Sunday, August 7, 2011

Country Assignments

Hello all,

Here are your country assignments and partners. If you have not signed up for blogger, do so immediately. Remember, you must create a gmail account to do this.

COUNTRY

9th Grade

8th Grade

8th Grade

Niger

Joanna Lai

Grace

Iraq

Sarah Lin

Charlotte

China

Leo

Joy

Ken

Turkey

David

Fred

Vietnam

James

Anthony

Pakistan

Jason Wu

Henry

Nigeria

Peggy Wu

Cindy

Switzerland

Kelly

Steffie

America

Angela

Angel

Syria

Joanna Smart

Veronica

India

Francis

Willy

Bangladesh

Andrew

Aaron

Japan

Arthur

Jason Fu

Uzbekistan

Rebecca

Anne :)

Bolivia

Jenny

Jasmine



N. America - 1

S. America - 1

Africa - 2

Europe - 1

Central Asia - 1

East Asia - 2

South Asia - 3

SE Asia – 1




1st World – 3

Developing and Big – 4

Developing – 4

Undeveloped – 4

Now that you have your Country Assignments, you can start your Country Profile. A Country Profile is just a collection of statistics that will help you understand your country.

HERE IS HOW TO DO A COUNTRY PROFILE

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

1. Official name of country: You must get the OFFICIAL name. For example, the official name of Libya (at least as of 8/8/2011) is The Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. You can not only put Libya.

2. Climate (major types of climate, rainfall, vegetation):

3. Map

a. Location absolute (latitude and longitude) and relative (in relation to physical features

and other nations)

b. Physical features (what would one see in the country in the way of mountains, deserts,

plains, major rivers, coast lines, etc.)

c. In the map key, state the size of the country in square mi/km

d. Who are your countries neighbors (Ex: to the north of the U.S. is Canada,

etc.)? Is your country bordered by waterways (oceans/major rivers, etc.)

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

4. Type of government, names of government officials, and political parties. This is important, especially in democratic or republican governments because the government will change what it says and does if a new party comes in power. Think of how different Taiwan was when Chen SHui-Bian was President vs. now, with Ma Ying Jeou. After you find out who the main political parties are, you must then find out who is in power and what they want to do about your problem.

5. Capital

6. International Organization affiliations

There are many International Organizations that discuss military, political, economic, human rights, etc. issues. Some of the most important ones are The World Trade Organization

7. Size of armed forces

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

8. Official language, other languages spoken, ethnic composition and major religions

9. Population, population growth rate, and population distribution

10. Major cities

11. Infant mortality rate and average life expectancy

12. Teachers and Doctors per population

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

13. GNP or GDP (total and Per Capita)

14. % of land that is arable used for agriculture

15. Natural resources – What minerals, raw materials, etc. does your country have?

16. Major agricultural and industrial products

17. Major exports and imports (very important, this basically states who some of

your best allies are)

18. Currency (include current exchange rate – Use xe.com to put it into USD or TWD)

19. Balance of Trade (include amounts in US currency of Total Exports and Imports)

20. Historical events (Time line format ONLY since 1980)


Here are the two best places to find information for you Country Profile

1.) The CIA World Factbook - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

2.) World Atlas - http://www.worldatlas.com/

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Weekend Assignment

Ni hao,

Those of you in the class have already recieved your assignment. Those of you who haven't come back will have to make this up later.


Here are the links and the questions...


a.) What is the water cycle? Draw and explain each part of it below.

b.) What is climate change? Please give an answer (in your own words J) that is based off of a scientific definition.

c.) Give me three ways in which humans can pollute the water. Explain each below.

d.) How do scientists think climate change may affect the water cycle? HINT: Use the epa.gov website here. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/impacts/index.html

*** You will need to go to the bottom right and clik the forward button a few times before you get to the section on aquifers.

e.) What is an aquifer?

f.) What are the two types of aquifers? What is the main difference between each one?

(g.) What do you think happens when two countries both think that they have the right to use water in a river, lake, aquifer or canal? Why do you think that?
http://www.spokaneaquifer.org/kids/vftm/aquifer/_tourlaunch1.htm

i.) What do you think happens when a corporation (like Coca Cola, Pepsi, or China Water Affairs) says that they own the right to use water froma river, lake, or aquifer, but people who live near that same river, lake, or aquifer can not? Why do you think that?

FOR EVERYONE! Read and look at these. We will need them for next week.
1.) http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html
2.) http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/environmental-threats-environment/state-of-the-earth/climate-change/
3.) http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/OFORIAA/

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

ICC TRIBUNAL VERDICT IS IN...

International Criminal Court/ Cour Pénale Internationale



Muammar Qadaffi (ALIAS: Fang Hao) (ALIAS: Darren Fang)

Charged with...

Crimes Against Humanity
War Crimes
Genocide

Found - GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS.

Sentencing done by: Honrable Judge Matthew Gibson of the International Criminal Court
Sentence will be carried out at: The Hague



Saif Al-Islam Qadaffi (ALIAS: Hsieh Min-Han) (ALIAS: Murielle Hsieh)

Charged with...

Crimes Against Humanity
War Crimes
Genocide

Found - NOT GUILTY



Khamis Qadaffi (ALIAS: Chen Fan-Yu) (ALIAS: Christine Chen)


Charged with ...


Crimes Agasint Humanity

War Crimes

Genocide


Found - NOT GUILTY
















Sunday, June 19, 2011

Our Last Class :(

Ni hao,




Tuesday will be our final. The final will go like this...

1.) We immediately begin our trial. All of your prep work should be finished before you come into class.
2.) Finish where we left off, with Mr. Qadaffi on the stand.
3.) After the Defense Team has finished calling witnesses to the stand, each side (Prosecution first) will make their Closing Statements.
4.) The judge and jury will retire to their chambers (which means go to a special room and debate).

HINT: Often times, trials stop when the debate becomes focused on a very difficult or technical thing. The trial stops in order for the jury, judge, defense team and prosecution team to go do research. I suggest that you all do research on any technical issue.

HINT: Defense Team, you basically have 1:30 hours of time left on the clock. Use it wisely.

HINT: Make sure you understand the Rome Statute! Ultimately, that is what the Prosecution is using to bring the Qadaffi's to trial. If whatever you are talking about doesn't somehow line up with the Rome Statute, then your case will fall flat.

HINT: Refocus...what is this trial about? What are teh formal accusations? Remember those for your last day of questioning and Final Statements.

Jia you!


Mr. Gibson

PS - Witnesses, you will have a special role on Tuesday. This will require you to be aware of what the trial is all about. I will have a special Final Exam for you (but I won't tell you what it is). As long as you understand what has been going on in the trial, then you are OK.

Monday, June 6, 2011

June 7th Class

Ni hao,

Because the 10th graders won't be here today, we will postpone our trial. Here is what I would like for us to do today.

1.) Try out the OrgSync Software.
2.) Organize our thoughts for MDMUN. Please bring ALL IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS. Get them from the tenth graders before they leave!
3.) Pre-conference with all witnesses. The Prosecution must be finished by next week. I'm sorry. I know that's puts a lot of pressure on you, but without this week and because you 9th graders will leave early, we actually lose two entire weeks that I did not anticipate.

Mr. Gibson

P.S. - Here is the interesting story of the day. It's about Egypt's revolution. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/06/06/egypt.gallup.survey/index.html?hpt=hp_c1