by focusing on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (for more see school shooters) we'll look at the leader of the "People's Temple"- the Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones and the mass suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown Guyana.

D Block Geography 12 -  I have the library reserved for the class so that you may continue working on your Orting college development project. Ask yourself, what is the greatest danger to Orting? Of all that could potentially happen at Mount Rainier what poses the greatest threat? Now ask yourself what triggers that threat? What causes it to happen? Last think about the statistical likelihood of that event happening. How likely is the event to occur in the next 5, 10, 100, or 1000 years? Check out the risk analysis section of the COTF website for help here. I'll remind you that this assignment is due next Tuesday and it is crucial that you hand it in to me as we will be at the end of our unit.

A Block Social Studies 10 -  Today we'll be looking at voting and elections in Canada (including the 2011 Federal election ) specifically focusing on political ideology and the parties that follow specific ideologies. A political ideology deals with goals (how society should work) and methods (how to reach the goals). We'll look at the major political parties in Canada: Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, Green, and Bloc Quebecois. Well see what their platforms (goals and methods) were/are.

We'll also be looking at:

1) Pollenize – https://pollenize.org/canada Looking for student-friendly party platform summaries? Pollenize is a mobile-friendly app that allows users to compare the platforms of several Canadian political parties on 12 themes.

2) I Can Party - http://www.icanparty.ca/en/  I CAN Party is a user-friendly guide to understanding the national political party platforms.  It provides short summaries of the parties’ stances on key electoral issues without analysis or party rhetoric.

3) Vote Compass – https://votecompass.cbc.ca/ Where do your students fall on the political spectrum? Vote Compass is a short online quiz that helps students to reflect on their own beliefs and values.

All of this is to help you try to select a party that most represents your beliefs. Later this week you'll be in the library filling in a research project on the parties and their leaders where you'll need to explain what party you would vote for and why you would choose that party if you were eligible to vote today. You will receive a hand out to help organize your thoughts and research.

Monday, October 5. 2015

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

A Block Social Studies 10 -  Today is your Map, Geography, and Canadian Physiographic Regions unit final. You have as much time in today's class to complete the test as necessary but it should take no more than 45-50 minutes. If you came prepared I am certain that you will do fine. When you're done the test I'll have you start with four definitions: Family Compact, United Empire Loyalist, Clergy Reserves, Assembly, and Governor. Next, I'll have you work on the two questions on the "Get to the Source: The Family Compact" section on page 53 of Horizons

C Block Criminology 12 - Today your journal / blog entry is to answer the following:

Now that you know about trends in crime in relation to age, gender and class...Do you think that school is one of the most dangerous places for young people in society today? When you answer this question consider the following self-report survey...

Within the last 12 months have you:

1. Stolen anything under ten dollars ($10) in value
2. Stolen anything between ten ($10) to fifty ($50) dollars in value
3. Stolen anything over fifty dollars ($50) in value
4. Trespassed on private property
5. Purposefully broken or damaged public or private property
6. Purposefully spray painted “tagged” public or private property
7. Deliberately set fire to something
8. Forcibly entered a house or building
9. Consumed any hallucinogenic drugs (marijuana, peyote, PCP “angel’s dust”, LSD “acid”)
10. Consumed any stimulant drugs (methamphetamine, cocaine, crack)
11. Consumed and depressant drugs (heroin, morphine, barbiturates)
12. Been drunk in a public place while underage
13. Bought or sold any drugs
14. Driven a car that wasn’t yours without permission
15. Violated the terms of your driving conditions (“N” OR “L”)
16. Driven while under the influence of alcohol
17. Been involved in a fist fight
18. Hit someone with a weapon (stick, rock, bat)
19. Verbally threatened someone with the intent to intimidate
20. Held or detained someone against their will
21. Been a victim of an unprovoked assault
22. Had someone threaten to physically harm you
23. Been a victim of sexual contact without your consent
24. Had something stolen from you under ten dollars ($10) in value
25. Had something stolen from you between ten ($10) to fifty ($50) dollars in value
26. Had something stolen from you over fifty ($50) dollars in value
27. Had any of your property damaged or broken
28. Been a victim of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation
29. Known someone who has been the victim of a crime

Broaden your scope a little and do not necessarily focus on Vanier for this question. Think about other Canadian, British Columbian or Comox Valley high schools and generalize your response a bit. Don't forget that you'll need to find a story to back up your point of view here (either one about how little crime exists in schools or one that demonstrates that schools are somewhat dangerous places).

D Block Geography 12 - Today we're in the library to begin our research on the Orting College case study. Should the town of Orting, Washington, build a new college to attract people to their community or not? What will the impact of increased population be on the tiny town that sits in the shadows of Mt. Rainier? The assignment is in your week 5 package and was adapted from the following website: http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/volcano.html


Websites of help for this assignment:

The following URL’s will help:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Rainier/framework.html
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/lahar/index.php
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/cover2.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Rainier/Hazards/OFR98-428/framework.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageplanet/01volcano/03/indexmid.html
http://www.uccs.edu/~geogenvs/ges199/rainier/orting.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7886762/
http://www.bridge4kids.com/index.html
Pierce County Mount Rainier Active Volcano
Pierce County Mount Rainier Hazard Maps
Pierce County Emergency Plans
City of Orting Emergency Management (Lahar Evacuation Routes)
City of Orting Lahar Information
Geology dot com Mount Rainier
USGS Rainier Hazards Landslides
National Geographic News Rainier Eruption Odds
USGS The Eruption History of Mount Rainier
Seattle Times Will we Have Enough Warning?
CS Monitor Can We Predict Volcanic Eruptions?


A note of caution...

What is the greatest danger to Orting? Of all that could potentially happen at Mount Rainier what poses the greatest threat? Now ask yourself what triggers that threat? What causes it to happen? Last think about the statistical likelyhood of that event happening. How likely is the event to occur in the next 5, 10, 100, or 1000 years? Check out the risk analysis section of the COTF website for help here.