5/26/15

Today in West Civ class we took our test on Rome. I thought that the the test was pretty easy except for 2-3 questions. When everyone was done taking there test Mr.Schick graded the tests and told us our grade in class. I got a 100% and am really happy with it.

5/22/15

Today in class we went over the powerpoint and reviewed for tuesdays test. We also went over our exams and we have to write 3 essays on thursday since Mr.Schick is going to Chicago after exams and wont be able to get the essays done in time. Notes on Powerpoint

• after the victory, Julius wants to go to Rome and have a celebration to take power 
• senate says stop at the Rubicon and only take your elite soldiers to Rome
• Ceasar chooses to go into Rome with all his soldiers  
• he made his decision when crossing the Rubicon 
• the senate gets him into the Senate Chamber and stabs him to death  

5/21/15

Today in class we finished up presentations on Rome. I think that every group that went did a great job. Most, if not all the projects were unique and very creative. The test that was for tomorrow got moved to Tuesday so we have some extra time to review and study.

5/20/15

Today in class another three groups presented their projects. Jayla made a pot, Arthur ans Alex did there project on Roman architecture, and Trish and Caitlyn made Roman diaries. All three groups did a great job and it looked like it took all of them a long time. Tomorrow will be the last day of presentations.

5/19/15

Today in West Civ class we started presenting our Rome projects. Me and two other groups presented today. I thought that I did pretty well. Another group that went made pasta, salad, and cheesecake. The final group did a remix of an Iggy song and it was pretty good. We will continue presenting tomorrow in class.

5/15/15

Today in class Mr.Schick played us some of BB Kings songs since he passed away. Then he gave us the rest of class to work on our projects since they are due next class.

5/14/15

Today in class we took more notes on the power point. Here are the notes I took:

Poor Plebs

• The poet Juvenal said the people "anxiously how for two things: bread and circuses"
• Bread (free grain from the state) and entertainment (Circus Maximus, Colosseum), partly to keep them alive, and partly to keep them quiet.

Change in rule

• Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the plebeians
• Military generals worked that angle - lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils.
• Soldiers loyalty was to their military leader, not necessarily to Rome or the Republic

Caesar

• Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE)
• A highly successful general
• He conquered the huge territory of Gaul
• Made common folks happy
• Made friends in high places
• - Pompey
• - Crassus

• These three men formed the First Triumvirate

5/13/15

Today Mr.Schick gave us a pop quiz on Rome. I thought that the quiz was relatively hard and i didnt do as well as i wanted to do. After the quiz, Mr.Schick gave us the rest of the class to work on homework or our Rome projects.

5/12/15

Today in class we finished watching the video on Rome. I personally think that he was a little power hunger, but he wanted the power to protect the people, not to rule over them. I do not think it was right for the senate to immediately go out and beat him to death.

5/8/15

Today in class Mr.Schick wasn't their so we got the whole class to work on our projects on Rome.

5/7/15

Today in class, we watched a video on Rome. It followed what we learned in the powerpoint

5/6/15

Roman Legion

• 5000 soldiers

• The Roman army's elite heavy infantry
• Recruited exclusively from Roman citizens

• Group of eighty's a century
• On horseback is the cavalry
• Shield, sword, dagger, and armor and tunic

Punic War

• 264-146 BCE
• Rome vs. Carthage
• Three wars

First Punic War

• 264-241 BCE
• Naval battle for control of Sicily
• Rome wins this one

Second Punic War

• 218-201 BCE
• 29 year old Carthaginian general Hannibal almost does the impossible: taking Rome
• Attacks Rome from NORTH after crossing Iberia (Spain) and the Alps
• Lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he never can get to Rome

Third Punic War

• 149-146 BCE
• Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage
• Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attacked the city
• Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city's walls and buildings were utterly destroyed
• When the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery
• The rest of Carthage's territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa

