Wednesday, December 20. 2017

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

B Block Physical Geography 12 - Today we'll go to the library to play the Stop Disasters game. The scenario I would like you to work on is the Caribbean Island Hurricane simulation. There is a population of 330 people in your coastal town, but only 180 are currently housed. You will need to develop some housing for the people in the town. You will need to build a hospital, a school, and anchor all the boats in the port. You have a budget of $50,000 to work with and don't forget to develop some defenses to protect people, buildings, and livelihoods. When you click on an object square you will likely get three choices: info, develop, &; defences. Read through your options and try to uncover all 15 key facts (which will give you extra points). Play the game twice and fill in the handout I give you and your partner about things you learned and what your scores were. Have fun playing and learn something.

D Block Criminology 12 - Today we continue the Casey Anthony trial coverage from 2011 in the USA. Yesterday we watched the 48 Hours Mystery "Only Casey Knows" that showed one perspective of the case (in this instance pretrial and mostly from the defense's point of view) and today we'll watch the second half of the 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery


After this we'll talk about the German psychology/sociology term Schadenfreude. This term deals with a big concept - that as humans, we have a private rush of glee when someone else struggles (we take delight in another person's pain and misfortune). Schadenfreude registers in the brain as a pleasurable experience, a satisfaction comparable to that of eating a good meal.Schadenfreude is a common and normal part of life but can become dangerous if we lose empathy, fall into demonizing others, or lapse into “us vs. them” thinking. There is a human fascination with murder as entertainment and news media companies have turned the story of the death of a toddler into a prime time circus...a story that we can safely watch and perhaps feel a little guilty pleasure in the fact that we're better than Casey Anthony. Her pain and suffering on television brings us delight and makes us feel good in that we are not the monster that the media has portrayed her out to be...sigh.

Matt Wild wrote a piece called The guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures of Dateline NBC and in it he stated

...for an alarming number of Americans—myself included—Dateline has become appointment viewing. Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and their ilk are fine, but there’s a distinct, guilty pleasure in staying home on a Friday night, dimming the lights, sounding off on Twitter with other likeminded fans, and watching the sordid true-life tales of murderous spouses (usually husbands), sorrowful family members (usually parents), and sinister motives (almost always infidelity) unspool over the course of an hour, all narrated by the stern and sonorous Morrison, or the rumpled and incredulous Mankiewicz. Murder, shattered families, and desperate cries for justice: perfect for a cozy night of popcorn, wine, and incessant tweeting.

So you have a question to answer for me:

How does the concept of Schadenfreude apply to the Casey Anthony trial? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media?

Tomorrow our focus will be on Nancy Grace and her coverage of the trial.

C Block Human Geography 11 - Today we'll be in the library for our recipe activity. Don't forget you need to:

• Select a recipe that is associated with a particular culture, ethnic, nation, or other type of region. The best candidate is one of your favorite family recipes that has been passed down through the generations. 
• Write the individual ingredients for the recipe in detail (as if from scratch). If you don’t have a copy of the recipe you will need to interview a person that does by phone or e-mail. 
• Research on the Internet where the ingredients were originally domesticated. If there are certain ingredients that have not been domesticated, find their natural habitat (shrimp, cranberries, etc.). Research the domestication of animals (cows, chickens, etc.).
• Create a map showing the diffusion of the ingredients into your recipe region. Print a blank world map of the Internet.
• Write two paragraphs on how our region’s food has been influenced by diffusion/ migration (the Old Silk Road or Columbian Exchange). Discuss the climate and land use of the region where your ethnic dish is from.