Thursday, September 15. 2022

Today's schedule is is DCBA

D/C Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - Benton and I are asking you to map out (inventory/quantify/process/measure/interpret/evaluate/conclude) the data and questions about what you saw along Towhee Creek from source to mouth (Garry Oaks to Tsolum River). Your goal "on the river" was to gather and collect as much scientific data as you could through observation and inference that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy? - which is our assessment. We want you to assess and evaluate the physical features of the Towhee Creek system and look at the impact of a river drainage system on water quality seen through soil, slope, and flow. We also want you to consider the effects of agriculture, development, and transportation on Towhee Creek and water resources (so you're going to have to think beyond the bed and banks of the creek, past the riparian zone, and on to the surrounding areas). 

So to do this, you are representing the data you gathered in a graphic format (encoding rather than decoding). This means we are asking you to transfer spatial information to a cartographic product AKA a Map! You need to choose WHAT information is relevant to tell the story (which is your assessment of the creek's health). Your objective is to explain your views on the health of Towhee Creek graphically. First you'll need to determine what it is that makes a stream healthy. To that end check out:

Home Tips for Healthy Streams

When it comes to stream health, land use and protection matter

What makes a healthy stream? 

Steam Health

A New Way of Understanding What Makes a River Healthy

Stream (National Geographic explanation)

How do I recognize a healthy stream?

From Penn State GEOG 486 Cartography and Visualization

When making a map, it is impossible to map everything. In fact, to be a useful model of our world and of any phenomena in it, maps must always obscure, simplify, and/or embellish reality. These actions—which make maps useful—also make their construction subjective. Cartographic design, even when informed by well-established conventions, is an art as much as a science. Every design choice a cartographer makes ultimately influences the map readers’ comprehension, appreciation—and even trust—of the map that he or she creates. The way in which you design a map can deeply influence how your readers interpret it. A well-designed map can intrigue and even surprise its readers, leaving a meaningful and memorable impression. When discussing how people interpret maps, we can frame this discussion in terms of perception, cognition, and behavior.

Perception in map design refers to the reader’s immediate response to map symbology (e.g., instant recognition that symbols are different hues) (Slocum et al. 2009).

Cognition occurs when map readers incorporate that perception into conscious thought, and thus combine it with their own knowledge (Slocum et al. 2009). For example, readers might be able to interpret a weather radar map without its legend due to their previous experience with a similar map, or might incorporate knowledge of a map’s topic into their interpretation of a visual data distribution (e.g., the higher concentration of people aged 65+ shown in some Florida cities makes sense given what I know about retirement communities).

Behavior refers to actions that go beyond just thinking about maps. Considering how design may influence behavior is essential in anticipating the real-world effects your maps may have. The way a map is designed can influence its readers’ actions and decision-making, and these decisions may range from small (e.g., for how many seconds will the reader look at this map?) to great (e.g., will this flood-risk map convince the reader to purchase insurance?). 

 Remember your purpose is to graphically depict scientific data (your observations) that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy?

If you want to go Analogue...we'll have paper for you and if you'd like to go digital we'll have a computers for you...in that vein

Use Story Map in Knight Lab and you can use Mapbox to help. You can also create a custom map using Google My Maps or in Google Earth online as well

Ten Things to Consider When Making a Map

Elements of a Map

Principles of Cartographic Design

Also don't forget the headwaters are in our Garry Oak ecosystem. In Canada, Garry Oak Ecosystems are found only on the east side of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and a few isolated patches on the mainland. They are restricted to this limited geographic area because of the unique climatic conditions found here. Once common in coastal areas of southwestern BC, less than 5% of these ecosystems now remain in a near-natural condition. They are of cultural significance to First Nations and also provide many unrecognized benefits such as habitat for insects that act as pollinators or eat aphids, or homes for Sharp-tailed Snakes that eat garden slugs. Garry Oak and associated ecosystems are high in biodiversity – in fact, they are the richest land-based ecosystems in coastal BC. They are also some of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems, and are home to more than 100 species of plants, mosses, lichens, animals, and invertebrates at risk. The endangered status of Garry Oak ecosystems in Canada results from three main causes:

Habitat loss due to conversion of land for urban, industrial, and agricultural purposes. These losses are largely irreversible.

Habitat fragmentation, whereby once-connected habitat patches have become isolated and reduced in size. This partitioning has negative impacts on species persistence and ecosystem integrity. Fragmentation of habitats prevents dispersal and genetic interchange among populations of plants and animals, and reduces the size of habitat patches so much that they can no longer support the full complement of Garry Oak ecosystem species.

Habitat degradation results mostly from the spread of invasive species and the loss of natural disturbance regimes, such as fire. Consequently, even the small remnants of Garry Oak ecosystems are compromised and continue to be degraded by a variety of human activities.