Economic change

• Slaves poured into Italy
• By the end of the second century BCE there were over a million slaves in Italy
• Small farmers lost their land to aristocrats if they couldn't pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting battles
• Slaves did the work for the rich on the farms for the rich

5/5/15

 Today in class we talked more about Rome. Here are the notes i took:

Rule of kings is replaced by rule of two consuls

• Consuls are elected officials
• Term of office: one year
• Always aristocrats (patricians)
• Patricians traced their descent from a famous ancestor, or pater ("father")
• Duties: dealing justice, making law, commanding the army
• One consul could veto the other

Fifth century BCE

• patrician dominance of the government was challenged be the plebs
• Plebs were 98% of the population
• Plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials
• Rome had no actual laws, just written customs
• Patricians could interpret these to their own advantage

Plebs refused to serve in military

• Laws were written out
• These laws were posted in public (in 450 BCE)
• Tribunes were elected

SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanum

• Designates any decree or decision made by "the Roman Senate and People

New Republic

• Democracy (the people's assembly and the tribunes)
• Aristocracy ( the Senate - approx. 300 members)
• Monarchy (the consuls)

Gov't.: Ancient Rome / USA

• Originally, the US modeled their new government on the model used by the Ancient Romans
• Not exactly the same
• Both have three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial)
• Both have a legal code

Executive(Rome)                                        

• Two consuls                             
• One year terms
• Each has veto power
• Controls the military
• Could appoint a dictator in a crisis for 6 months

Legislative

• Senate - 300 people - aristocrats
• Assemblies - 193 members

Judicial

• Praetors
• Chosen by the Centuriate Assembly
• One-year terms

Legal Code

• Twelve Tables

Executive(USA)

• President (and VP)
• Four year terms
• Can veto proposed laws
• Commander-in-Chief

Legislative

• Senate - 100 senators (two from each state)
• House of Representatives -  435 members

Judicial

• Supreme court
• Nine members
• Appointed by the President
• Lifetime terms

Legal Code

• Bill of Rights

5/1/15

Today in class Mr.Schick gave us the class to do what ever we wanted to do. We could work on our Rome project, do homework, or just do what we wanted. I took the class to finish all of my homework so I didn't have and for the weekend.

4/30/15

Notes on Rome:

Etruscans

• Came from the north-central part of the peninsula
• Metalworkers, artist, architects
• Two foundation myths: Virgil's Aeneid (where Aeneas escapes from Troy), plus the story of Remus and Romulus

Greeks

• They had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea
• Romans borrowed ideas from the such as:

• Religious beliefs
• Alphabet
• Much of their art
• Military techniques and weaponry

Latins

• First to settle in Rome
• Descendants of Indo-Europeans
• Settled on the banks of the Tiber
• Situated so trading ships - but not war fleets - could navigate as far as Rome, but no further
• A commercial port, but not susceptible to attack
• Built on seven hills (esp. Palatine)

• Remus wanted Aventine
• Romulus wanted Palatine

Swamp

• Many streams flowed into the Tiber
• There was a marshy are called the Forum, between Palatine and Capitoline Hills
• Tarquin the Proud's grandfather built the Cloaca Maxima (largest ancient drain), which channeled water into the Tiber

Tarquin the Proud

• Lucius Tarquinias Superbus
• The seventh and final king of Rome
• Known as Tarquin the Proud
• A true tyrant, in the old and modern sense of the word
• Tarquin seized power like an old school tyrant

4/29/15

I was unable to blog becauase I was at track

4/28/15

Today in class we talked about the riots that are going on in Baltimore. We spent the whole class talking about this. I think that both sides did wrong. I think that the white cops shouldn't have killed the black man, but I also think that the people of Baltimore shouldn't we burning down buildings and cars and robbing places. I just hope the whole situation gets better.

4/24/15

Today Mr.Schick gave us the whole class to work on our projects.

