Nik's Human Geo

In todays class we had a test. I feel like I did pretty good job on it and probably got at least a B. The essay question was easy too. It was about why US companies tend to make their products overseas. My answer was that in places such as China there is a big currency change. So if companies make their products in China they can pay them two or three dollars rather then if they make the in the US and have to pay workers about ten dollars.

In todays class Mr. Shick asked everyone for one question that they thought would be good for the test. My question was "Why do companies tend to make their products over seas rather then in the US?" the answer to that would be that they wouldn't have to pay them as much in other places. There were a lot of questions to think about but for the most part they were all easy. Then after we were all done Mr. Shick put the list that will be on the test on the board and let us take pictures of it. Of course the one day we use our phones in class I don't have mine.

Q.) Why do companies tend to make their products over seas rather then in the US? A.) They don't have to pay people in other countries as much as they would in the US. Q.) What can you use the Factbook to find out about a country? A.) You can use the Factbook to find out the population and language. Q.) What is the difference between the Peter and the Mercator Maps? A.) The Peter map is more to scale.

In todays class, Mr. Shick told us his upsetting reason for not being able to be at school yesterday. He had to take his dog to be put down at the vet. I couldn't even imagine what I would do if I had do that with my dogs. After our long discussion about our sad experiences with our pets we started to talk about how much of our stuff is made in other countries. If we didn't make most of our stuff in other countries prices would be higher then normal.

In todays class Mr. Shick was not there. Our assignment was put on his blog. We were supposed to read the whole blog for the day and take notes and put down two definitions of globalization. At a local scale, such as an urban neighborhood, geographers tend to see unique features. At the global scale, encompassing the entire world, geographers tend to see broad patterns. If everyone in their local environment contributes to making their environment better then eventually the whole world will be flourishing. Geography matters in the contemporary world because it can explain human actions at all scales, from local to global. Globalization means that the scale of the world is shrinking, not physically but in ability.  Globalization- 1.) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale. 2.) the act of globalizing, or extending to other or all parts of the world

In todays class Mr. Shick told us to go back to cia.gov and find an interesting fact about any country we wanted. As we looked for our fact Mr. Shick walked around and checked if we finished our map from yesterday. I did not realize that there was a back and didn't fill it out. Then I got my pop quiz back. I got a 12/20, which is a 60%. After Mr. Shick gave me my quiz we began going over everyones facts. My fact was about The Bahamas, it was "Because of its location, the country is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the US and Europe, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the US." One new fact I heard was that in some countries once you turn a certain age you must be in the army for a certain amount of years and you don't have a choice.

In todays class we had a pop quiz. It had ten questions and I did not do every good because I was not ready. When you turned in your quiz you picked up a paper that had two different world maps on it. We went to CIA.gov and looked up the top twenty-five populated countries in the world. Then we had to label the places on the maps.

In todays class we talked about cultural regions. I learned that "to care for" has two different meanings. The first one is to care about and the second one is to take care of. Then we talked about what people care about and what they take care of. Then we began to talk about the cultural regions of North America and got with a partner and listed three or more facts about each region.

In the beginning of todays class we had some people introduce their shadows. After that we began to took notes on time zones. In the short period of time that I was in class I learned a few things. The man who invented times zones was Scottish-born Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming in 1879. Three years before that his first idea was to have the whole world rotate on the same 24 hour clock. This is when I had to leave for my game.

In todays class we talked about Regions and Cultural Landscapes. A region is an area of earth defined by one or more distinct characteristics. An example of a region is somewhere that has a lot of mountains, such as somewhere in the western United States. A cultural landscape is the combination of physical and human characteristics that uniquely define places and areas. Mr. Shick gave us a quote today reading "The designation of a region can be larger than a point but smaller that the planet." That quote states that you can not define somewhere smaller then a point or anywhere more then the planet.