Feb 28

Today in class we went over our test that we took a long time ago.  I don't think I did the best on that test but going through it the second time I knew more of the answers.  I guess I wasn't nervous the second time.  I really don't know what else to say on this post...

Feb 25

Today was the day we talked to Sarah Mourad.  She was really nice and very helpful.  For the first half and hour we talked about what questions we were going to ask her.  Everyone had very good questions.  One I thought was pretty good was if she thought that the revolution still would have happened without Facebook. When we finally did get to talk to her we asked her all our questions.  She went into such depth when she answered and you could tell she was really passionate and happy with what had happed with her country.  It was a great way to learn more about the revolt.  It was definitely w great experience.

Revolution in Cario

Did they have meetings to set the whole thing up?

How did they organize it?

How did they inform everyone when and how it was going to help?

Did he ever come out?

What was it like being there when all of that wat happening?

Was everyone going crazy?

Where was Mubarak when all this was happening?

How long did the prayers last when they had to stop and pray?

Did you know anyone that was beaten or killed during this whole thing?

Where were all the kids and elderly people while this was happening?

Hosni Mubarak

• he gets himself elected every time
• first time elected 1981
• no one wants to run against him because someone got sentences for 5 yrs of hard labor
• if they threaten the government then the government might arrest you

Feb 23

Today in class we presented our raps.  They were really funny to watch.  Ours was pretty good i thought.  I worked with Brynly, Tasha, and Brad.  Ours was the only in our class to do a video.  Then we started talking about Egypt and their revolt.  Now Mr. Schick is trying to get someone he knows on Facebook in Egypt to come chat with us on Skype on Friday.  I think that would be really cool because she is in another country. We are suppose to make up questions to ask her too.  Here are some questions I would ask:

What was it like being there when all of that wat happening?

Was everyone going crazy?

Did he ever come out to calm everyone down?

Egyptian Rap

Today were singing an ancient Egypt rhyme

It is gunna take all you people back in time 

Ancient Egypt is a place with pyramids and things

They hold shiny jewelry and old dead kings  

These pyramids are houses of eternity

With hidden trap doors for added security

The pyramids are built form large stones

They were used to bury their thrones

  

Twenty years in the making

Pyramid at Giza is the seventh wonder remaining

Pharaohs were people that ruled the land

They had servants that answered their every command 

Needed lots of slave to help through the making

When their kings time is slowly fading

King Tut, Khufu, and Cleopatra

Lived their lives like a soap opera

Murder, betrayal, and wealth

Pharaohs were not always in good health

Hieroglyphics are how they write

To do this they had to be very bright 

The people who write these are called scribes

They did not always have go gibe

Hieroglyphics use figures like animals and people

This is the way they try and make it simple

They used pictures according to the way they sound

Hieroglyphs are how word got around

Their  longest river is the Nile

Used for transportation and their main lifestyle

It is also used for drinking water

Using this made their lives better

The river is used for irrigation

For farming the river was their inspiration

As we come back to reality

We know it’s not the best quality

But we tried with all sincerity

To honor the traditions of this great society

This is the end of our egyptian rap

Make sure at the end you remember to clap

Notes on Egypt

Today Mr. Schick came back.  He told us about why he was out and what happened to his daughter.  We also finished up our projects.  We took about 20 minuets to do that so we did not have a lot of time to present.  Only two groups had the time to present so we just took notes on the other people's power points.  Here are some notes on them:

• pyramids were build thousand of years ago
• Sphinx is 150 ft long
• thousands of years after hunting and gathering
• writing used by ancient egypt 
• used as something like a census
• scribes are the people who wrote them
• Nile
• longest river in the world
• the main river in Egypt
• 4184 miles
• contributed to spring floods
• provided irrigation
• used for drinking water
• they knew that every year it was going to flood

Feb 16

Today in class, Mr. Schick was not here.  We actually had two subs.  We had to make a presentation about ancient Egypt. We had to do work with another group, but Tasha and I were the last ones with Lauren and Caitlin so we just joined with them.  We did our project on pyramids and hieroglyphics.  We worked on finishing that all class even though we did not.  I think we will do okay.  It was more of a laid back day because we just worked together quietly.  We will try to finish it tomorrow.

Feb 14

Today in class we were suppose to finish up talking and taking notes on Egypt with our groups.  Since we finished over the weekend, my group didn't have to.  What I did learn from my research is that there are over 2,000 hieroglyphics and they were the first written language of ancient Egypt.  We kind of just sat around and worked on other homework.  I worked on finishing up some of my English homework.  It was a great day to just chill and I was so tired so it helped.  It is also Valentine's Day! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!!! 

Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Pyramids

HIEROGLYPHICS:

·  formal writing system used by ancient Egypt

·  use figures like animals, objects, and people

·  logographic and alphabetic elements

·  they represent real or illusion elements 

·  it is read alone of its visual characteristics

·  mostly written on papyrus paper or on the Pyramids

·  hieroglyphs means "Writing Words of God"

·  before they were used to write on pyramids they used them for recording something like a census

·  use a rebus-pictures are used according to the way they sound

·  ex. i believe -"eye, a bee, and a leaf"

·  the people who write them are called scribes

·  3 types

o ideogram-a picture used to symbolize an abstract idea 

o phonogram-a picture whose name is close to the desired sound

o pictograph-a drawing of the literal word

·  first written language for ancient Egypt

·  over 2,000 different symbols 

THE PYRAMIDS:

• Ancient Egypt was actually located in North Africa.
• About 80 pyramids in Ancient Egypt
• Built as tombs for the pharaohs and their queens

·         The pharaohs usually referred to them as their “House of eternity”

o   Began planning their houses of eternity as soon as they took the throne

·         All sides of the pyramids were to face directly north, south, east, and west

·         Large stones were cut from quarries and used to build the pyramids

·         Most of the workers were farmers who worked during the flood season, when their fields were under water.

·         Four main chambers:

o   King’s chamber

o   Grand Gallery – leads from ascending passage to the king’s chamber

o   Queen’s chamber- not actually meant for the queen to be buried there, possible used as a place to store the king’s funerary objects

o   Underground chamber – almost like a trick chamber, many different views on what this tomb was used for

Feb 11

Today in class we started talking about Egypt.  For the first part we talked about how Egypt's dictator finally stepped down from power.  Everyone in Egypt was very excited.  It was a very important day in history because the Egypt will probably become a democracy now.  Mr. Schick said that the only way all the news got out about Egypt is because of Twitter and Facebook.  So for the first time in history social networking sites changed a government.  Then we talked about ancient history.  We had to look up anything we were interested in.  I looked up hieroglyphics.  I always thought they were really cool because it is a whole language made out of pictures.  I just think it is a cool concept.

Essay for Test (Hunter-gatherers to Farmers)

      Papua New Guinea has been along a lot longer than the United States.  They never developed as fast as the US did either.  So what they did before they started to develop a civilization is hunting and gathering.  Once they started to develop they started to farm.  Hunting and gathering was an inconvenient was to develop because it would take up all their time and people just so they could figure out what they were going to eat.  Once they go to farming they started developing faster because they did not have to spend all their time doing one thing and they could go off and do other things to help develop a civilization. It was the first step to a new life.
     Hunting was how they got their meat while gathering was how they got fruit.  Hunting was done by men.  They would go out everyday for every meal just to figure out what to eat.  Gathering was the womens job.  They went out and picked fruit and made things out of it.  They cut down trees just to get stuff from it to make to eat.  They all found this very inconvenient.  They then started to realize that the land was very fertile.  They used seeds  from plants to make crops.  Someone would take care of them everyday by watering them and making sure they stayed alive.  This is how it all started.
     Soon they were farming all the time.  It made it easier to live when they didn't have to think about what they were going to eat everyday.  They farmed many things like wheat, barley, and other grains.  With this they could make other things.  Domesticated animals would help pull a plow and help farm.  This was a very good way to make use of the animals.  This was a lot more healthy than the things they were eating before.  Soon they were even making things to hold the grains and food they were making.  They would put it in a granary to make sure that it would not get wet or go bad. This was the jump start to a new civilization.

On the Test

• 20 MC
• 5 Short answer
• essay (open blog)