4/23/15

Rome

- centered around Tiber River 

- located near the sea 

- on top of a hill- they could see their enemies coming 

- took years to drain the swamp before building 

- had somewhat of a sanitary system

Tarquin the Proud 

- ruled from 534-510 BC

- last king of Rome

- is thought to have killed a family member 

- his son raped a women who is highly respected

- she later committed suicide because she felt guilty

- Tarquin did not punish his son  

- was later kicked out of Rome for this 

- influenced their type of government- didn't want another cruel king 

- democracy, aristocracy, monarchy: combination of these became their new government 

- first step towards plebeians having rights was when the list of laws became public

4/22/15

I was unable to blog because I was at a track meet.

4/21/15

Today in class we starting talking about Ancient Rome. Here are the notes I took:

Ancient Rome:

• Ninth Century- Etrusans, Greeks & Latins made settlements near Tiber River
• The Latins first

City State and Empire:

• Italy and its peoples
• Indo-European tribes moved into the Italian peninsula and some settled along the Tiber River creating the city-state known as Rome
• Romulus and Remus (How Rome came to be)
• Etruscan settled in north part of Italy
• Rome is set up as a city-state
• Romans influenced by Greeks 
• Originally, Rome was a monarchy on the Etruscan model with a council of elders called the "Senate"
• 500 B.C. the Romans overthrew their monarchy and established a "Republic"
• Since the Senate was populated only by patricians and plebians fought for a vote in Rome's government
• Each year the Senate elected two rulers, "consuls", who each served a term of one year
• As in the Greek city-states, The Romans would appoint a single dictator in times of war or conflict
• 12 Tables
• Respublica- latin for "peoples affairs"
• Saw fighting for homeland as a duty
• 476 B.C. Roman Empire came to an end 

4/17/15

Today in west civ class, Mr.Schick gave us the day to catch up on work since our class was a day ahead of the other ones. We were aloud to do homework we had from another class, talk about our upcoming project, or just do whatever. Since i was done all of my homework, my group and I discussed what we were doing for our project. After that I just played games on my laptop.

4/16/15

Today in class we brainstormed project ideas for our Ancient Rome unit. I think that there were a few good ideas, some ideas ideas seemed a little crazy but overall I think we came up with some good ones.

4/15/15

Today in West Civ class we watched a video on one of Plato's writings. At first I found the video relly confusing but after we finished watching it and discussed it in class i started to get it. We spent half of the class watching the video and the other half discussing it.

4/14/15

Today was our first West Civ class since break. During class we took the time to go over the test that we took on the last day before break. I got a 86 on the test which im pretty happy about. I thought that a few of the questions were a little hard. Each person read a question and then gave the answer to it. I like when we go over the tests in class so i know the right answers and can study for finals.

3/27/15

Today in class my group and I almost finished our paper. I think that we only have one paragraph left to write, which Evan is going to do at home. On Tuesday our group is gonna watch the video and prepare for our test on Wednesday. I hope the test is relatively easy and that I get a good grade on it.

3/26/15

Today in class we started our 1.000 word paper. We have most of our paper done. Since my computer is broken, I had to type my stuff either at home or on someone elses laptop. We only have 3-4 more paragraphs left to write and then we can relax during class and watch the video. For our project, we split up the parts randomly and gave each person in our group 3 paragraphs. I got the introduction, importance of Homer and other works. I think that we are going to do really well on this paper.

3/25/15

Today was the last day for the presentations on Ancient Greece. Veronica and Adam went first and did their presentation on Gods & Goddesses and their role in Mythology. They did a good job and had a lot of information each God/Goddess they talked about. After they presented Dylan, Jeremiah, and Parker presented on the governments in Ancient Greece. They did a somewhat good job but I think that they read a lot off the power point. After we finished the presentations were started to go over Mr.Schicks powerpoint. 

