Maddie's Western Civ Blog

I just took the essay portion of the exam. The whole time I was very distracted because I am sick. I couldn't focus on my work that well. It was not as stressful as I thought it was going to be. Last night, I was having a really hard time trying to come up with ideas for option A. I decided to switch to option C. I had a much easier time coming up with ideas and constructing my essay. It did not take long to get all the information that I needed on my notecard.  Writing the essay was a little stressful but it wasn't that hard. I just tried to relax and take my time. I wrote about the stages of the Demographic Transition. I described the stages and gave examples of a country for each of the stages. I don't think this essay is my best work. I have been sick this whole week and I know I could've done better if I wasn't sick.

Today in class we prepared for the exam. At the start of class, Mr. Schick told us that we could bring in a 4x6 notecard for the essay portion of the exam on Friday. This is good news. I tried to finish writing my essay during class, but I was very distracted. I still don't even know if I am going to continue with the essay I'm writing. I don't really understand the prompt and I can't find a lot of information on it either. Maybe I can look at the two other prompts and see if I can come up with any good ideas. I am really nervous for the exam on Friday. I don't feel prepared and I am not excited. 

On Friday, I am going to have to write an essay in class for the exam. The essay has to be 5 paragraphs long. Mr. Schick gave us three options to write about. I choose option A.  Here is option A: Option A: Choose three nations from three different parts of the world. Discuss the challenges they face regarding population and migration, using information we learned during our studies (perhaps including CIA World Factbook data, population pyramids, Net Migration Rates, possible overpopulation or underpopulation). Also, analyze what each nation's leaders need to do to deal with these challenges. For my nations, I choose Japan and Chad. I have not picked my third country yet. I am planning on working on the essay tonight and choosing my final nation.  I feel very stressed and I am not excited for midterms. Hopefully I get good grades on all of my midterms. 

I just took the demographic transition quiz. I have no idea how I did. I did not study very well over the weekend. I had a bunch of other homework that I had to do and forgot about the quiz. I studied a little bit this morning but not that much. When I got the quiz, I knew the first section right away. I labeled the birth rate, death rate, and the rate of natural increase on the demographic transition model. The rest of the quiz was multiple choice and fill in the answer. Some of the questions I knew and were very easy, and other questions were the exact opposite. For the questions I didn't know, I just took my time and tried to remember as much as I could. I used the demographic transition map on the front page to help me. On Friday, we are going to be doing the essay for the essay portion of the midterm exam. I am nervous but I know what to do in order to be prepared. 

Today in class we reviewed for the quiz we have on Monday. The quiz is on demographic transitions. We first started class by looking at a demographic transition model and drawing it on a separate piece of paper. This took a little while but it was very helpful. On the quiz, we will have to know which line is the death rate, birth rate, and natural increase line. We will have to fill in a blank demographic transition model. I think the drawing will help me a lot. To study, I will draw the model again and memorize where everything is. After we spent some time drawing, we decided to watch the Khan Academy video. We paused the video when the lady said something important or interesting. I am not very nervous for the quiz on Monday because I think it will be easy. Hopefully I will get a good grade.

Khan Academy: 1. In order to find a country's growth rate, you need to count how many people were added to the population (including births and immigrants) and how many people were removed. You have to subtract the people that were added from the people that were removed. 2. Many things influence population growth, one of them being religion. Some religions promote large families, increasing the number of people in their faith. Some religions will forbid the use of contraceptives, ensuring large families. 3. In stage 3 of the demographic transition, we start seeing a trend towards smaller families because society is better and there are fewer childhood deaths. Child labor laws have been put in place, and now having large family is not economically benefical anymore. Kim Smith: 1. Since the Agricultural Revolution, (8,000 years ago) until the Industrial Revolution, the world's population only grew by only 67,000 people each year. 2. We will probably hit 9 or e

Today in class we went over the packet we were given yesterday. People were picked to read and summarize certain parts of the packet. I am very glad that I did not get called on to read from the paper. I think that reading out loud is not very fun. I am always scared that I will mess up. After lots of people took turns reading, we watched two videos about demographic transitions. One video was just this lady talking about demographic transitions. I found it very hard to pay attention to the video. The video was not very exciting. The next video was a Khan Academy video. This video showed demographic transitions in drawings. I liked this video better than the first one. For the final exam, we will have some questions along with an essay we have to write in class. I am really nervous for the essay because I don't know if I will be able to finish it on time.

Today in class Mr. Schick gave us a packet. We read the packet the whole class. The information on the packet was about demographic transitions. A demographic transition is a model that describes population change over time. There are 4 steps in a demographic transition. Step 1 is associated with pre-modern times. Step 2 is when the population starts to rise because of the decline in death rate. Step 3 is when the population starts to see a decline in birth rate. Step 4 is when the population age structure has become older. Sometimes there can be a step 5 in which the birth rate steadily rises and the death rate is low. After we read the packet, Mr. Schick passed out our religion tests. I did a lot better than I thought I did. I am very happy with my grade. After he passed out the tests, we went over the test as a class.