10 Questions For Sarah

1. What different countries have you traveled to?
2. What part of Egypt do you live in?
3. Does your country already have a new "president" in mind?
4. Will this change you're whole government or just your president/vp?
5.  Do you think this will change the amount of unemployement in your country?
6. Did you participate in the walk on January 25th?
7.  Do you plan on staying in egypt for the rest of your life?
8. Have you ever been to America?
9. Do you think a lot of the rules will change when a new government officer step in?
10. At what age did you start learning english?

February 23, 2011

Today in Western Civilization we listened to raps on Egypt.  I found them to be very funny!  Also, we started talking about what was going on there, as far as the leader being thrown out of office.  We watched a mini documentary on a citizen named "Gigi's" perspective.

February 17, 2011

Today in Western Civilization class, we made power points on all that is Egypt.  


Notes on Egypt:

1. King Tut (Tutankhamen) - Pharaoh of Egypt during the 18th dynasty
2. Hieroglyphics - formal writing system used by ancient Egypt written by scribes
   Used figures like animals, objects & people
3. 3 Types of Hieroglyphics - Ideogram, Phonogram, Pictogram
4. The Nile is THE main river of Egypt

Absent

I have been absent from school on Monday the 14th, (Valentines day) Tuesday the 15th, and Wednesday the 16th, because I went to Madison Square Gardens in NEW YORK CITTTTTTTTTTTTY!

Pyramids

February 11, 2011

Today in our western civilization class, we started to research ancient Egypt.  My group decided to learn about the pyramids.  Do you know who built the pyramids?  You we're probably going to say the slaves right?  Wrong!  The pyramids were actually built by permanent employee's of the pharaoh.  Although it is possible that women helped build the pyramids, there are no ancient depictions of women builders.

Essay Test Question

February 10, 2011

Topic:  Discuss the significance of a food surplus.

Chasing the Food

What are the three basic necessities of life?  Water, food and shelter.  Remember back when you had to travel all over continents to find the yummy nutritious wheat?  Just kidding, you don’t, you aren’t that old.  A food surplus in a newly civilized area or when a civilization is being created is a big deal and holds great significance.  So much can change or stay actually, due to the amount of food available.

                Nomads would follow the food.   Before there was ever such thing as a civilization or “building,” people would travel with the time of year, to wherever the greatest amount of food was.  Other than the change in climate, the nomads would also have to build only temporary shelters.  The people of this time were never able to rest because they were always doing something whether it was hunting, gathering or building.  Geographically, some places were capable of doing more than others, but for the most part it was all the same. 

                When a surplus in food comes about to a civilization, you are able to change your way of life.  You can build a more permanent shelter because you don’t have to keep walking to find the food anymore, and you don’t have to keep rebuilding shelters to live in while doing this.  Finally, you can stay in one place for a while.  This means that people can do separate jobs and eliminate the amount of time they have to work, and increase the amount of relaxation they have in a day.  Food surplus was the beginning of advancing the world, because it gave people the time to create things such as clothing and many more ideas.  

February 9, 2011

Today in Western Civilization we started off the class by reviewing for our test we are about to have that covers Papua New Guinea (Civilized and Non-Civilized) as well as Guns, Germs and Steel. Also, we discussed the importance of domesticated animals. A social hierarchy is important in a “pack” of the group. If you can tame the animal at the top of the hierarchy, you’ve got them all. Also, we talked about Jarod Diamond’s relation to this trip/documentary. Wrapping things up, we basically talked about Papua New Guinea’s Transformation towards the 21’st century.

February 7, 2011

Today in western civilization we learned nothing about western civilization.  We are two days further ahead, than the rest of the classes, so Mr. Schick gave us the day to catch up on any work we needed to catch up with in any class we need.  THANK YOU SO MUCH.

February 4, 2011

Today in our Western Civilization class, we continued searching the internet (most "CIA" world fact book), to find more information on modern Papua New Guinea, with partners. About half way through the class we started sharing our information with the rest of the class. An important thing I learned was that they live in a democracy; this surprised me after watching Guns, Germs and Steel. I was shocked that they had a government at all. The information we found on Papua New Guinea seems very different than the footage we saw in the movie. Also, it was surprising to read that mostly all of their population practices some type of Christianity.

February 3, 2011

Today was student appreciation day at John Carroll!  My western civilization teacher brought in cookies for everyone then continued to make fun of me for showing dogs, ha-ha.  After this, we finished watching Guns, Germs and Steel.  In this movie I learned that despite having some of the most nutritious crops on the planet, the Fertile Crescent’s climate was too dry to continue the intensive farming, which was occurring.  To sum up Diamond’s conclusion, he believes that the world has been split into haves and have not’s due to their region they’ve been put into, in the world.

February 2, 2011

Today in our Western Civilization class, we reviewed what we went over on Monday, before our snow day off.  Shortly after, we continued on watching Guns, Germs and Steel.  A large step into civilization in the Middle East was the domestication of nature.  Humans started to control the animals breeding and eating.  There are no native animals in Papua New Guinea, so there was no way of using a plow.  The only type of power in the area is with humans.  Papua New Guinea has the issue of the lack of food/nutrition, so it would be even more difficult to feed your animals as well as the “community.” 

List of domesticatable animals over 100 pounds:

1.            Pigs

2.            Goats

3.            Sheep

4.            Horses

5.            Camels

6.            Camels

7.            Water Buffalo

8.            Donkeys

9.            Llamas

10.          Reindeer

11.          Yaks

12.          Mithans

13.          Cows

14.          Bali Cattle 

No School

February 1, 2011

No school - Snow day