Marisa Ziegler

    Today in class we watched a video on world population and discussed it. The speaker was Hans Rosling, who teaches global health. In the video, Hans was looking at a graph that we could see as well. The graph showed the life expectancy of countries on the y-axis, and the GDP per Capita on the x-axis. The numbers on the y-axis ranged from 25- 75, and the y-axis $400-$40,000. The graph displayed circles of different colors, each circle representing a country. The colors corresponded with a region such as brown for Europe, red for Asia, green for the Middle East, blue for Sub-Saharan Africa, and yellow for the America's. The graph showed the dots through spans of 100 years. In 1810, almost all the dots were in the bottom left hand corner of the graph signifying the countries as poor and sick. At this time, the life expectancy for almost all the countries (besides the UK and Netherlands), was less than 40 years. As time progresses, many of the African nations remained in this area w

    Today in class we discussed and watched a video on population pyramids and went more into depth of what they entail. The vide explained things that we already knew like what the pyramids are, what they show, how they show it, and what can you gather from the information portrayed. The video went into detail on the countries it describes. It showed countries like Russia, Canada, and Japan. It also described how the pyramids showed things like the industrial revolution, women and jobs, and different generations like baby boomers. You can physically see these things in the pyramids. For example, in one of the pyramids, their were a lot of middle aged adults, but not a lot of kids being born. This is because of these adults getting jobs and being committed and not having time to begin a family. These people usually live in the city, which can be determined from the pyramid and child to kid ratio. The video helped me in getting more out of the pyramids.

    Today I had to leave class early due to a basketball game at Mercy.

    Kiva.org is a website where people who need money for a certain cause can ask for a loan and people can visit the website and potentially loan some of their money. There are about 2.6 million borrowers and about 1.7 million lenders. This foundation is pretty popular considering those numbers. There are over 1 billion funds through Kiva. This is a crazy amount of money, and this organization really helps those who sign up. Kiva has the people in need of the loan post a description of their situation, how much money they need, a picture, and how long the people loaning have to help them. Seeing these descriptions and the pictures really helps determine which person is the best to donate to based on how much they need the money. For example, some people need the money for extra things like toilets, better utilities for jobs, etc. Then there is the people that need the money to buy something to help them support their family or to help make a living.     One person on this website in

    Today in class we took a test on population and migration. I think I did well, although I know I got some wrong. The questions based on the population pyramids confused me and one about life expectancy. The one question asked which country had the highest life expectancy, and I said the U.S., when the answer was Monaco. The other questions on the population pyramids were a bit tricky, such as the one where it asked which graph showed a chance of the population doubling in 35 years. I forget which one I answered, but I looked the pyramids up after the test and knew I was wrong. Other then these questions I think I did well. I found the World FactBook part simple and I easily navigated the website in order to find the answers. I am eager to see what the next unit is on, and I hope my grade on this test can bring my B up to an A finally. Even though a lot of grades have not been put in yet, I still really want an A to bring my grade up some more.

    Today in class my group and I presented our information. It went well for the most part since we had a lot of information, but we had trouble communicating our thoughts to the rest of the class. I think we did okay, but not as great as I wanted to. Today we also found out that we have a test on Monday on population pyramids. There will also be a section of the test on the World FactBook. We will also need to know some definitions like rate of natural increase, crude birth rate, crude death rate, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, push/pull force, etc. Based on the second pop quiz, I think I will do ok with the definitions. The test is going to be some multiple choice, some written answers, and then the portion of the test where we utilize the FactBook. This section will last for 15 minutes, and we will need to answer questions and navigate through the website. There will be 15 questions, so it will have to be a minute per question.

    Today in class I came in late, and their were other people presenting. My group still didn't go, but I'm sure we will go tomorrow. Today only one of the groups went for a B. The rest went for an A and they were very good. Some groups had some inaccurate information, but still were very descriptive. Some countries that were used were Nigeria, USA, Japan, etc. I learned some new information and it was interesting to see how the other groups ranked the world hunger websites and their reasons. Some groups had some good reasons that I had not thought about. I'm a little anxious to present now after waiting awhile to present. I hope we get a good grade, and get the A we were shooting for. There were some groups with 4 people, some with 3, and some with 1. It's interesting seeing everyone's different approach to this project.

