Ashleigh's Blog

Today in class we took more notes on pages 35-43 in our textbook. I got up to page 41. I this section I learned that Egyptians believed in an afterlife. Something interesting about this was that if your heart weighed less than a feather after you died, then you were pure, and you would go to the afterlife. If your heart weighed more than a feather, then you were full of sin and you get eaten by a monster.  The social class in Egypt went royalty, Upper class, Middle class, and then Lower class (the largest class). After we took notes from the textbook, we went over a PowerPoint. In the PowerPoint, we talked about how the pharaoh was all powerful and worshiped like a God. Normally in these times, women did not have many rights, but women were able to inherit money and land. They were also able to divorce their husbands. Some women became pharaoh, but that was rare. 

Today in class we took our Mesopotamia quiz.  this I did good, but I think I got at least 1 or 2 wrong. I am ok with that though. After we took our test we took notes on pages 35-43. I only got up to page 38, but I still have a lot of notes. The topic we were taking notes on was Pyramids on the Nile. These pages talked about the geography of Egypt, the Nile river, the advantages of living near the Nile, some of the environmental challenges the land faces, Upper and Lower Egypt, the Kingdom in Egypt, and the pyramids. there were more things in these pages, but these were the only topics I took notes on. Some advantages of living on the nile are flooding which leaves behind silt which they can use to grow crops. Some challenges they face are if it doesn't flood enough, h, then that can lead to starvation and if it floods to much than it can destroy houses, granaries, and seeds for farming. Another challenge is that there are two land barriers on either side of the Nile, but that lea

Today in class we reviewed for our test tomorrow on Mesopotamia. To help us study, we watched a rap song about Mesopotamia. We also talked about what was going to be on the test by going through the PowerPoint and picking out important things that we need to know like definitions. Since we familiar with the topic we go to watch some interesting videos from John Carrol. We watched a happy video, a colon cancer video (to help someone beat it at John Carrol) and a video from a girl who went to John Carrol who went on American Idle. That video was really cool because she passed the first round. After we watched all those videos, we did a quizlet as a class to review even more for the test. To study for the test, I will probably make a quizlet or find someone else’s, look over the PowerPoint, and review my notes. I think I will do good on the test. 

Today in class we reviewed for our quiz on Wednesday. Our quiz on Wednesday is on the PowerPoint, our notes from the textbook, and some definitions we have learned. In the beginning of class, we were answering questions about our topic, Mesopotamia. I thought the was really helpful because it helped me to start thinking about what we have been learning. To study for this quiz, I started a definitions page in my notebook. This will help me a lot because I am going to write down all the definitions for the section. I will also look over my notes form the textbook. I am glad that I took detailed notes so I could study from them. I also used different colors the write definitions or important things I needed to remember. I will also study the PowerPoint and look over my notes form the PowerPoint. I think that if I study all these things, I will get an A. 

Today in class we took some more notes on the PowerPoint. We talked about the civilization in Mesopotamia. We learned about how Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians in 2350 B.C. Then how the Akkadian forced the people to worship their Gods. We also learned about Hammurabi's Code. Hammurabi's Code was a series of laws (282 laws). We looked up the list of laws and discovered that many of these laws were very specific and violent. Some examples are: "209. If a man strikes a free-born woman so that she loses her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss. 210. If the woman dies, his daughter shall be put to death. 211. If a woman of the free class loses her child by a blow, he shall pay five shekels in money. 212. If this woman dies, he shall pay half a mina."  - This is saying that if a man hits a pregnant women and she loses her child, then he has to pay 10 shekels, but if she dies, then her daughter has to die, or if she survives, but the child di

1. Fertile Crescent - region's curved shape and richness of land led to scholars Mesopotamia - land facing the Mediterranean Sea and it is also a plain City-State - functions like an independent country Dynasty - passing power to mostly sons, then them passing their power onto their heirs (a series of rulers from a single family) Cultural diffusion - when a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another Polytheism - belief in more than one God Empire - brings together several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of 1 ruler Hammurabi - a person who made a code of laws and believed that these laws would help unify the diversity in the empire 3. 3 challenges that the Fertile Crescent faces are: 1. They have unpredicted flooding with not much rain 2. The land has no natural protection 3. They have limited resources