• True about Sago
• takes a long time to make
• women gather it
• doesn't last for a long time!!!! 
• Not a lot of protien
• no flavor
• 70 ibs of sago out of a tree
• it grows in a swamp
• Why didnt PNG develop
• didnt have domesticated animals
• fur
• meat
• milk
• Unlucky geography
• Not good crops
• What are the characteristics of a good domesticated animal?
• over 100 ibs
• being able to be tamed
• get along with humans
• social hierarchy-if you can tame the leader you can tame all of them*
• provide manual labor
• they provide meat and milk*
• reproduce often*
• Characteristics of domesticated plants
• have to be nutritious
• easy to prepare
• easy to plant
• able to be stored for a while
• able to make many different things from it
• Surplus
• they could store it
• not everyone has to be concerned with getting food
• they can go off and do other things (specialized work)
• make plater out of limestone
• hunter gatherer
• make weapons
• making steel
• all this stuff make their civilization prosper
• this all makes population grow
• They moved because the land wasnt good so they moved east and west 
• they over farmed it and it wasnt as fertile
• they moved east and west becuase all the things were the same like day, crops, animals
• PNG is stuck on a tiny island so they cants do this
• Draa' is the very first community or villliage
• first people to build granary and houses 
• oldest village found 
• Jared Diamond 
• birdwatcher
• professor at UCLA
• turned into anthropologist 
• best selling author
• someone asked him why he had so much cargo and they had nothing
• cargo-possessions
• Modern day PNG
• they have a lot of airport improved transportation
• got modern day technology
• they are selling gold, silver, copper, palm oil, fisheries to finance all of the modern day technology
• 13 thousand years ago people were hunting and gathering 
• some people in PNG still live like they did before
• 
  

Todays Class

Today in class Mr. Schick let us do homework and anything else that was productive.  We were allowed to do this because we are so far ahead of all the other classes since we got an extra day because of snow.  I did my Spanish and Science homework... not fun.  He also told us that we have a test Thursday on the video Guns, Germs, and Steel, on modern Papua New Guinea, and on what we looked up on CIA Factbook.  We do not have class tomorrow but on Wednesday we will review on everything we learned so far.  Hopefully I will get a good grade.  

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea in the video looks like a poor place, but in real life their civilization is getting better. Their population is 6,064,515 which is 105th in comparison to the world. Their natural resources are gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, and fisheries.  Their migration rate is 0 migrants/1000 population.  Their religion is Roman Catholic and the rest Christian.  They have over 860 indigenous languages but their main language is Tok Pisin.  They have 562 airports and 2 heliports.  They have 2 television stations, 1 commercial station.  Their unemployment rate is 1.8%. Only 18% in urban area.  More women are eligible to be in the military.  Their birth rate is 10%.  Population is growing.  Literacy rate is 57% of total population.  

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

• Natural resources are gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries
• Population is 6,064,515 (July 2010 est.) they are 105 in comparison to the world
• 0 migrants/1000 population
• Religion is Roman Catholic (27%)
• Unemployment rate is 1.8%
• Languages: Tok Pisin, English, and Hiri Motu are official languages; some 860 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's total)
• 562 airports and 2 heliports
• Cell Phones-900,000
• Main phones-60,000
• Television-2 television stations, 1 commercial station operating since the late 1980s and 1 state-run station launched in 2008; satellite and cable TV services are available

GG&S Notes 4

     People were still using stone tools in the 1960s in New Guinea.  Surplus is to make more food tan you need.  This fertile crescent is not the powerhouse of the world.  Most of the villages of the fertile crescents were abandoned because the climate was to dry and the economy was to much to handle.  Entire communities were forced to leave their land because they were unable to find food.  Things got really dry in the Middle east and they would just move east or west so they could make the same food and raise the same animals.  New Giunea is isolated so they could not do the same thing.  They moved away from India and then they grew in civilization a making the pyramids.  The same crops and animals were taken to the new world.  We would not be where we are in civilization without the farming of the fertile crescent.  People around the world are fundamentally similar but they are cultural differences.  Diamond thinks that the reason is geography not because of ingenuity.

GG&S Notes 3

Animals play an important role in the living.  They provide milk for nutrience, meat for food, and wool for warmth.  Later more animals were used for living, mostly all for meat but they started using them for different things.  They used horses and donkeys for pulling plow.  Most farm work is still done by hand.  They best animals to farm are the bigger ones.  They try to domesticate them but most cant. Africans could never domesticate elephants because they would never have enough food for them.  Domestic animals need to get along with humans.  Zebras, back then, could never be tamed because they are flighty and have a mean streak.  

• Every domesticated animal over 100 ibs: 
• goats
• pigs
• sheep
• horses
• 2 different kinds of camels
• water buffalo
• donkeys
• llamas
• reindeer
• yaks
• mithan
• Bali cattle
• cows

None of the animals that are helpful to the people come from Australia and Papua New Guinea.  South America has the llama and the rest come from the Eurasian area.  The people of the Fertile Crescent were blessed because it gave them a head start in farming.  New people came and developed new jobs.  Making plaster from limestone was an important job.  Learning to work with fire was an important thing in the future making steel.