    Today in class some groups presented their population pyramid project. There were many people who went for the A, and some who went for the B. The projects were very good; some were on Google slides, others were on Google Docs. Some countries that were used were Azerbaijan, Australia, etc. For one of the projects (the one that included Australia), the group included in their presentation that the pyramid was a Christmas tree shape, but as they presented, they changed their minds and agreed it was a box. The shape of the pyramid resembled a Christmas tree at some points, but was not broad at the bottom of the pyramid. Therefore, it could not be a Christmas tree. My group has not yet presented, but we will tomorrow. The countries we did our project on were Jordan and Italy. We included our information on Google slides. I hope we get an A, which is what we were shooting for.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1q-CBn0Kn30dXDF9iysIrnl8Z7BG4VNNziiKu6wsh0u0/edit?usp=sharing

   Today in class we discussed our grades from the pop quiz and how we were not satisfied with them. Mr. Schick asked us what he could do to help this. He mentioned us retaking the quiz and we all thought it was a good idea. We took the quiz and I got a 100 percent. I am hoping this brings up my grade to a B or even an A. We also started a project on the population of two countries based on their pyramid. After we create and answer 4 questions, we are to look at fundraising websites for world hunger. We choose two of the given links, and two we find on our own and rank them based on effect. The two countries my group picked were Jordan and Italy. Jordan's pyramid is a Christmas tree, and Italy's  pyramid is a cup. They are two very different countries based on their population making them good candidates for our project.

    Today in class we had a fire drill and missed about 20 minutes of class. When we got back, Mr. Schick gave us a pop quiz. The quiz was kinda hard, but I know I should have gotten more right answers. My final score was a 14/20 which equals a 70. It brought my grade down to a D after the blogs were put in. I'm really scared about this, and hope we get some new grades in soon so I can get my grade up. We went over the questions so I got an idea of my grade before it was put through the scanning machine. One of the questions I missed was "What do you get when you subtract the death rate from the population?" I said the  birth rate but the actual answer was the rate of increase (or something like that). One question I changed my mind about after we passed it, and had to fill in a random answer for it which was incorrect. I am making sure to do all my blogs this week so I can start getting my grade back up.

    Today in class we finished the rest of the powerpoint and looked closely at population pyramids of specific cities. We identified the shape of the graph and determined the cause of the shape being that way. For example, Ann Arbor Michigan has a lot of 15-29 year olds. This is because there is a military base in the town. Many young kids go there to be recruited in the army. You wouldn't see many 8- year olds preparing to enter combat, which explains the low number of elders. Also, we went on the population pyramid website and looked at random countries pyramids. We determined the cause for the shape of their pyramid by inferring some particular components of that area or region that could factor in on the population and the ages. The website gives you the pyramid, the percentage, and the actual number of people in that certain age group. It was interesting to see and utilize this website.

    Today in class we discussed population pyramids. Population pyramids are used to analyze growth growth (or decline) of fertility, mortality, and migration of cities. The 3 basic shapes of the pyramids are the Christmas tree, the box, and the cup. The Christmas tree represents developing nations. These graphs have slow growth rates, high birth rate, and a short life expectancy. Examples of countries that would have this graph are Namibia, and Bangladesh. The box represents a developed nation. These countries have low infant mortality rates, slow population growth, and a long life expectancy. Examples of this type of graph are Sweden and the United States. The cup represents a developed nation as well. The graphs show a low birth rate, shrinking population, and a long life expectancy. Examples of this graph are Italy and Japan. We also went through the whole slideshow again, and I got down some notes that I missed from last Monday and Tuesday. I saw things like the life expectancy de

    Today in class we discussed things that would drive someone to or from a country (push/pull factors) and got our information from the World FactBook. We looked at the total fertility rate of countries (average number of babies). For a population to remain the same, the TFR must be 2.1. If it is greater than this number, the population increases; if it is less than this number, the population decreases. The world TFR is 2.42, meaning our world population is increasing. However, TFR only accounts for infants, and disregards things like immigration. Nigeria's TFR is 6.89 showing how the developing country is increasing and that the average woman has about 6 kids. We also looked at other things on the FactBook like the U.S. population (which is 326, 625, 791). We also looked at other things like obesity rate in France, the U.S., and Japan. The largest one was the U.S. with 36.2%, France was second with 21.6%, and Japan had the smallest with 4.3%. These things show how some people c