3/24/15

Today in class we continued presenting our presentations on Ancient Greece. The first group that went  presented on Pericles and the Golden Age. I thought they did pretty good explaining things instead of just reading off the slide. After them the next group presented  presented on Hoplites & Triremes: Warfare. I think that they also did a pretty good job at not reading of the slides. The last group to go presented on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. I think that all of the groups did a good job presenting.

3/20/15

Today in West Civ class we began to present our power points to the class. Each presentation was only supposed to be 5 minutes but the first group had a lot of info and ended up taking up half the class. The next group to go was my group. I think that we did very well and I hope tat I get a good grade. Mr.Schick said for the groups that didnt get to present, he would look at their power points and just grade them off of that.

3/19/15

Cleisthenes and Isagoras

• After Hippias, Isagoras and Cleisthenes (both aristocrats) engaged in a power struggle 
• Isagoras had support from aristocrats and Sparta 
• Cleisthenes had support from most of Athens 

Isagoras

• Ostracizes Cleisthenes 
• Cleisthenes's supporters and Athenian citizens revolted against Isagoras's tyranny
• they trapped Isagoras on the acropolis for two days- on the third day he fled and was banished 

Cleisthenes 

• Cleisthenes was a member of the elite 
• very rich
• insulated from the "hoi polloi"
• a crafty politician 

3/18/15

Today in West Civ we talked about aristocrats and other topics. Here are the notes i took:

Aristocracy is rule by aristocrats
They attended Symposiums, meetings where elite men would enjoy win and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras while discussing politics.

Aristocracy
No Women
No Middle Class
No Slaves
Even Certain Aristocrats were excluded

Tyrants seize control
-sometimes aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites (well-armed soliders) and set up an alternative form of government called tyranny
-Tyrant: someone who rules outside the framework of the polis
-modern meaning of tyrant: an abusive or oppressive ruler
-The Greek meaning of tyrant: someone who simply seized power (usually with hop-lite help)

Clash of the Tyrants
-Hippias was a tyrant who ruled from 527 to 510 B.C.E.
-His brother was murdered, and his rule became harsh
-Eventually he was expelled from Athens (ostracized)
-In revenge, he began working with the Persian King Darius I, helping them invade Marathon

3/17/15

Today in class we continued to worked on our power points that are due Friday. My group and I finished our project in the middle of class so we spent the rest of class playing on our laptops. Today was also Jess' birthday and she brought in brownies for the class. I thought that they were great and I liked them.

3/13/15

Today in class we continued working on our powerpoint projects that are due on Friday. We spent the whole class time working on it so we got a lot done. We have about 12-13 slides done on our powerpoint. After we are done with the powerpoint we have to write a 1000 word paper on the same topic as our powerpoint. I don't think writing the paper will be that hard because we have a lot of information on the powerpoint.

3/12/15

Today in class we started on our power points. My group is doing a power point on homer. We got a couple slides done today. We have to have atleast 18 slides in our power point. We also talked about what we are going to do when Mr.Schick isn't here. We are either going to watch a video or work on our paper.

3/11/15

Today in class we took 10 minutes to review over the Ancient Greece power point. Then we took a pop quiz on it. We had to answer 10 questions and we got 10 sec to answer them. I thought that the quiz was really easy and then I ended up getting a 100. After the quiz we talked about our upcoming project. We have to make a power point and a 1000 word essay on our topic. My group is Evan and Steven. We have to do our project on the life and writings of Homer.

3/10/15

Here are more notes on Ancient Greece:

Ionian Sea - South of the Adriatic Sea
Fertile valleys cover one quarter of the peninsula, only 20% arable
Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, and olives
Lack of resources most likely led to Greek colonization.
Temperatures usually ranged from mid 40s in winter to low 80s in summer.

