A Message from Mother Nature

Q1. What is the main point of the article?

·         The article attempts to answer whether the wild weather patterns lately, including the torrential Pakistani flood, a record-breaking heatwave that killed hundreds, and droughts in the United States, are a sign of climate change, or if they are normal weather patterns throughout the course of Earth’s history.

Q2. List four vocabulary words that you do not recognize or understand, lookup the definitions, write them out using your own words. 

·         Frequency – the number of times at which an event occurs

·         Intensity – the strength/degree of something

·         Variability – the ability to vary, or change

·         Static – staying in one place, non-changing, invariability

Q3. What is the difference between “weather” and “climate”?

·         Weather is the condition of the Earth in a short period of time, while climate indicates weather patterns through a longer period of time.

Q4. What are the examples listed in the article of “extreme weather”?

·         Monsoon rains in Pakistan caused the one of the worst floods in 80 years, killing up to 1,500 people and displaced millions of people

·         A Russian record-breaking heat wave along with a drought destroyed a lot of wheat farmland and sparked wildfire in the forests that killed dozens of people.

·         Flooding in the United States destroyed New England, and an intense heat wave baked eastern part of the country.

Q5. What experiences have you had with “extreme weather”?

·         My experiences of weather in Ho Chi Minh City is not extreme, because if I do, there would be a good chance that I would not be writing this assignment. However, if rains up to your knee cap and killing your engines are “slightly” extreme events, maybe I have experienced one. J It took me an hour to get from school back home, and I was exhausted, and I didn’t do the day’s homework, and I got a zero. L

Flood in Pakistan

Q6. What does the word “perception” mean?

·         Perception means one’s interpretation of something, one’s comprehension and understanding of something

Q7. What is your “perception” of global climate change?

·         As a person, I believe that global climate change is a very important issue for human beings. Even though we still have not had enough proof to prove that climate change is linked to the increased frequency and intensity of these natural disasters, still we should prepare early. How does it hurt when you turn off the air-conditioners and switch to compact fluorescent bulbs? J

Map Final Assessment

United Nations of Alex (UNA)

            I’d rather play real. I could see a region of nations, working together, contributing toward a healthier me. J One of the most important nations in this peaceful region, Kardia, also known as the “Heart” in the Anglobarbarica language, is particularly interesting. The way its economy fits into the multitude of nations, and its horribly interesting history has made their way into the records. Kardia is located in the “heart” of the region.

            The nation had few interesting places to visit. One cool place you can see, though, is the Amazonian Plain, very flat, and with few trees, and though crisscrossed with major rivers, it is unable to support agriculture. The nation is notoriously hot. Disastrous floods are common, and therefore, this region is one of the most technologically advanced, crammed by thousands of little canals to support the flow of the floods.

Two main rivers course through the UNA region. They are the Red River, known as the “Artery” and the Blue River, known as the “Vein.” They start and end in Kardia, giving it control over transportation. Canals conntect the region, and because of the harsh weather and flooding, people of Kardia built a special fortress made out of muscles. These muscles ensure that the people of Kardia are safe from most invaders and climates.

            The nation’s economy is robust. Because of its inability to support agriculture, it must resort to other means to contribute to the overall well-being of the region. Its most valued service is transportation. Kardia, due to its super-advanced transportation technology, has been able to built roads to the most secluded places. It helps transport packages called “blood cells” everywhere throughout the region. No places are missed. Its main import is oxygen from Pulmonaria, and its main exports are “blood cells” towards all other regions.

            The nation’s history is quite interesting. The Declaration of Independence was read in February 28, 1910. However, the Kardian Civil War broke out shortly afterwards and continued until February 28, 1980. Only the intervention of other nations could help the two major forces of Kardia, the Atriumists and the Ventriclists, from tearing each other apart and destroy the nation. Kardia only started to rebuild its economy and infrastructure for 5 years, when in April 30, 1985 the Viking Virus invaded Kardia. They killed more than 1000 people and displaced thousands of others. In September 1, 1985 the Royal Lymphatic Force was summoned to battle the monstrous intruders. The war commenced until May 2005, when a particularly brave Lymphatic soldier broke into the Viking Virus’s lines. Finally, in September 12, 2005, Lymphatic forces were able to completely drive Viking Viruses out. Since September 13, 2005, Kardia has received a lot of assistance from the neighboring peoples and has risen to become one of the major powers in the United Nations of Alex.

