Reviewing Religion Test

Today we are reviewing our world religion test. I did not get the grade I hoped for, but my score was alright. I think I did not read questions carefully enough to get the score I had hoped for. I am ready to go over my test and see which questions I got wrong. I felt confident, but I was not careful. This quiz dropped my grade which upset me. I believe most of the questions I got wrong were between Hinduism and Buddhism since those are the two religions I commonly mix up. I am really ready for Thanksgiving break to come. I am very tired and am excited to leave with no homework. I plan on eating lots of food over break and enjoying time with my family who I am most thankful for. Thanksgiving is an underrated holiday to me. Most people look over it and look forward to Christmas instead, but now that I am thinking about it, Thanksgiving is great. You get to eat a huge feast, share what you are thankful for since I don't do it enough, and be surrounded with the people you care for most.

World Religion Quiz Day

Today in class we took a quiz on the top five major world religions. During this quiz I was extremely nervous and had been studying very hard. I spent my weekend study for the test and quizzes I have this week. I am nervous to get bad grades because the second quarter is so short so if I were to mess up, my grade may not be able to recover. I am worried that I over thought all my answers. I feel like I confused most question about Hinduism and Buddhism the most. I feel like these religions names are close and some of their religious beliefs are close. Now that I think about some of my responses, I am worried that I got many wrong. I am happy to get this quiz over with so now I only have one more test to worry about. I liked this quiz because I like having every question having the answers with five choices. I knew what all my possible answer choices were so I had a better chance of getting it correct.

Five Major Religions

Today in class we went over the last two of the major religions which were Buddhism and Judaism. Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world with 500 million- 1.5 billion followers. Most of its geographic location is southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan and the United States. The founder was Siddhartha Gautama. Their major beliefs are the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path. Judaism has 14-18 million followers being the ninth largest religion. The founder was Abraham and their geographic location is Israel and the United States. Their holy book was the Torah and their beliefs consisted of ethical monotheism meaning God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind. They also believed in the Ten Commandments. Although Judaism is not in the top five religions, it had major roles in influencing other religions in major ways. Those were the top five major religions in the world.

Beginning World Religion

Today in class we began discussing religion around the world. So far we began with Christianity being the most popular, then Islamic, and finally Hinduism. I was surprised to learn that over 2.2 billion people are Christians and over 1.5 billion people are Islamic. It is crazy to see such high amounts of followers for a religion. I was also surprised to learn that Hinduism is not considered fully a religion, but instead a lifestyle of faith. I didn't think that Hinduism was not considered a religion by its followers. It makes them seem so easy going and free. I often think that religions are much stricter with more rules. I also was unaware how widespread Christianity is. I did not know that people even from places like Africa have followers residing there and the multiple different denominations there are for Christianity. Compared to Hinduism, this is huge since there are only two denominations for Hinduism while Christianity has plenty more.

Test Review

Today in class we went over test. I am happy with my score and I understand what I got wrong. I tried hard on this test and did lots of studying. I am still nervous for our final exams though because I am worried about our earlier units. So far I am beginning to learn and understand what works best for me and best studying tricks. I enjoy this class, but sometimes I worry I wont be able to remember certain statistics. I remember vocabulary best compared to any other information. This test was easy and I am happy that I took the time to go over all my answers before I turned it in. The population period was the hardest for me to figure out and get correct. I had to go over those a few times before I felt confident since it was hard to determine the difference with percentages.

Test Day!

Today in class we took a test on Population and Settlement. I studied lots over the weekend to help me prepare for this test. After taking it, I felt that it was easy and I feel confident on my answers. I am hoping I did well to boost my grade up. I do not think I was able to get a perfect score, but I am hoping I was able to get an A. For me, taking tests are the worst thing. They cause lots of stress and have a major impact on your grade whether you do good or bad. I always put my best effort in, but sometimes it still doesn't work out. Tests are a big deal and I hope I can do well on mine. This unit was easy for me. I felt I was able to grasp the vocabulary and information better than some of the past units. I am ready to move on and begin to learn about different things now. Now my next biggest concern is our exams in December. Those will be the scariest for me.

