Population Pyramids

Today in class we talked about population pyramids. I thought these graphs were really fun and informative. In the beginning of the class, we were told that we might be confused by them, but I found that they were really easy to understand after multiple examples and explanations. I learned things like how the males are always on the left, and how the females are always on the right. I also learned that the colors vary depending on the graph and really have no significance overall to how it effects the graph. I would like to look at population graph tonight on Maryland to see how it differs from what we saw in class!

October 29th

Today in class we were given time to ask questions about our recent assignment, and we were given time for the kids who didn't do the CIA assignment to complete it. I used this time to do my blog and get caught up on writing down what I need to do for homework. This was a good thing for me since I have been out of order today, and completely unorganized. This mod helped me relax and take a minute to calm down after all of the tests and assignments I had prior to this class. We also talked about how our grade works every semester. I thought this was interesting because our semester exams are only 20% of our grade. Also, the lowest grade you can get on it would be a 50% which I think is helpful.

CIA facts

On Friday in class, we were assigned to look at cia.gov and find five interesting facts. Here are some that I found:
1. Hong Kong has a lower infant mortality rate than the United States
2. The net migration rate in Mexico is -1.8
3. Guatemala's total fertility rate has slowly declined during the last few decades.
4. Almost 9% of the population of Costa Rica is foreign born
5. In Niger, there is 6.49 children born per woman
I believe all of this relates to what we were doing in class because it covers most of the topics we had talked about. Mostly, I focused on migration and population in different countries. I also looked at a few facts on fertility, death rate/birth rate, and infant mortality rates.

Migration and Population

Today in class we talked about migration and population. I think it's surprising how many people there actually are in the world. I knew there were a lot, but i never knew exactly how much. Yesterday, we got to see a live population counter which had gone up quite a lot just by the end of class. We also talked about migration. One thing that surprised me about migration was how many people immigrate to Canada. I've always assumed more people migrate to the United States because of how relevant it is in todays news channels and politics. However, I was surprised to see that Canada's immigration rate was actually much higher than the U.S's. Another thing I found interesting was how Canada provides less expensive health care.

Sick day

I missed class today because I was sick.

Test Day

Today in class we took our test. It was nice because we didn't have to learn anything new, and for me tests are relaxing. I say they are relaxing because to me, when you have a whole period just to sit down and show what you've learned, it's stress-free and calming. I also liked how we had time at the end to work on our homework, which I surprisingly have a LOT of for a Friday. It helps me out a lot because I'm going to the beach this weekend, and I won't want to spend my time there worrying about what is due on Monday. The test wasn't to hard in my opinion. I think I did really well, which is good since it should help me bring my grade up a little bit. I'm trying to get on honor roll and so far the only classes I have a B in are this class, and math. I took tests in both classes today though so hopefully I end up getting a good score on both of them.

Review Day

Today was our last class before our test on Friday. We reviewed a lot of things including longitude, latitude, distortion, and lots of time zones. I feel like with some studying, I have the potential to do great on this test. I am going to start studying some terms and things I need to memorize tonight, and I will practice with time zones tomorrow by quizzing myself with random places around the world. Also, we had two shadows today who seemed nice! I hope they end up coming to John Carroll next year. Based on what I've seen so far, the incoming 9th graders for next year seem promising. Hopefully they wont be too loud since I'll have to share the same lunch with them next year. Ive also started a new studying system that I'm excited about. I have a fresh new composition books that I will write my important notes in, and what I need to study. I've decided to do this instead of typing since studies show that writing things helps us remember things better. Hopefully this helps me on the test this Friday!