When considering the health of the headwaters of Towhee Creek (the Garry Oak Ecosystem), you should be looking for physical attributes, biological features or processes, and potential impacts on the site (e.g., erosion of this soils on rock outcrops because of an inappropriately placed trail). Photographs can provide a visual baseline for evaluating the success of management activities

What Are Garry Oak & Associated Ecosystems?

Garry Oak Ecosystems

Coastal Oakscapes

Garry Oak Ecosystems

You'll have today, some of tomorrow and maybe a bit of Tuesday for this. Your map is due next Wednesday (September 21, 2022).

B Block Legal Studies - Today we'll see what rights that you have guaranteed through various legal documents in Canada (including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms the Canadian Human Rights Act and the BC Human Rights Code a great BC Human Rights Code pdf/booklet can be found here). Charter rights are not absolute and can be infringed if the Courts determine that the infringement is reasonably justified. We'll look at the three sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that limit your individual rights (Reasonable Limits, Notwithstanding Clause and Where the Charter Applies). Next in partners I'll have you work on the R. v. Oakes (1986) case (discuss it in partners do not write the answers) which established the "Oakes Test" in Canadian law which allows reasonable limitations on rights and freedoms through legislation if it can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. 

David Edwin Oakes was charged with possession of drugs, and possession with the intent to traffic. At the time of the trial, a person charged with drug possession was automatically charged with possession with the intent to traffic. If a person was found guilty of possession of drugs, s. 8 of the Narcotic Control Act (NCA) (now called the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act) placed the onus on the person charged to prove that there was no intent to traffic. If the accused could not prove lack of intent, the accused would automatically be found guilty of the charge. 

Mr. Oakes challenged this section of the NCA as an infringement of his s. 11(d) Charter right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The SCC found that s. 8 of the NCA violated s. 11(d) of the Charter. The Court then considered whether the government could justify this infringement under s. 1 of the Charter. Section 1 requires the government to show that the law in question is a reasonable limit on Charter rights, which can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. The Court found that the government failed to satisfy s. 1 of the Charter, and as a result, held that s. 8 of the NCA was of no force or effect

So, the Oakes Test is a two-step balancing test to determine whether a government can justify a law which limits a Charter right. The government must establish that the law under review has a goal that is both “pressing and substantial.” The law must be both important and necessary (Step One). Next, the court then conducts a proportionality analysis using three sub-tests (Step Two). The government must first establish that the provision of the law which limits a Charter right is rationally connected to the law’s purpose. If it is arbitrary or serves no logical purpose, then it will not meet this standard. Secondly, a provision must minimally impair the violated Charter right. A provision that limits a Charter right will be constitutional only if it impairs the Charter right as little as possible or is “within a range of reasonably supportable alternatives.” Finally, the court examines the law’s proportionate effects. Even if the government can satisfy the above steps, the effect of the provision on Charter rights may be too high a price to pay for the advantage the provision would provide in advancing the law’s purpose.

We'll chat about it afterwards using these questions:

1. Do you think there should ever be limits to Charter rights? Why or why not?
2. Describe a situation where an infringement of a right would be justified.
3. Describe a situation where an infringement of a Charter right would not be justified?
4. What do you think about the courts’ role in deciding whether an infringement of a right can be justified?
5. What happens if the government cannot show that a Charter infringement is justified (i.e. it does not satisfy the elements of the s. 1 analysis)? 

 

Top 10 Charter Cases: As Revealed at the Symposium on the 25th Anniversary of the Charter

A Block Criminology - Thank you very much for the discussion yesterday, with the nature/nurture concept, I really appreciate your willingness to engage in the topics we're looking at. Today we'll look at the difference between deviance and criminal behaviour (acts that are criminal but not deviant and deviant but not criminal). What is deviant behaviour? A simple explanation of deviant behaviour could be any action that violates cultural norms (formal norms like laws - or informal norms like nose picking). This is a difficult concept because what an individual or sub culture in society defines as deviant is contextually situated (meaning what I think is deviant may be different for you; it is subjective - influenced by personal considerations).

  

Take smoking in public. You may think that this behaviour is acceptable because an individual has the choice to consume a cigarette and they are merely harming themselves...no problem right? You may, however, think this behaviour is unacceptable. Second-hand smoke is hurtful to others because they could be harmed by someone else's behaviour. So what is deviant in many cases is subjective. What is criminal is the codification of what a society as a whole deems as deviant. Homicide is criminal because as a society we believe that taking another life is unacceptable and deviates from the accepted cultural norm that we wish our country to be like.

To end the class, using the text and your brains you need to come up with a list of things that are deviant but not criminal and a list of things that are criminal but not deviant