Mycenaean
Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge and protected by a 20ft brick wall.
Mycenae kings dominated Greece from 1600-1200 BC
- controlled trade in the region
1400 BC - Mycenaean's invaded Crete  and absorbed Minoan culture and language.
1200 BCE- mysterious "sea people" invaded Mycenae and burnt many palaces (the sea people also invaded Egypt)

Dorian's

where far less advanced

the trade based economy collapsed

writing disappeared for 400 years

Homer

Greek oral tradition - stories past on by word of mouth

Homer lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages"

He composed stories of the Trojan War 750-700 BC

The lliad - probably one of the last conquest of the Mycenaeans ( the Trojan War) 
The Odyssey- Odysseus attempt to return home, being thwarted by the angry god of the sea, Poseidon (won a war, was trying to get home to his son and wife) 
The Odyssey is 12,110 lines of rhyme

Cyber Day 5

Plato

Plato was born somewhere between 428-427 BC in Athens and died somewhere between 348-347 BC in Athens. Plato was no only a Greek philosopher but also a Greek mathematician. Plato was influenced/taught by Socrates and Pythagoras. Plato was a superb writer and wrote many dialogues. In his dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ides of Socrates. Plato influenced most of western philosophy that came after him.

Cyber Day

Ancient Greek Architecture

The Parthenon
The Parthenon was built in 447-432 B.C.
It was built on the Acropolis.
The Parthenon is a Doric design with lonic features.
It is made of ivory and gold.
The Parthenon has a statue of Athena in golden armor.


The Theatre of Dionysus
The Theatre of Dionysus was built in the 4th century B.C.
It was built on the South slope of the Athenian Acropolis.
It was made of stone.
The shape of a semi-circle.


The Temple of Aphaea
The temple was built around 500-480 B.C.
It is on the Greek island of Aigina
Built of limestone
Dedicated to the goddess Aphaea

3/4/15

Today in West Civ class we talked about up coming Cyber Day assignments that we were probably going to have in the up coming snow days. It is supposed to snow tomorrow and we most likely wont have school tomorrow and Friday. Im looking forward to it snowing a lot and cant wait to get out of school for awhile. The only problem is that I have to shovel my drive way and a lot of snow makes it harder.

3/3/15

Today in West Civ we started to talk about Ancient Greece. Here are the notes I took today:

The greatest civilizations in the world were all on rivers:

• Mesopotamia - Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Egypt - The Nile
• India - The Indus River
• China - Huang He River

Location and Geography

• By the Mediterranean Sea which means middle of the Earth
• Made up of more than 1400 islands
• Topography - Very Mountainous
• Peninsula
• They have the Adriatic Sea to the West and the Aegean sea to the East
• Crete is a big island off the south coast of Greece

Mr. Schick showed us 2 maps in class. Here they are:

2/27/15

Today in West Civ we took our test on Egypt. I thought that for the most part the test was pretty easy. I thought that a couple of the questions were hard though. The test was on a scantron and it was 26 questions long. Our average for the test was 87%. This is better than both of the other classes. I got a 92 on the test which is what i expected because i didn't know two or three questions.

Cyber Day

1. What was the earliest form of Egyptian writing?
A. Hieratic Script
B. Ideograms
C. Hieroglyphs
D. Demotic

2. Who were not used to build the pyramids?
A. Craftsman
B. Farmers
C. Officials
D. Slaves

3. What is most unique about the Nile
A. Flowed north to south
B. Flowed south to north
C. Flowed east to west
D. Flowed west to east

4. What is one thing that Egyptians created to help increase transport ability on the Nile?
A. Sailboats

5. What is the harmony and balance of the universe the Egyptians relied on called?
A. "maat"

2/25/15

Today in West Civ we took notes on a power point. Here are the notes I took:

Government by a God-King

• Pharaoh was all powerful, worshipped as a god and intimately connected to the other major Egyptian gods and goddesses.
• Egyptians relied on a harmony and balance of the universe, which they called "maat"
• Pharaohs had multiple wives, and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace.
• Women could inherit money and land and divorce their husband, though only a tiny few ever wielded real political power.

