D/C Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - On Thursday morning for D Block Benton and I will take you back down to Towhee Creek looking at the lower portion of the stream from Headquarters Road through the Comox Valley Exhibition Grounds to the mouth at the Tsolum River. Remember this is not just a walk along the course of the creek. Benton and I are asking you to map out (inventory) some things and make notes about what you see. Your goal "on the river" is to collect as much scientific data as you can during one short day. Don't get distracted, remember that the purpose of the day is gather observations that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy? - our assessment. For C Block there are assemblies. Since most of you are grade 11 the assembly will be between 10:35 and 11:05. After the assembly you will have time to start the production of your Towhee Creek mapping activity. Check out yesterday's blog for help as well as:
Remember your purpose is to graphically depict scientific data (your observations) that will help answer the "big question" Is this creek healthy?
Data that doesn't answer the question doesn't go on the map!
Friday afternoon is all mapping all day. We will have three computers for you to use for data verification or resource collection. Benton will share stories of map conflict with colouring and clarity. Here is the map you can trace on the overhead/white board thingy
B Block Human Geography - On Thursday we'll go back to the themes by looking at our key question Why is each point on Earth unique? We'll figure out the difference between place and region (hint think scale) and talk about toponyms, (Check out the first two names on this Mental Floss article) site and situation and look at the differences between formal, functional and vernacular regions. So, what's in a name? Why do we name things and what does that say about what we believe in and how we see our connection to the world?
From the Province of BC Geographical Names website:
Geographical names are essential for communication and navigation but also represent much more. They reflect the values of communities or decision makers at the times the names were created and continue to influence how we view, understand, interact with, and remember places and their histories.
From the article Euro-Settler Place Naming Practices for North America through a Gendered and Racialized Lens
Toponyms articulate the socio-economic, political, and cultural history of a place as well as the taxonomies of power that influence every moment of a place name’s existence, particularly in terms of how the name is spelled, pronounced, and the language(s) from which it originates, in addition to the meaning of the name itself...Not unlike the bestowing of names upon children by their parents, place nomenclature implies a relationship invested with the authority to not only name, but also to claim the named as belonging to the namer.
So names are connected to place and give an identity (we talked about this yesterday). The “sense of place” that humans possess may apply to a larger area of Earth rather than to a specific point. A person may feel attachment as a native or resident of Black Creek, or of the Comox Valley, or the area of attachment could encompass Vancouver Island or British Columbia. You have the rest of the block today to work on the following:
- Find the names of two Canadian cities that have changed their names and explain why they changed their names
- How do people shape places? How do places shape people?
To help with question the question on place:
On Friday we'll start our look at the Key Question: Why Are Different Places Similar? To do this we will look at Globalization in terms of culture and economy. Since we are completing a cultural/human geography course what does globalization mean and what is globalized culture? So, from the World Economic Forum:
In simple terms, globalization is the process by which people and goods move easily across borders. Principally, it's an economic concept – the integration of markets, trade and investments with few barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations. There is also a cultural element, as ideas and traditions are traded and assimilated...Globalization has speeded [sic] up enormously over the last half-century, thanks to great leaps in technology. The internet has revolutionized connectivity and communication, and helped people share their ideas much more widely, just as the invention of the printing press did in the 15th century.Think about McDonald's. How many countries is Dons in? According to the McDonald's Corporation website (as of January 2022), McDonald's has 38,000 locations in 100 countries (out of the 195 countries that the United Nations recognizes). That is a really big company that spans the globe with a fairly consistent menu. How does McDonald's try to retain some local culture in their global brand? Check out:
The Craziest McDonald's Menu Items Around the World
Here's what it's like to eat at McDonald's in 7 countries around the world
25 Craziest McDonald's Menu Items From Around The World
What International McDonald’s Menus Can Tell Us About Diets Around The World
So, globalization is about how people and places are connected and how they influence each other. In the last twenty years inexpensive mobile phone technology and the Internet have spread ideas faster around the world. How does that affect culture? From the United Nations:
The current era of globalization, with its unprecedented acceleration and intensification in the global flows of capital, labour, and information, is having a homogenizing influence on local culture. While this phenomenon promotes the integration of societies and has provided millions of people with new opportunities, it may also bring with it a loss of uniqueness of local culture, which in turn can lead to loss of identity, exclusion and even conflict
Increasingly uniform cultural preferences produce uniform “global” landscapes of material artifacts and of cultural values. Underlying the uniform cultural landscape is globalization of cultural beliefs and forms, especially religion and language. Globalization of the economy has been led primarily by transnational corporations, sometimes called multinational corporations. Every place in the world is part of the global economy, but globalization has led to more specialization at the local level. Each place plays a distinctive role, based on its local assets.
So, you'll have a few questions to work on for me today including:
- In what ways has the communications revolution played a role in globalization?
- Why might some group(s) of people oppose globalism or globalization?
Also, look at the following articles:
A Block Criminology - On Thursday 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.
So, using the text and your brains you need to come up with a list of things that of things that are deviant but not criminal and a list of things that are criminal but not deviant. Then, you'll need to take one act from either list and explain why it should be criminalized or why it should be decriminalized. This should be based on an evaluation of harm...in other words how deviant or not is the action? If the action would cause great social harm then perhaps we should criminalize that behaviour. If the action causes minimal social harm then perhaps we should decriminalize that behaviour. 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.
So, using the text and your brains you need to come up with a list of things that of things that are deviant but not criminal and a list of things that are criminal but not deviant. Then, you'll need to take one act from either list and explain why it should be criminalized or why it should be decriminalized. This should be based on an evaluation of harm...in other words how deviant or not is the action? If the action would cause great social harm then perhaps we should criminalize that behaviour. If the action causes minimal social harm then perhaps we should decriminalize that behaviour. 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.
From the 2020 Model United Nations activity regarding the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
As shown above, “the varieties of deviance” (i.e. actions that violate social norms) are considered on three interacting variables: evaluation of social harm, agreement about the norm, and severity of societal response. 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. Through law creation these actions are codified, public opinion and society’s morality are expressed, and avenues for social control and the prevention of activity society deems inappropriate are provided.
This will help us understand the Conflict, Interactionist and Consensus views on crime.
BC Open School Intro Sociology text Chapter 7
Relationship between Deviance and Crime (Jlaw)
Cliff Notes Theories of Deviance
BC Open School Intro Sociology text Chapter 7
Relationship between Deviance and Crime (Jlaw)
Cliff Notes Theories of Deviance
On Friday we'll watch the really cool video on the roots of violence from NOVA called Inside the Mind of a Rampage Killer...
What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide any clues as to how to prevent them in the future? As the nation tries to understand the tragic events at Newtown, NOVA correspondent Miles O’Brien separates fact from fiction, investigating new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die. Could suicide–and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory–be the main motivation? How much can science tell us about the violent brain? Most importantly, can we recognize dangerous minds in time—and stop the next Newtown?
After, hopefully, we'll discuss what we've seen with the nature/nurture concept in terms of criminality.
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