            

Study Guide

Topics Covered:

            Maps

• Political
• Physical
• Thematic

            Culture

§         what is culture?

§         what are elements of culture?

§         how does culture divide into subcultures?

§         how is culture learned?

            5 Themes of Geography

·         location

·         place

·         region

·         human-environment itneraction

·         movement

           

            6 Elements of Geography

• World in Spatial Terms
• Places & Regions
• Physical Systems
• Human systems
• Environment and Society
• Uses of Geography

            Tools of Geography:

• Global Positioning System (GPS)
• uses satellite to determine location
• Geographic Information System (GIS)
• store/gather/analyze/display data

           

            Careers in Geography:

·         Land surveyor - measures the land, maps boundaries

·         Location analyst - finds the best place for a specific function

·         Climatologist - studies weather patterns and data for specific functions

·         Urban Planner - plans how to make the city a better place to live

            Vocabulary:

·         Geography

·         Environment

·         Location

·         Place

·         Spatial

·         Region

Family Tree Project

Reflection on Family Tree Presentation

            This project was a lot of fun for me. Because Mr. Blake did not give us anything solid to work on, very few rules and guidelines, I could let my imagination run wild and had a lot of fun experiments with my new presentation tool prezi. J I could take (steal???) several albums from my parents’ room. I could see myself growing up before my eyes as I rummaged through my pictures. My memories, some of them quite sharp and embarassing, returned. (Oops, my parents were coming home. I’d better tuck the pictures away and look innocent! J) I announced to my parents that I was going to do a project about my family tree. I was really impressed when my parents recited a list of about 50 people and I just could not put all of them into my painting-black family tree. They seemed to be really psyched about my project, and took me and my brother around to pick some cool food that I could boast around. It turned out to be bánh trung thu. I moved about my house like a shuttle, waylaid my cousins (older) and poured queries on my exasperated cousin. I plunged into my room, creating a big mess and jostling  everything on my path. I couldn’t remember how I cleaned my room afterwards, but anyway, I managed to wriggle out of the destroyed, crumpled manuscripts (some older than I am) the first piano song I played and the very first chess set I had. Unfortunately, I could not show them to the class because of memory reasons. J

            Apart from my own experience, I saw even more clearly how diverse AIS is. There are so many nationalities within 10 meter squared of my room. Emily is from Hainam, Olia from Russia, Jennifer from Norway, and Darlene, Vivi, and Henry from the United States. There are so many cool things to talk about. Emily is a polyglot, 4 languages she speaks! Olia pronounced very cool Russian words (too fast I couldn’t repeat, but I guess that the faster it is said, the cooler it sounds!). Jennifer told as that only one out of ten people in Norway is actually Norwegian. Henry was a Boy Scout. He brought to us all the different badges and told us all the different levels that he could achieved when he participated in the Boy Scout. Even within Vietnam I could see so many differences. Because my family is Christian, we celebrate Christian holidays such as Christmas, Easter,… I don’t really know about traditional Vietnamese holidays.  Therefore, holidays such as cung co hon are not very familiar to me. In addition to that, I could taste Johnny’s bánh dưà from Ben Tre, Mary’s banh chung banh day, and probably some more I could not remember. So many things are different about us, but however, I could see that we are united. We celebrate Tet. We believe in religions that encourage nonviolence and love. We can relate to each other. I could see that albeit our different backgrounds in our cultures and subcultures, we are relatively similar as humans. And Mr. Blake summed everything up, “We are not very different, therefore we need to treat each other as we would treat ourselves.”

            This project was very inspirational. Not only could I touch my heritage, but also see how my friends came to be. I could see that my friends are so much different from me, and I, once thinking that Vietnamese people are so boring, changed my view completely after listening to 17 very talented presenters!