Last Presentation and Grading

Today in class we watched the last presentation in class. This presentation was about the piracy in Somalia and the population decreasing in Japan. This presentation was very well constructed and presented. I enjoyed this presentation, but wished there were more pictures and it was long. Grading my group was the worst part. It stresses me out even though I know they wont see it. It feels like pressure to grade well and properly since I was unsure of how to grade and what would be fair. I enjoyed working in groups and the presentations. I had fun doing this project and think it worked out very well. It was lots of work and reviewing for the group. Now I am ready to go home. I am excited to take a nap and get some food to eat. I am also nervous for our test on Monday, but I will just do lots of studying.

Presenting Day

Today in class we began presenting our power points to the class. All the ones that were presented today were very good and detailed. I was extremely nervous to present in front of the class. I was worried I would forget what I need to say, but I did not. There were a few spots where I jumbled over my words, but other than that I felt pretty confident. I had been studying my slides to ensure I knew every part of our presentation, not just mine. My group and I spent lots of time researching and reviewing for our project, so I was not worried about that. One of our group members was unable to be there today so we had to make a few last-minute adjustments and corrections to our slides. My group worked very well together, and we were very efficient with our time. I am happy with our final product and presentation.

Reviewing Our Presentation

Today in class we began to read over our slides for our presentation tomorrow. I am nervous to present this information to the class because I worry that I do not know enough about my topic to answer every question asked. I will feel better standing in front of the class because I will have multiple other people up there with me. Tonight, I will be going over the power point again, so I am fully prepared. Presentations are not my favorite so, I am not excited. Our two countries were Cuba for the developing country and Russia as the Post-Industrial country. The problem of Cuba is their economy. They import most of their oil from Venezuela, but Venezuela has had a decrease in their oil production which is creating an oil shortage for Cuba. The solution for this would be to start importing oil from Brazil since they are closer to Cuba and they are a major producer of oil. The problem for Russia is that they are not making enough money of the oil they export so their economy is beginning to fall. Our solution is to have them begin exporting more agricultural products. They currently only make 4.6% of their GDP off of agricultural products, so if they find more trading partners for agricultural products they could make more money off of those products.

Finishing Our Projects

Today in class we finished up out presentations in class. I feel great about my group and our progress. We worked very efficiently and completed our project. It took me a while to figure out what I could do to help but I ended up helping organize and write up a slide. My slide is our solutions to one of Russia’s major problem. Class went by fast today and left me with some extra time. During this time I worked on reading over my slide so I could grasp the information more clearly and finish that up sooner. I am most nervous for presenting. I have a hard time maintaining eye contact with the audience and not reading off of the slides. This is why I try my best to study my slides so I won’t need to use the slide as help. I feel comfortable with my portion and information I need to remember. I am hoping that I’ll feel more comfortable with a group of people with me to present rather than me alone.

Beginning Our Projects

Today in class we began working on our presentations. My group chose Cuba as our developing nations and Russia as our post industrial. I am a little confused on the question being asked. I struggled with finding and determining the question being asked. I had a long day at school today and have multiple projects coming up soon. These are stressing me out and I don't know how to manage my time wisely. This project may take some extra time and work form home. I feel as though the scariest part will be presenting. I am not good at public speaking and tend to fumble over my words. I also tend to look at the ground and read from the slides. I feel better about the fact that our group has multiple people in it. I have a good group that I feel comfortable working with.