Gods, Humans, and everlasting life

• Gods were often portrayed with animal heads and bodies
• Egyptians believed in an afterlife and mummified bodies to preserve them for this post-death journey
• All souls would need to justify themselves at the point of death and be either sent to an after-world paradise, or the jaws of a monster.

The Writing of the Words of God

• Earliest Egyptian writing formed c. 3100 B.C. and were small pictures known as hieroglyphs
• Hieroglyphs represented religious words, or parts of words, and most commonly adorned temples
• Hieratic script was a shorthand development by scribes and priests
• Hieratic script was usually written in ink on papyrus, which was made from mashed Nile reeds
• Papyrus, the precursor to paper, was stored in scrolls and these scrolls were the books of ancient Egypt.

Calendars and Sailboats

• Egyptian astronomers created a calendar with 12 months and 365 days to make better sense of the seasonal cycles.
• Due to the excellent knowledge of human anatomy, Egyptian doctors wrote extensively on health issues and created potions and cures for a number of common ailments
• Wooden sailboats were constructed to increase transport ability on the Nile

Pyramids and Temples

• The pyramids were massive stone tombs, originally covered in marble but the marble was later stripped off during the Muslim conquest
• The Temple of Amon at Karnak is the largest religious building in the world, also made out of huge blocks of stone
• Stone sculptures and interior painting depicted humans as gods in a series of regulated poses, often in profile and without perspective, but were highly effective

2/24/15

Today in West Civ class we had to build a pyramid with a partner. The first two groups to finish got an A, the second two groups to finish got a B, and all the other groups to finish got a C. At first I thought that it was pretty hard but once i got into it, it was pretty easy. Me and my partner were the first group done so we got an A. It was funny watching other people struggling a lot with building the pyramid. In the end, everyone in the class finished.

2/20/15

Technological developments of the Ancient Egyptians that helped them advance as a civilization.

1. Medicine - Herbs, acupuncture and prayer were commonly used to heal people. Medicine is a very important invention because it helped them to cure tons of people and save many lives.

2.  Calendar - Without a calendar, ancient Egyptians had no way of knowing when the flooding of the Nile would begin. Without that knowledge, their entire agricultural system would be put at risk. There calendar was split up into 3 seasons: inundation, growing and harvest. Each season had four months, with each month divided into 30 days. Adding it all up, you get 360 days a year.

3.Written Language - The Egyptian writing system began with pictograms. Pictograms were simple depictions of the words they represented, but they had limitations. Over time, Egyptians created alphabet like characters that stood for certain sounds and other characters, allowing them to write out names and abstract ideas. Egyptians are know for the creation of hieroglyphs which contained a mixture of alphabetic, syllabic symbols, as well as ideograms

4. Papyrus - Papyrus is a stiff, reed like plant that grew/grows in the marshy areas lining the Nile. It was ideal for making sheets to write on and many other things. They were used for everything from religious texts to literature and even music.

5. Toothpaste - Egyptians had a lot of trouble with their teeth. Part of the reason was because their 
bread had grit and sand in it, which damaged the teeth. While they didn't have dentistry, they did make toothpaste and tooth brushes to help keep their teeth clean. 

2/19/15

Today in West Civ we went over the Ancient Egypt powerpoint. Here are more notes I took on it:

Geography

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
•  
• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River
• Nile water is used for drinking, irrigating, bathing, and for transportation
• Flows North to South
• Longest River 4,000 miles
• Learned how to irrigate it

Pyramids

• The Great Sphinx of Giza
• built 2555-2532BC

Daily Life

2/17/15

Today we had a Cyber Day. Here are the notes I took on Ancient Egypt.

