Map summary

Yesterday in Human Geo we took a day to catch-up. Our catching up day consisted of us finishing our maps and doing our blog or any missed work that we had. On our maps we had to label a bunch of things including the 7 continents, the oceans, the equator and the prime meridian. We also had to label on the map where are ancestors were from. My ancestors are from Germany, Ireland and Poland. Since i am mostly German i decided to label Germany on the map. Germany is right near Belgium and the Netherlands. I colored in Germany then labeled it as "Where i am From". I really liked the Catch-up day because it gave me a chance to finish my maps and get caught up on my Human Geo work so far.

Latitude and Longitude and how it effects the world

Latitude and Longitude effect the planet and how it runs in many different ways. Today in Human Geo I was able to learn some of them. For example I learned that the location that you are at on the globe will effect the time of day it is. If you live in the Central time zone then you are are one hour behind the Eastern time zone. So right now it is 7:10 in the Eastern time zone but 6:10 in the Central time zone. This is because in the United States there are 6 different time zones. Depending on where you are in the United States you will have different Time on a clock, phone Etc. The Earth is divided into 24 time zones. 360 degrees divided 24 time zones equals 15 degrees. Located at the Prime Meridian is Greenwich England. It is considered the Master reference time for all points on Earth.

Cartographers for social equality points

In the video I watched of the Organization of Cartographers for social equality pitching their idea to the Presidents representatives. The Cartographers for social equality wanted the president to make all of the public schools in the United States to change the map they teach with. They wanted the map to be changed from Mercator map to the Peters Projection map. The Mercator map was made by a German Cartographer in 1569 as a navigation tool for European sailors. One of the points that was made by The Cartographers for Social Equality was that the map is so old that it is extremely distorted. One of the examples they use is that on the Mercator map Greenland and Africa appear to be the same size but in real life Africa is 14 times bigger then Greenland. The German Cartographer increased the land masses by the poles so that would line up with the lines of latitude and longitude. Another point made by the Cartographers for Social Equality was that when a lot of people learn about maps in school or just see them they associate Land with power. So if they saw a bigger land mass some people might think that it has more power over the rest of the world. This makes people believe that the smallest countries have the least power over the world when that is not necessarily true. That is why the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality want the President to make all of the public school kids in the United States use the Peters Projection map instead of the Mercator map.

Projection

 On Thursday in Human Geo we talked about projection. I learned that the Scientific method of transferring locations Earths surface to a flat map is called projection. Earths spherical shape causes distortion when drawing it on a flat piece of paper. There are 4 different types of distortion. The first one is the shape of an area can be distorted. The second one is Distance between points may become increased or decreased. The third one is the relative size or different areas can be altered. The fourth and final one is the direction between the points can be distorted. The level of detail and the amount of area covered on the map depends on the map scale.

Maps of the world introduction

In Human Geo today we talked about maps. I learned many things about maps including that we have been using maps for hundreds of years. Maps serve the purpose of a reference tool to identify on objects and relative location and as a communication tool to convey the distribution of human activities or physical features. I also learned that the first world map was prepared by Eratosthenes in 276-194 BC. Improvements to the world map were later made by Ptolemy. After ptolemy the advancement in cartography was primarily made outside of Europe by Chinese and islamic world. Mapmaking revived during the age of exploration and discovery. The last thing I learned was that Mediterranean means the middle of the earth.

opinion on first test after taking it (socrates, excellence and democracy)

Today in class we took our first test in Human Geo. I thought that it was pretty easy compared to tests I have previously taken. I studied at my house for about an hour so I think that made it easier. There was only one question that I had trouble on. I had trouble remembering impiety for one of the things that socrates was charged for. Although this question was a bonus, I could not seem to remember what the mountain was named now. I can remember that they just recently changed the name back to an Native American name. Other then that I thought that the Essay and test were both pretty fair to what we learned in class. The test also wasn't very long. It only took me about 20 minutes to complete the whole test including the essay. I don't know if it wasn't long because I knew most of the answers as soon as I saw it or because the test only had like 20 questions. But overall I thought that the test was easy and fair.

Test on Monday 9/17

 Today in Human Geo I found out that we have a test on Monday. We talked about the expectations for test taking. Some expectations include no open notes during the test and cheating. we also talked about what was going to be on the test. For example many questions on socrates, excellence and a message to Garcia. I also found out that we will have to write an essay on excellence and why we learned it at the beginning of the school. This weekend I am going to outline my notes so I can memorize the more important parts of the information we learned so far. I hope that I will get a good grade on my essay and test since this is the first big grade in Human Geo this school year so far. I will also study so I can get a good grade on my first test in Human Geo this year!