Today was the last class of human geo because it is. semester class. Even though next semester I will still have the same teacher, but I will not be in the same class of people. I really liked my human geo class because we were a smaller class and I enjoyed it. I think we had the best class. I think this class was one of my favorites because the class was laid back, but the work was challenging. Next semester I will still have some of the same people in my class, so hopefully we will still have fun. I don't like big classes so I will have to get used to 23 people in my human geo class. When we were shown who was going to be in what class next semester on the board, I saw that I was going to be with some of my friends. I am sad this class is ending, but excited for the next one.  

I was absent today.

Today in class we reviewed for our Guns, Germs, and Steel test tomorrow. We talked about what we will need to know to get a good grade. We need to know the about Jared Diamond, Yali's question, Papua New Guinea, Geographic luck, Draa, granary, sago vs. wheat and barley, plant domestication, and the 14 domesticated animals, and Jared Diamond's Theory. Most of this was explained in the Guns, Germs, and Steel video that we watched in class last week. I will probably watch some of that video again, but not the whole thing because it is very long. After reviewing for our test, we watched teen jeopardy. I thought it was really fun watching teen jeopardy. I knew some of the answers but definitely not all of them. Anyways, I think I am prepared for the test tomorrow because I paid attention to the video and I think I have good notes to study for the test. 

Today in class we finished watching the rest of Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this last part of the video, we learned about was were the domesticated animals were from. None of them were from New Guinea, but 1 (the llama) is from South America and the other 13 are from Asia, Europe, and North Africa. This is an example of geographic luck. People who lived in Asia, Europe, and North Africa were geographically lucky because they were able to use animals to do work for them. Over the years, animals have been shipped to other countries. There never used to be any cows in North America, but now there are a lot. Other places, like Papua New Guinea have a geographical disadvantage when it comes to animals. They didn't have animals to plow their field or provide them with food. This leads to Diamond’s theory that places are more developed not because of their knowledge, but of geographic luck. 

Today in class we watched more of Guns, Germs, and Steel. We learned that to improve their lifestyle, New Guineans started farming their own food. People have been farming at New Guinea for 10,000 years. While doing this they were also staring plant domestication because of picking certain grains that had the most nutritional benefits, they were not picking every grain. Besides New Guinea, other countries that starting farming were the Middle East, China, America, and Africa. People also started to domesticate animals. Goats and sheep were the first animals to be domesticated. Since then, a total of 14 animal species are able to be domesticated. They are Goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, Bactrian camels, Arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mittens, and Bali cattle. They used these animals for plowing, milk, meat, clothing, and fertilizer for their plants. Many of these animals we see domesticated every day in zoo's and farms. 

Today in class we watched more of the Guns, Germs, and Steel video. In the video they said 3 things that all great civilizations have in common which are advanced technology, Large populations, and a well-organized work growth. For civilization to thrive and succeed they will probably need all these three things. Something interesting that I learned was that there are still some very small parts of the world were pope live how they lived 13,000 years go. One of those places is Papua New Guinea. What I found most interesting was that the outside of Papua New Guinea is living live the 20th/21st century. Some of ways that the hunters and gatherers survive inside of Papua New Guinea is by cutting down and eating Sago trees. Hunting is not a fast-enough way of getting food to feed a town or family, so women cut down a Sago tree and scrape out the edible pars and make food out of it. It takes bout 3-4 days to prepare. It’s amazing that people still live this way and can survive naturally wi

Today in class we learned about Guns, Germs, and Steel. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a video the was made by Jared Diamond. Jared Diamond is a professor at UCLA. He is also a biologist and specializes in human physiology. Besides these professions, his favorite thing to do is bird watching. He likes to look at them and classify what kind they are. His favorite place to bird watch is Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is an unspoiled island located near Australia. Everything is natural and manmade. People have lived on the Island for over 40,000 years (that is longer than people have lived on North or South America). People on the Island wonder why white people have more "cargo" then they do. This means that they have less than white people do. They thought race was power. The thought that white people were superior, and the white people thought they were genetically superior.