Geography

• Egyptian life is centered around the Nile River
• Nile water is used for drinking, irrigating, bathing, and for transportation
• Nile floods every July
• Leaves behind rich soil in October
• The delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile silt

Pyramids

• The Great Sphinx of Giza (built 2555-2532 BC)
• A lion with a human's head
• Oldest monumental statue in the world

Daily Life

• Slaves/servants helped the wealthy with household and child raising duties
•  Raised wheat, barley, lentils, and onions - benefited from irrigation of the Nile
• Artisans would carve statues and reliefs showing military battles and scenes in the afterlife
• Money/barter system was used - merchants might accept bags of grain for payment - coinage came later
• Scribes kept records, told stories, wrote poetry, described anatomy, and medical treatments
• They wrote in hieroglyphs and in hieratic
• soldiers used wooden weapons with bronze tips
• Upper class, known as the "white kilt class" priests, physicians, engineers

Pharaohs

• The religious and political leader of the Egyptian people, holding the titles: Lord of Two Lands and High Priest of Every Temple
• He owned all land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners
• Hatshepsut was a woman who served as a pharaoh
• Cleopatra VII also served as a pharaoh

Gods and Goddesses

• over 2000 gods and goddesses
• they "controlled" the lives of humans

2/12/15

Today in West Civ we went over the two test that we have taken this year. Mr.Schick told us that we should keep the answers because some or most of the questions will end up on Finals. Overall today was a really easy class. Next class we are going to be starting to talk about ancient Egypt. Now I am looking forward to our four day weekend. I'm hoping that it will snow Monday night or Tuesday morning so our weekend can be even longer.

2/11/15

Today in West Civ class we took our test on the Guns, Germs, and Steel video that we watched in class. I thought that the test was really easy and I hope that I get a 100% on it. If I get a 100 on the test it wont really help my grade since I already have a 99 in the class. Before we took the test, Mr.Schick gave us 15 minutes to review for the test since we haven't had class for awhile. I think that the extra 15 minutes helped me to get a better grade.

2/6/15

Today in West Civ class, people started to present there power points on the subject that they chose. Our group got to present today which I liked because now I don't have to worry about it. I think that our groups presentation went pretty well and I hope everyone liked it. We have a test on Tuesday on the video that we watched in class. I think that the test will be easy since I have good notes about the video. I hope that the test will be as easy as the last on we just took. I'm mad about the last test because I got a 99% on it.

2/5/15

Today in West Civ class we split up into groups and began to work on our project. We picked numbers out of a hat to see who got to pick there topic first. Our group got to pick third and we chose writing. We started a google presentation so that all of us could work on the powerpoint at once. I like using google presentation because then everyone can work on the same powerpoint at once instead of working on it one at a time or just having one person type everything. We pretty much finished and everyone is going to present next class.

2/4/15

Today in West Civ we finished watching the video that we started a couple days ago. Here are the rest of the notes that I took: 

In the area of Jordan, people start making plaster from limestone.The plaster helped to seal cracks and holes in the house and would help controlling the home temperature easier. This was a big advancement in understanding and control fire. The creation of plaster through adding heat to limestone would eventually lead to helping make steal. 

Fertile Crescent:

• Became dry from all the farming, and weren't many trees and vegetation, so people left
• People traveled east and west because there were similar climates and vegetation (this helped because the climate stayed pretty much the same and people didn't have to change their how the grew crops)
• This movement spread farming and trade of skills, goods, animals, and crops (if this didn't happen America would not be at all what it is like today)

A cool fact I learned from the video is that Americans eat 21 million tons of wheat a year.

The reason Americans have so much cargo and New Guineans don't is because of geographical luck. If New Guineans had what we started out with, then they would be the ones with all the cargo.

2/3/15

Today in class we continued to watch a video that we started last class. Here are the notes i took:

I the Middle East they had crops such as barley and wheat which can be stored for a long period of time. 

Draa is the first human settlement known to us right now.

Crops Grown:

Middle East: barley

China: rice

North America: corn, squash, and beans

Africa: Millets, sorghum, and yams

Geographical luck: luck of where you were born.

People born in China and the Middle East were lucky to get grains that you can store. 

Other people were were born to places without grains you can store and a lot of nutrition.

Animal Domestication: Humans controlling animals.

