Tuesday 10-30: a new topic --> CULTURE

Hello there!

If you are reading this, it can only mean that have finished your slideshow presentation about population. With that done, we will head into a new topic, CULTURE

The first step -- as ever -- is to get a handle on some basic terms. Here is what to do:

set up an email to be sent to me at mrlarue2013@gmail.com

put your name in the subject line

In the body of the email, type up all the terms and defintions found after this point

send them to me, forthwith

cheers,
Mr. L

PS If you cannot finish this in class, you must finish it up for homework

Tuesday 10-30 : finishing your presentation slideshows from last week

Greetings, one and all, and welcome back!

Today, your task is a simple one, though not necessarily an easy one:

FINISH UP THE SLIDESHOW WHICH YOU BEGAN LAST WEEK

If you are unsure about the directions to be taken in completing this assignment, please consult the blog post(s) from last week.

Make sure to either upload your completed to Box.com, or email it to me as an attachment file

cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 10-25: turning in makeup work, finishing your presentations

Exactly what the title says people. Get 'er done!

Btw, I have sent each of you an email detailing which assignments you owe. 

cheers,
Mr. L

Tuesday 10-23: Creating a presentation for your facts

Greetings, everyone!

Today, you will be performing two separate but related tasks:

A) Getting all the necessary facts and related website addresses together for your theory and the four related definitions from the "definition scavenger hunt" we did week before last

B) Creating a slideshow presentation in Libre Office, Open Office, MS Office --- whatever you have access to

C) This slideshow will need to consist of the following

A title slide which includes Your theory and the four definitions

an authors slide which includes the names of those who have worked on this presentation

At least two or possibly more slides at the end to hold all the website addresses where you found your information

Enough slides in between to comfortably hold the facts you have found. Usually, I recommend listing no more than two or three facts per slide, simply because it will either take up too much space, or you will have to make the text so tiny I can't even see it. Neither result is desirable 

Whatever color schemes, transitions, special effects that will make your presentation easy to use and fun to go through

So, what are you waiting for? Let's get it started!

cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 10-22: Continuing on with the work we did last Thursday

Its a pretty simple goal for today: begin finishing up what we started last Thursday.

Nothing more complicated than that

cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 10-18: making use of your online resources

When last we met, you had already (theoretically at least) done the following:

A) chosen a theory about a population to explore further, either one of mine which I offered, or something which you created on your own

B) chosen at least four terms from the "definition scavenger hunt" of last week to apply to that theory of yours

C) located not less than twelve good online sources of information to help support your theory, basing the web searches for those websites on the terms from part "B" above

D) began reading those 12 sources of information

Today, you start putting those sources to good use. Here is what you need to do:l

1) put your name and the phrase "3 facts per source" in the subject line

2) in the main body of the email please at least three facts that will work to support your theory PER WEBSITE

3) You must put the EXACT WEBPAGE ADDRESS of where you got each set of three facts.

4) This does not mean that you list www.blahblahblah.com as the "exact website address". Do this, and I will send it sailing back to you to fix it up.

5) along with those three facts and the accompanying exact website address, you must include at least one complete sentence demonstrating how these facts support your theory

6) you cannot use the same complete sentence over and over again 

7) yes, its a lot of reading. Quit whining, its unattractive

Send this email my way

cheers,
Mr. L

Tues 10-16: the students' choice, part two

Aloha my friends!

Today, you will be continuing the work which you began yesterday. By now, you should have completed your task of identifying all the terms and definitions from the "scavenger hunt" we held last week. 

The next step was to lay out a path of discovery of your own choosing, where you proved your comprehension of at least four of the terms we defined by applying them to a real world theory about population. 

Remember, you could have chosen any one of the theories I proposed -- see yesterday's blog post for details --  or come up with one of your own.

Also recall that you are supposed to send me an email telling me which theory you are investigating  and which four terms you are going to make use of in that investigation. I am still awaiting this email from most of you

If you are, in fact, done with all these preparatory steps listed above, you will need to gather at least three good online sources of information to do with each term you are applying to your theory. That would make a total of twelve

Send all twelve of these website addresses -- along with a brief explanation for each one of them, explaining why you believe it  will contribute to your investigation -- to me at my email address at mrlarue2013@gmail.com

From there, start reading the actual content of your sources. Find out what they are saying. You have two hours -- make good use of them!

cheers,
Mr. L

Mon 10-15: the students choice

Greetings and welcome back from your weekend!

