Alex's Western Civilization Blog

Today in class we took notes on a powerpoint on latitude and longitude. We learned that latitude is known as parallels and run in the east-west direction. We learned that longitude is a geographical coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. We discussed how inaccurate that map on the board is because it was showing how Antarctica is the same size as all of the other continents combined, and we know that this is incorrect. It also showed Greenland to be even bigger than it is on the Mercader map where it already is too big. Mr. Shick told us that we will eventually be quizzed on identify the latitudes and longitudes of the most significant parallels which are the arctic circle, tropic of cancer, equator, tropic of Capricorn, and antarctic circle. We also talked about how we will have a quiz on all of the maps of America tomorrow. I feel pretty confident with that test because I have practiced it many times, and I also had to label these maps...

Today in class we took notes on situation. Situation is the location of a place relative to other places, for example, if you live in Bel Air and someone was to ask you where you live you would tell them that you live east of Baltimore. It helps us understand the location of a place that is unfamiliar to us by comparing it to a place that is familiar to us. We also talked about how different places around the world manufacture things and end up sending them halfway across the country. Mr. Shick asked us to look around our desks and see where our belongings were manufactured, and nobody had anything manufactured from the US. We learned that this is because the salary of a factory worker in the US who works 40 hours a week is 8 times more than the salary of a factory worker in China who is working the same amount of time. We also talked about how eventually there will be robots and machines that will take over all of these jobs. We talked about whether or not having self-driving cars is ...

Today in class we took notes on site and situation. The start of class was delayed because Mr. Shick's wifi wouldn't load and it took 10 minutes to come back on, so we just got to relax for 10 minutes. We went over how the site describes the physical characteristics of a location. Some of characteristics of site are  climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation.  He asked us if we had ever moved before, and what were our thoughts when we moved. We talked about how our decisions were based on things such as location and resources around us. Mr. Shick also told us that Bel Air has the same latitude as North Korea and that they probably have the same periods of seasons as us. We also talked about how each place has its own things about them that separate them from over locations. For example, crabs are almost only eaten in Maryland. We talked about how we don't find eating crabs weird because we grew up with them, but someone who is from Maryla...

Today in class we went on a website and labeled every country in North and South America.

Today in class we were given time to write the differences between the Mercator and Peter's Projection maps. On the Mercator map, Greenland and Africa appear to be the same size, but Peter's Projection map shows us that Africa is actually 14 times larger than Greenland. On the Mercator map, Europe is larger than South America, but South America is 6.9 million square miles and Europe is  3.8 million square miles, and Peter's Projection map accurately shows us that. Mexico is 0.1 million square miles bigger than Alaska, but Alaska is drawn 3 times larger than Mexico on the Mercator map. In the Mercator map, Germany looks like it's in the middle, but it's actually in the northernmost quarter of the earth on Peter's Projection map. The Mercator was made in 1569 and the Peter's projection map was made in 1855. On the Peter's Projection Map, the east-west lines are parallel and intersect north-south axes at right angles. Peter's Projection Map Mercat...

We started out the class today by rewatching the Gall Peter's Projection map video, and we played a game called "ok, stop", where someone would call out ok stop during a point in the video where they had a question or a statement to make. After rewatching the video, we had a discussion about whether or not we agreed with the video's suggestion about flipping the map upside down. I personally don't think that it matters which direction the map is in, because they are both accurate. Then, we were handed back the tests that we took on Friday that were on excellence. We went through the whole test, by having everyone go in a line and state the correct answer, and if we got an answer wrong, we could write down the right one so we would know it in the future. When we got to the essay parts on the test, everyone stated the main facts that should be included in the essay in order for it to get full credit. We also had a discussion about whether or not we thought Socrates ...

Today in class we watched a video that compared the standard map that we use and the peters projection map. It showed us how the peters projection map is a lot more accurate than the map that we use. The countries and continents on the map that we use are placed and sized unrealistically. The video we watched also suggested that we look at the peters projection map upside down. We had a discussion as to why we don't look at it that way, and the conclusion was that people are just used to looking at it the way they have been and nobody wants to change it. We also discussed why people don't use the peters projection map, and we had the same answer about how no one wants to change it, not that it's wrong. Today was the first time I had ever heard about the peters projection map, and I find it interesting that the map that I've known my whole life is wrong. I personally think that more people should use the peters projection map since it's more accurate.