Nestled away, in the back corner of G.P. Vanier, you'll find room 115 (we used to be 611). Lurking in the shadows of this room is Mr. Young...waiting to pounce on unsuspecting students and natter on about volcanoes, hail, psychopathy, criminal law defenses, cultural diffusion, media theories, crime, and urban models of city development. He loves his job in 115 and can't wait to work with you this year.
A Block Criminology - Today, to start the class, I would like you back in your pod/groupings where I'll give you a handout to help you with crime theories and I'd like your group to see where your crime theory categorized clusters (similar categories) fit in terms of Choice, Trait, Social Structure, Social Learning, and Conflict theories. The goal of criminological theory is to help one gain an understating of crime and criminal justice. Many disciplines factor into criminological theories, such as psychology, sociology, biology, political science, and criminal justice. Theories cover the making and the breaking of the law, criminal and deviant behavior, as well as patterns of criminal activity. Individual theories may be either macro or micro. Theories can be used to guide policy making, and can be evaluated on a number of criteria including: clarity, scope, parsimony (concise), testability, practical usefulness, and empirical validity. Many theories have common traits, but differences among them still exist. Understanding these differences is key to understanding the often contradictory views of crime and deviance they try to explain. Some good theories explanation videos can be found here at Criminology Web on Youtube. You could also look at the video from Rachael Means below
B Block Human Geography - You have two questions to work on for me today:
Describe the four types of distortion AND for each type of distortion explain which type of map projection you would use to best minimize the distortion.
GPS is most commonly used for navigation. Pilots of aircraft and ships stay on course with GPS. On land, GPS detects a vehicle’s current position, the motorist programs the desired destination, and GPS provides instructions on how to reach the destination. So, in your everyday life how do you use GPS and how does it affect your activities?
To help with question 1, check out yesterday's videos on map distortions and the following websites
Map Projections from the USGS (look at page 2 of the pdf - it looks like this
Now, there are a lot of good maps and a whole lot of bad maps in the world. One of the most important characteristics that distinguish good maps from bad is Clarity / Legibility. This means that the reader should be able to understand the map and be able to read it. So, here are some Mistakes to avoid when Creating Maps
Over complicating the map with too much information.
Misrepresenting the information, using the wrong symbols.
Missing essential components, like a compass, legend, or scale.
Missing important or useful information
Not using proper colours and fonts to make sure that the map is legible.
Of course you could just be factually wrong
Or maddingly cluttered and confusing
Or you could have too much writing
Or you lack colour differentiation
Or you could layer too much information and have too much colour
To help with question 2, watch these videos about GPS and Atomic Clocks
C/D Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - Benton and I are asking you to map out (that means to inventory, quantify, measure, process, interpret, evaluate, and conclude) data and questions about what you find along Towhee Creek from source to mouth (Garry Oaks to Tsolum River). Your goal "on the river" is to gather and collect as much scientific data as you can 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 gather 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. Today, you are focusing on the headwaters, which 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.
Deep soil Garry oak ecosystems592ha in 180018ha in 2003
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
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