Today, you will be undertaking two different but related tasks:


A) You will be finishing up the "definitions scavenger hunt" which we began at the end of last week. Make sure that you have carefully defined all terms, then sent this information on to me, either through email or by uploading it to Box.com


B)  From there, you will be fanning out to explore different aspects of how these terms apply to the worldwide growth and movement of human populations. You must apply at least four definitions you found to one topic of discovery that you have chosen or created.

C) Here are some possible choices that you could pursue; please understand that if you don't like what I'm offering, come up with something of your own:

• The role of disease in human history. Pick any time period up to and including the present. For example, the definitions list included HIV/AIDS as the great epidemic of modern times.... what other epidemic diseases have had a big impact on human history? How were those diseases affected by the movements of people from one place to the next
• Do civilizations have "life cycles" that have a direct impact on human population movement and growth? In other words, are civilizations born, grow up, mature, then eventually die? If so, where is the United States in this cycle? Where is Europe? Where is the rest of the world?
• Does new technology cause population growth, or is it a response to it?
• Are people more likely to move towards a place that has already grown in population, or one that is continuing to grow?

Whether you create a path of discovery of your own, or decide to follow one of my suggested courses of action, please send me an email detailing who you are and what you are pursuing. Then, spend the remainder of this class gathering any resources you may need to look at what you wish to study in more depth cheers, Mr. L

Thurs 10-11: people are everywhere

Greetings, O most talented and amazing ones!

Today, we are going to learn some important terms related to the study of population. Prior to now, we have been looking exclsuively at the movement of population inside America, but now we will begin going worldwide.

It occurred to me that, rather than simply presenting notes for you to type up, I would have you perform a sort of "scavenger hunt" through a presentation I have in my possession

The presentation can be found HERE

and these questions go with this presentation. So to start with today, each of you, INDIVIDUALLY, will answer these questions in a simple text document, then copy and paste that text document into the body of an email. In the subject line, put your name, plus the phrase "people are everywhere"

Remember, even if you are not completely finished with this by the end of class today, you need to send what you have actually got accomplished. The rest you will need to do for homework between now and the next time this class meets, which I believe is next Monday

PS -- Some of you still need to finish up previous assignments and then hand them in. Please do so as expeditiously as possible. Make sure that assignments are INSIDE your blue folder on Box.com, and that the names of all involved are clearly noted

In any event, here are the questions:

What is "Ecumene" ?

Define the following terms -->
Population Density
Arithmetic Density
Physiological density
Agricultural density

Define Crude Birth Rate & Crude Death Rate
Natural Increase Rate --> how do you calculate the NIR?

There is a slide that includes a graph showing the NIR between 1950 and 2010
Has this rate increased or decreased? What effect has this had on world population?

According to the graph on slide 30 in what year did ther world's population start increasing much more quickly than it had in the past? Why do you say this is so


Define Total Fertility Rate

How do you calculate the Infant Mortality Rate?

What is life expectancy?

There is a slide which includes a "population pyramid"
 for the nation of Sudan. Please list all the different kinds of information you can glean from this "pyramid"

 Using this information, what could you tell about a pyramid that is really wide at its base (bottom)? What can you tell about a pyramid that is really tall? Really short?


 There is a really long and incredibly tedious explanation for what is meant by "demographic transition model". Tell me, in your own words, what the heck this sort of model is saying.

 This model also includes four basic stages of population growth: one that has low growth, then high growth, then moderate growth, then back to low growth

 They also include a fifth stage. What is this stage all about, what part of the world does it apply to, and what do you think will happen to this region of the world as a result?


 What did Thomas Malthus have to say about population growth?

 Have his predictions come true?

 What do his supporters and critics believe happened to effect Malthus' theory?

 Where do you stand? Are you a supporter or a critic?

 How have food production and disease affected population growth at the four basic stages listed in the demographic transition model above?

 Random thought: do you believe the current fascination with zombie movies in America is because we might be entering the (possible) fifth stage?

 What is the largest epidemic disease of modern times?

 Based on the three definitions provided about migration, assign a definition to each of the migration examples on slide 73

 Some migrations are voluntary while others are forced. There is a slide that lists examples of forced migration.