• Goats and sheep were the first animals to be domesticated.
• Ideal Animals: Animals that give birth at 1 or 2 years
• If humans can control the leader of a herd or group of animals the rest will follow the leader.
• There are 14 animals that weigh over 100 pounds that are able to be domesticated:
• Goat, sheep, pig, cow, horses, donkey, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalo, llama, reindeer, yak, mithan, balli cattle. 

1/30/15

Today in class we watched a movie called Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Jared Diamond is a scientists who grew up loving birds. The movie took place in Papua New Guinea, a country whose citizens still living like hunters/ gathers. They still will like this because they are secluded. The people are not starving, not unhappy, and are satisfied with what they have. 

There were two important questions in the part tat we watched that Mr.Schick told us to write down.

• What separates the haves from the have nots? 
• Why do white men have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little? 

The New Guineans can not believe how much cargo that Americans have compared to them. They can't believe that there are canned meat and goods, and boxed cereal. When whites people visited before they took advantage of the New Guineans and made them think that whites are genetically better. Diamond believes that New Guineans are very intelligent in they way that they live. The can go out into a forest and build a shelter in 15-20 min. Something we couldn't do.

 

There are three reasons why some civilizations have progressed? 

• Advanced technology 
• Large populations 
• Well-organized work force 

1/29/15

Today in West Civ we took our first test of the semester. I thought that the test was pretty easy and I think that I did a good job on it. Mr.Schick let us use our blogs which I think helped me out because I had a lot of the answers to the test on my blog. I feel like most peoples blogs helped them with the test. Everyone was glad when Mr.Schick told us that it was going to be an open blog test. I think that this will help boost our classes total test percentage.

1/28/15

Today in West Civ class we reviewed for our test that is tomorrow. We went over the power point that we talked about earlier this week. We talked about what we needed to know for the test. Here is what we talked about:

-200,000 years ago a human species emerged in southwestern Africa
-Prehistory is the time when things were not written down
- Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic Age
-Neolithic Age was marked by the advanced tool making and beginnings of agriculture.
-The Agriculture Revolution was a shift from itinerant hunting/gathering to more permanent settlements centered on agriculture.
-Populations rose due to increased ability to care for young children
-Invention of the wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage.
-Mesopotamia was where Iraq, Iran and Syria are now.
-Sumer was the first civilization (located between the Tigris and Euphrates River)
-Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing, known as "cuneiform"
-World's first (surviving) epic was Sumerian "Epic of Gigamesh" told of the great flood.
-King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as "Hammurabi's Code"
-Indo-Europeans were people who expanded away from the fertile crescent and introduced the horse to the near east.

1/27/15

Today in West Civ, Veronica brought in cookies for the class. I thought that they were pretty good. In class today we talked about Hammurabi's Code. I saw that in a lot of the codes that if you did a thing that was really bad you were killed. I also noticed that men were more respected than women. If a someone did the same thing wrong to a man and a women they would get punished more severely than when they did it to the women. Also, Mr.Schick moved our test from wednesday to thursday.

1/23/15

Today in West Civ we continued to talk about Mesopotamia. We talked about how the Sumerians organized a calendar and divided an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. We also talked about King Hammurabi of Babylon and the series of laws he created known as "Hammurabi's Code." Here are the other things that we talked about during class. 

More on Mesopotamia

• A pantheon of Sumerian gods and goddesses emerged, with many of the deities representing the natural element of the world.
• The world's first (surviving) epic was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh," which told of a great flood.
• Sumerians first divided the hour into sixty minutes and the minute into sixty seconds; they also organized a calendar based on moon cycles.
• The Ziggurat was a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth.

Civilization in Mesopotamia

• Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticated animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in Arabia
• King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as "Hammurabi's Code" - laws that included "an eye for an eye" and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes

The Expansion of Mesopotamian Civilization

• Indo-Europeans were people from the grasslands of the Russian steppe who introduced the horse to the Near East.