Exam Review Day

Today in class we began to review for our exam in December. We answered around 37 questions from our exam. I felt comfortable with these questions that were asked. The questions asked about things like Total Fertility Rate, Rate of Natural Increase,  Crude Birth and Death Rate, Population, Life Expectancy. Life expectancy is the average number of year a person or group has lived born in the same year. The number of people being born per 1,000 is Crude Birth Rate and the number of people dying per 1,000 of a population is Crude Death Rate. By subtracting the Crude Birth Rate from the Crude Death Rate you get the Rate of Natural Increase. The Total Fertility Rate is the average number of children being born per woman. For a country to have a stable population the TFR has to be 2.1 children born per woman. Above 2.1 increases the population and below 2.1 the population is decreasing. When more people are entering a country (immigrant) than leaving (emigrant)  the Net Migration Rate would be positive and the opposite. The population of the world is around 7.6 billion people and in the United States the population is around 326 million people. The world first hit 1 billion people in 1804. The final fact is that women tend to live longer than men for a few reasons such as women tend to take better care of themselves and women don't do as many risky things or jobs.

CIA Reflecting Our Studies

1.)

• My first fact is that Brazil has a Total Fertility Rate of 1.75 children per woman. This shows that the population will be decreasing for Brazil. We know this because the rate for a country to stay stable in population is 2.1 children per woman. If higher than that the population would grow and if lower the population will decrease. The population will be slowly decreasing over time. 
• The GDP per capita in Iraq is $16,700. This show can show how poor a country and their people are. This is a low average. This fact is so interesting to me because the GDP per capita in the United States is $59,800. This is such a major difference and to some citizens in the United States we may think that only $16,700 would be extremely difficult to live off of. This could be a major reason people emigrate from this country to a place where they could have better economic opportunities. 
• Another important fact is that the Net Migration Rate of Lebanon is -40.30 . This is a major fact because it shows how many people are leaving this country per 1,000 people compared to people entering. This fact shows that this is a country with more people leaving than entering. This fact also shows that this country has many push factors and does not have many opportunities compared to a place like the United States with a Net Migration rate of 3.80 immigrants for every 1,000 people. 
• The Democratic Republic of Congo has a Health Expenditure is 403% which is incredible. This is a massive percentage and will strongly benefit this country. This will help improve the countries population and increase the life expectancy if the can improve their health resources. The stronger these get and more the improve the longer their citizens can live. 
• The Net Migration Rate of South Korea is 0%. This means that nobody is entering or leaving the country in a year. This country is extremely controlled and monitored so nobody is entering nor leaving.  

2.)

• After looking at the population pyramid of Barbados the population will slowly decrease. This can be determined because the middle section of the pyramid is the longest while the bottom is shorter. This means that the population will most likely stay stable. 
• The population pyramid of Pakistan shows that the population will grow rapidly. This population will grow rapidly because the base is extremely long while the higher or older ages length decreases. More younger people are in Pakistan compared to the older ages. 
• The population in Singapore is growing at a quick pace. You can tell this because the middle section of of this population pyramid is the widest. This means that the population is growing but not at a rapid speed. 
• South Korea's population pyramid shows that the population is decreasing. The top of the pyramid is the widest and it narrows down as it gets lower. This means that there is more older people than younger people to reproduce. 
• Aruba has a stable population. The widest part of the population is the widest in the middle of the pyramid. This means that the majority of the population are adults who can reproduce. There is not an extreme amount of children to grow up and not an extreme amount of elders who are passing away. This population is stable and large. This is a dense population. 

Hans Rosling Video Quiz

Today in class we started with a discussion on our thoughts of the United States helping African countries begin exporting oil from their land. I think this could be a smart decision only if the United States would be getting some profit. It would most likely cost the United States to help them learn how to extrude the oil also the United States would be apart of the process so it could be a way for both countries to earn a profit. If not this would only be a one sided game. This partnership could also stem into an alliance of the countries. This would also be a positive thing for both countries.  I think it would also be a good idea for the African countries switched to a democratic nation. This would lead to less conflicts and the people could add some input rather than the government have the only say with all the power. We also re watched the Hans Rosling video and went over the main points in the video. After we did that we took a quiz on the main points. I did well on this quiz and feel comfortable with all the information.