Please list examples of forced migration that are NOT listed here.  (Hint: any time there is a war, you've got forced migration. Ditto for a mass tyranny, like Germany under Hitler, or China or Russia under the Communists)

According to Ravenstein's Laws of Voluntary migration, who is more likely to move from this country to another country: one of the students here, or one of the teachers? Why do you say so?

Go ten years into the future for the above question: now what do you think the result might be? Why do you say so?

What are some characteristics of long distance migrants? What kind of people are they more likely to be?
Why do you suppose that this is the case? Have at least one (complete sentence) reason for each characteristic


What area of the world are people most likely to emigrate to?
What might cause this to change? Use your imagination, and think the unthinkable

"Internal migration" refers to migration from one part of a country to another
What region of America has had the most internal migration?

Why do you suppose this is so?

Tuesday 10 -9: LAST CALL, please!

Today, you will have advantages which you did not have yesterday:

A) You will have a full two hours

B) You will have available machines, either the ones I and some of your fellow students have rebuilt, or some Mac laptops from the lab

C) By now, you should know what you need to create: a document with not less than sixty facts, derived from not less than 30 good websites, which were generated by five good websearches, all designed to help support or disprove at least one of three theories you have created about why population moves around the United States as it does

GET THIS DONE. UPLOAD YOUR WORK TO BOX.COM.  We will be discussing your findings this Thursday

cheers,

Mr. L

Monday 10-8 : 60 minutes in an hour, 60 facts to do with your theories

Greetings one and all,

Today, you need to be able to finish gathering not less than sixty (60) facts that either support or disprove one of more of your theories. These facts must be derived from one of the websites you located using the five web searches you created last week.

Each fact must be paired with the exact webpage where you located this fact.

Each pair of fact/website must be part of one document, which you shall name after yourself, plus the phrase "Population 60"

Please get this file to me by either Box.com or by email attachment 

Cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 10-4: finish your website gathering from the day before yesterday, then....

...proceed to make use of the websites you have gathered. Here is what you need to do:

A) Create a new document named "Just the Facts" plus your name. This is where you will record everything you discover today

B) Beginning with the first website you have gathered, read the information they provide. Try to find at least two solid facts that either support or disprove one of your theories.

Remember, even if you disprove something which you thought might be true, this still counts towards your goal. Oftentimes, it is by eliminating the false that we find the truth

C) Record both the two facts which you discovered, plus the EXACT WEBSITE ADDRESS where you found them in the document you just created today

D) Below those two facts, tell me which theory of yours they apply to

E) While reading through these websites, if you find one that really doesn't do jack squat to help further your understanding of what we're studying, then scrap it and get a replacement website

F) Repeat steps A through E for your remaining websites

Please note that YES, this IS a total of sixty facts. Your theories will need support after all

Be sure to upload this document to your folder at Box.com

cheers,
Mr. L

Tues 10-2 : making use of your web searches

Aloha!!!

Yesterday, you were tasked with the assignment of creating not less than five different possible web searches. Each of these web searches was designed to help provide answers to some ideas you have formulated as to why population has moved about the various regions that comprise America

Today, you will actually initiate these searches to see what you can find. Here is what you need to do:

A) Conduct your first search

B) From this search, gather at least six possible websites that you might be able to use to answer any of your possible theories.

C) These websites must have something to do with the theories you have put forward

D) They must be able to provide useful information that you can understand and make use of

E) Repeat A through D for each of your four remaining web searches

F) All information gathered in this fashion must be emailed to me. You will need to put your first and last name and the phrase "population websites" in the subject line

That will be all

cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 10-1: why are they moving there? part three

OK, so here''s the score so far:

You've got a list of the top 20 cities in the USA by decade for the entire 20th century

This list includes the regions they are in

This list alos includes the top population for each city in RED BOLD TYPE

This list also includes the number of cities from each region

PLUS

some theories as to why this is happening.

Whew!!!!

Now for the hard part :-)

I want you to create at least five different searches that you could perform on any search engine -- Google, Bing, Ask, etc etc.

Phrase these searches in any fashion you want. Try to think of how to ask the correct question to find some answers for your theories

When you are done, add that to the document you've been working on, and then send it my way!

cheers,
Mr. L