Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Essential Questions

1.What are the population trends around the world and what factors are influencing those trends?
The population trend overall is that population is growing in general all around the world. Population grows in more places like Asia and Africa than in places like Europe and U.S.A because more poor countries are located in Asia. Like India people don’t have education and don’t know much about having to many kids, which makes the population increase. If they have more kids they have more people to help them work to take care of the family. But in countries like Europe and the U.S.A population either stays the same or decreases because those countries are richer and have more industries and a bigger economy.

2.What is being done to stabilize global population growth?
Developed countries, which have donor programs provide assistance to poor countries to help educate the people about population growth and about keeping families smaller. Some countries do drastic things. For example in China they have a one child per family policy. If they have more than one child people have to pay a fine.

3.How are resources distributed and utilized?
Resources are usually used by the government. The government utilizes the resources and distributes them through public institutions like schools, hospital, health clinics, etc.

4.What are the effects of humanity’s consumption of the world’s resources?
The effects of the of human population using up resources like water, oil, coal, wood, metals etc. is that they become scarce, more expensive and harder to get especially for poor people. Poor people will not be able to afford any of the resources that will be left because there will only be enough for people who can afford them.

5.What are possible solutions to problems associated with population trends and use of resources?
One solution to better using of natural resources is to use less of it. People should consider using alternative uses for resources like using a bicycle instead of using a car. Slowing down population grow is also a possible solution because that means less people will be using the limited resources that we have.

Monday, November 19, 2007

The Revealers

In the novel, The Revealers, the students of Parkland Middle felt connected through SchoolStream or as the students called it KidNet where they were able to chat or instant message. Most of you do this nightly through MSN Messenger. With KidNet and MSN nobody could break into or eavesdrop on your conversation without it being known. Not anymore. Today’s technology allows you to assume the identity of another person. Do you really know whom you are talking to in the cyber world?

It is 10:00 pm on a Wednesday night; you have finished your homework and you are chatting on MSN with three other friends. After 10 minutes two more friends ask to join the chat. By 10:30 pm five more people have joined and it is fun; however, there is a joke said about one of the people, rapidly followed by an insult. At first, no one knows how to respond, then seconds later a message pops up stating, “I didn’t say that! It isn’t me saying these things. Someone is using my name. What is going on here?”

What is the issue involved in this scenario? Why is this serious?

What would be a responsible way to handle this situation?

How could a situation like this be resolved? How would one of the three main characters from The Revealers deal with this situation?

The issue is that someone has hacked into the person's account and is using the person's account to talk to the other people and to say whatever that person wants. This is serious because they don't know who hacked in and why their saying all this stuff. They, also don't know who they hacked in and what to do next. To solve this situation you would need to figure out who is using the person's name and try to fix things like by getting someone to help you find out who is using that person's account. The characters in The Reavelers would probably send it to everyone so, that everyone would know about it and try to help and then they would try to find out who's doing this and they would make the person stop doing it. They would solve the problem in the end.

Monday, November 5, 2007

The Revealers
Blog Writing Topic

Blog response Instructions: Answer the questions in complete sentences, proper English and use examples from the novel whenever possible. Put page number after your examples. When writing comments to your peers, be respectful in your language and about their response. It is okay to disagree, but do it in a polite manner.

Blog Question: Is bullying a rite of passage of childhood and adolescence? Is it apart of the maturation process one needs to go through to reach adulthood? Explain. Mrs. Hogeboom brings up this topic on page 108.

I think you should not need to be a bully or to get bullied while your growing up but, I do think you should have a connection with a bully sometime so, you know and learn how to defend yourself. You should also try to help people who get bullied and try to do something right. But bullying does affect people while they grow up and should should always try to do the right thing. It could be something you need to go through during your lifetime at least once. I think you should go trough it once to reach adulthood.