Saturday, February 09, 2008

February 11-15





Wish Mr. Benoy a happy birthday on Friday.




For those of you new to my blogsite, it is intended to work alongside my website at:
http://kbenoy.googlepages.com/

e-mail me at http://kbenoy@nvsd44.bc.ca/

Those of you in block 4 have the honour of working with my student teacher, from UBC, Miss Carlson. She too will be blogging at: http://ejcarlson.blogspot.com/ .

Things that are static -- not requiring regular change -- will be posted on the website. This blogsite will have the changing material -- lesson plans and links to particular assignments. I will try to ensure that all assignments are made available on the Internet in this way. If something is underlined on the blog, it means that you can click on it to see a copy of the particular item -- this could be a pdf document, powerpoint, music or a video.

Use this blog to see what is coming up each week. I will usually post it on Saturdays for the following week. If you are away, you can check up on what you are missing. There really is no reason for you not to know what is happening. If you do not have an Internet connection, you certainly know someone who does.If you can't read the PowerPoint material on your computer, download PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft. It is free.

Sutherland has a license to access Discovery Channel's United Streaming video collection. Students may download or stream videos from the collection by going to http://www.unitedstreaming.com/ . Use the passcode posted in the classroom to register. If you have lost it, see me, or e-mail me, for this information. Students are licensed to include this content within their own creations.Social Studies 11.

Social Studies 11 (Regular)

Block 4. See Ms. Carlson's blog.

Block 3:

Expect a test on ideologies, parties and elections around Monday of next week. The mark breakdown will be roughly as follows: 31 multiple choice questions (1 mark each), 10 statements requiring you to identify the ideology (1 mark each), Identifying political parties on a political spectrum graph (4 marks), 5 definitions (2 marks each), and two long answer questions (6 marks each). The total should be out of around 67 marks. 25 flash cards will be the minimum required to earn 5 bonus marks on the test.

Note: I will be collecting the Government text books when you write your unit test. We will sign out the Counterpoints text Monday.
  • Monday, February 11 - Sign out Counterpoint texts. Take up the ideologies practice work. Video clip on ideologies (sorry, unavailable on the Internet). Continue Parties section on the Ideologies and Parties PowerPoint. Lecture: How parties organize themselves. Read Counterpoint texts pp. 255-258. do #3-4, p. 258 and #1-3, sidebar, p. 257. Assignment (10 marks, due Thursday, Feb. 14): Research Canadian federal political parties. Which party would you support in the next federal election? Why? About a page or so of writing is needed to adequately answer these question. If a computer lab is available, we will have some research time next class. Find political party information at Elections Canada's registered political parties page.
  • Tuesday, February 12 - Take up homework. Review of how political parties work. Political parties Internet research. See the elections Canada link above. Read pp. 249-255. Do#1-5, p. 253 & #1-2, p. 258.
  • Wednesday, February 13 - Take up homework. Elections in Canada – The first-by-the-post system. (If time; proportional representation too). Handout on electoral systems. Government pp. 88-97. Do #3-10, p. 97, and #1 & 3 in the sidebar on p. 96.
  • Thursday, February 14 - Take up homework, hand in Parties assignment. Day 2 of the elections lesson. Examples of voting systems from my elections handout. BCSTV Animation (click here for further information on BCSTV.) Complete the paragraph assignment on the bottom of the last page of the elections handout for next class. A very good web page with a summary of voting systems is Britain's Electoral Reform Society page -- which clearly favours one particular system. If you are really interested in voting systems, watch an hour of Professor Andre Blais of the University of Montreal speaking about voting systems.
  • Friday, February 15 - Hand in the best electoral system assignment. Complete any unfinished material from Thursday's class. Begin examining the Legislative branch of the Federal government. Be sure to look at the Parliament of Canada website. Download, read and study from the Guide to the House of Commons. Study for the unit test on Monday.

Social Studies 11 (Honours)

Your Geography textbook is also available online at http://www.design4effect.com/soc11/ . Though we will use some material from the other text, most will be from this e-text. Be aware that this text is now a few years old and many hyperlinks are broken. Rewriting is a massive job that I have not had time to take on yet.

  • Monday, February 11 - Essay Writing Workshop Handout. Research techniques, including Citing Sources & bibliographies(Part 4). Watch Zotero screencasts (if time). Ch. 1 Test. Read pp. 29-31. Do both #1-3 on p. 31.
  • Tuesday, February 12 - Take up homework. Watch Zotero screencasts if not done Monday. Hand in outlines (from Part 3 of the Essay Writing Workshop). PowerPoint - Population and Demographics. (Introduction to demography and population growth. Population pyramids. Using the data on p. 46, construct population pyramids for these countries. Read pp. 31-37. Do #2, p. 36 - but use 2006 data from US Census Bureau's International Data Base - Canada Population pyramid, #1-2, p. 37 (Click on the following for a Nigeria population pyramid and a Japan population pyramid). Video sidebar: If numbers interest you, watch professor Malcolm S. Forbes, Arithmetic, Population and Energy.
  • Wednesday, February 13 - Take up homework. PowerPoint - continued. Population theories – Malthus, Catton, Boserup & Demographic transition model. Read pp. 37-41. Do #1-6, p. 39 & #1-6, pp. 41-42. Sidebars: Doom and gloom video, Doom and gloom text at DieOff.Org - read p. 15, an excerpt from William Catton's Overshoot; The Ecological Base of Revolutionary Change. Read a brief synopsis of Boserup's ideas from York University. Julian Simon was another writer who felt population growth is a good thing. His book Population Matters: People, Resources, Environment, and Immigration is available online.
  • Thursday, February 14 - PowerPoint on how to cite sources and write a bibliography. Work on Essay (you will receive 1 block of time for this now and 1 around 1-2 weeks before the essay is due at the end of Spring Break).
  • Friday, February 15 - Video – Population Transition in Italy (Accessing this video and others at this site requires that you register with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/Annenberg Foundation. It is free and no spam will follow) and questions (or alternative, if unavailable). If time, watch Hans Rosling's Gapcast #5; Bangladesh Miracle. Read pp. 42-45. Do #1-5, p. 45. Look at the downside of China's One Child Policy in this less than 10 minute video. Click here for a nice overview of current trends in population, based on the demographic transition model.