Latin American Independence Movements

Panama Canal

Latin America

Free Printable Maps: South America Physical Map

Free Printable Maps: South America Physical Map

Mississippi River Unit

Homework: Due Wednesday: Mississippi River definitions.  Quiz at the beginning of class on Wednesday. 
Due Thursday: Read first chapter of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi and answer questions.  See download if you need another copy of any of the hand outs. 
Due Monday: Part One Mississippi Solo and answer questions.  

United States Unit

So far we have had a test on the states and capitals of the United States and the physical geography.  I presented a Powerpoint which you may view below.  All students worked in groups to explore one National Park.  The purpose of the National Park project was to discover the geographic diversity of the United States.  We ran into some major technical difficulties using Google Earth on the project and ended up abandoning it to move on to a more specific unit on the Mississippi River.  However, we were able to see the introductory episode of Ken Burns' video on the National Parks.  I posted an excerpt from that video for you to review.

Awesome Pumpkins!

Begin reviewing for states and capitals test on Friday!

Louisiana Purchase and Geography

Please review the power point on Louisiana history and geography.

Begin reviewing states and capitals and physical geography of United States for the quiz on Friday. 

Technical Problems Fixed!

Thanks to the computer department, I am now back in business with my blog.

On Wednesday, we will meet in the classroom and travel down to the lower school for Morning Meeting.  As soon as Morning Meeting is over, we will go into Ms. Kronenberg's class (Room 1) and show the students the presentations.  You can talk to them about how you did your project and what you learned.

I am including the Geography Pumpkins handout.  Make sure you get your pumpkin and begin work.  This is not a project you should begin at the last minute.
Remember that all project or paper rewrites MUST be turned in by Wednesday!  

Types of Economies PPT

Wade Davis on endangered cultures | Video on TED.com

Wade Davis on endangered cultures | Video on TED.com

Introduction to Culture

Our next task in Geography is to study an overview of Human Geography.  We are starting with the general study of: What is a culture and how does geography define a culture?

 So far, we've watched an interesting video presented by Wade Davis on the decline of world cultures. Two powerpoint presentations helped to define the term culture; the ABC's of culture and an overview of population and how is it measured.  Finally, we discussed the difference between a developing and a developed country.

Homework: Finish your Culture Shock! paper.  To be handed in on Monday.  Read pages 80-90 in your text book and consult the CIA Factbook website on your country.  What is the birth rate of your country? Death rate? Percentage of increase.  Is your country considered to be a developed or a developing country?  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

Introduction to Culture

There will be no class tomorrow due to the 8th grade Field Trip.  I will be away on Friday.  Your climate "test" is due on Monday.  Email me if you have questions. 

We had some really awesome video presentations in class today on world climates.  I was very impressed with all of your movie making skills.  We will now transition away from the introduction into physical geography to human geography.  We will look into many characteristics of what makes up a culture.   We started with the ABC's of culture and then watched the first part of a very interesting video where anthropologist, Wade Davis talked about the decline of cultures around the world.

Wade Davis on endangered cultures | Video on TED.com

Wade Davis on endangered cultures | Video on TED.com

World Climates Reports

All of the groups have been hard at work on the world climate videos.  I can't wait to see all of the great videos that you produce.

Homework:  All New Orleans essays were due today.  
Video presentations will begin at the beginning of class on Wednesday.  PLEASE BE READY!  If you need to work on the presentation outside of class, you will need to find time to get together as a group.  

World Climate

Don't forget - Map Quiz tomorrow (Thursday) on world map.  




Today we started working on news broadcasts on the climates of the world.  Each group is responsible for a general climate and producing a news broadcast of a specific location within the climate.  See the instructions above if you have questions.  A more detailed rubric will follow.

Homework: The climate project will take the next three days in class, so you will be working on a written assignment outside of class.  The argumentative essays on rebuilding New Orleans is due on Monday.  DO NOT wait until Sunday night to begin this assignment.  

Map Projections

During our discussion of map projections today, the point was made that all flat projections of the Earth's surface have some distortion. In fact some mathematicians feel that it is mathematically impossible to transfer the sphere of the earth to a flat surface without some inaccuracies in space and distance. Please review the PowerPoint above for the specific projections and people who created them.

Homework: Complete sections 3 and 4 in Plate tectonics packet. ALWAYS read actively.

Geo Orange Maps!

Geography got a little messy today.  After studying information on the Ring of Fire, we drew the continents on an orange and then tried to flatten the peel onto a flat surface.  The purpose of this exercise was to show how difficult it is for cartographers to accurately portray the earth's surface on a flat map.  In fact, as we will find out tomorrow, it seems to be impossible.  

Homework: Read sections 3 and 4 of the packet on plate tectonics by Friday.  

Student Council Assembly

I thought we would not have class today due to the Student Government Assembly.  Therefore, you should have section 1 and 2 of the packet I gave you on tectonic plates finished for Wednesday.

Homework: Finish section 1 and 2 of packet on tectonic plates.  

Finishing maps

Everyone did a great job finishing the maps in class today. I showed them to your parents at Open House. We will talk about the earthquake in the Washington DC area tomorrow.

Homework: read the two page article on the earthquake and write a one paragraph response on the following question: Why was it so unusual that an earthquake hit the Washington DC area.  Don't just say because it hasn't happened in a long time.  Do some research if you need more information.  You must use the word "anomaly" in your paragraph.  Look it up if you don't know what it means.  

Parts of a map

Today in class we covered the parts of a map.  See powerpoint below.  We covered longitude and latitude. You can review longitude and latitude using the the two websites below and of course don't forget the longitude and latitude video!

Tomorrow you will finish your maps of your island.

Homework: review longitude and latitude in the text book on page 26 - 29.  


www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com

www.satsig.net/lat_long.htm

5 Themes of Geography

Today during class we talked about the 5 Themes of Geography.  Is the song still stuck in your head????  Please review the Powerpoint below if you missed any of the information.



Homework is to read pages 10 -14 in your text book and answer the questions on the review sheet regarding the 5 Themes.  

7 Billion is the Answer. What is the question?

We started class today with the challenge of thinking if 7 billion is the answer then what is the question.  The question is: What will the earth's population be by Halloween of 2011?

The class discussed whether we should be worried about this number and why it might cause a problem for the people who live on the earth.

Please review the following reading if you did not have a chance to finish it.  You may also review the videos we watched.







There is NO Homework over the weekend!!!! 

Welcome to 8th Grade Geography!

Welcome to the Perlis 8th Grade World Geography Blog!  I am very excited to have a blog this year.  


This will be the place where you come to find out what we did in class, especially if you are absent.  You can also print copies of handouts and even watch some of the videos we will use in class.  You can always access of list of your assignments on Net Class, but the blog will give you a bit more information about how to do the assignments.  


This is going to be a very exciting year in World Geography.  Many social scientists feel that the population of the world will reach an unprecedented 7 billion in the year 2011.  Is this something we should be worried about?  


Our theme throughout the year will be to see how these 7 billion people live, where they live, and how we use our planet and its resources.  


Homework for tonight: is to reread your syllabus with your parents and have them sign the sheet attached.  Also, you need to access the blog, complete the survey on the right hand side, and sign the sheet saying both you and your parents accessed the blog.