Essay Day

Today we wrote our essay for exam. I feel confident about my essay. I finished with around two minutes left. I am extremely happy and thankful that we were allowed to bring in note cards for the essay. If we were not allowed to bring those in I would have been stressing out a lot more. With the note card I was able to ensure I had all the information and points I wanted to bring up before turning it in. I am also glad to have gotten a portion of the exam over with. Getting that finished lets me have more time on the actual exam without having to stress out. I believe I will need to study for the exam and the earlier content. I have time to work on studying for this exam and prepare myself. I am nervous for all my exams and I hope I can do well on them.

Finishing Exam Essay

Today I had a friend read my practice essay. I feel good about my essay and I feel prepared. A lot of stress has been lifted since we learned that we can use a note card. I took my essay and summarized each paragraph to be shortened. I am nervous for the exam since I still have lots to review and go over. I will soon bring home all my folders. The earliest exam I have is coming up this week and I am trying hard to study. I am extremely stressed out and nervous. Exams are already nervous before our break. Hopefully I can do well on these exams. Lots of studying needs to be done still and reviewing. Recently I have had lots of homework after school so its been hard to get study time in. Exams are important and can affect my semester grade which is something new to me.

Exam Essay Practice

Today we began writing our essay ideas down for our exam. I was confused and nervous at the beginning of class, but by the end I felt that I had a better grasp what I wanted to say. Tonight I am going to finish my essay so I can review it with groups tomorrow. I chose to begin by preparing to answer option C. I feel confident about my current response. I got to write most of the essay before the end of class. I am still nervous to write the essay on Friday because I am worried I will forget my ideas on Friday. I tried my best to finish and I am ready to write the essay. I have been thinking about how I want to finish my essay and try to remember it. After that I have to study the rest of my Human Geography notes for my exam next week.

Demographic Transition Quiz

Today in class we took our quiz on demographic transition. I did not feel confident about this quiz leading up to it. I had studied for this quiz, but for some reason could not memorize the different stages. I tried to do my best, but I did not review the videos well enough. I only watched one of the videos over again. That was difficult for me and the math was also difficult for me to remember. I think that was the questions that I feel least confident about. I was hoping to do better and feel better because this stresses me out for the exams coming next week. I am getting extremely stressed for my exams. This class has been difficult for me studying wise. I feel better knowing we can practice and  study for our exam. I am still extremely nervous! I am just excited for our break to come in two weeks to help relax and sleep in.

Demographic Transitions Review

Today in class we learned about demographic transitions. We discussed the three videos we watched yesterday during class. The main points of the video were the factors that come into play were for each stage. The first stage main factors evolved not being able to find food, animals and vegetation. This stage had high CBR and high CDR. Large families were encouraged for help at the home and some religious reasons. This was a low rate of increase. The second stage was a time when developing countries had a decrease in CDR from the Industrial Revolution for developed countries. An increase in CDR and a high CBR occurred in developing regions when there was an increase in medical revolutions. In the third stage there is a decrease in the CBR as more families choose not have as many children in their families.Women getting involved with the workforce is also a choice in the decrease in amount of children being born. The CDR continues to fall slowly. The fourth stage is where most countries are found currently. In this stage the CBR is beginning to slowly rise and the CDR is staying stable. This stage has more of a balance since most families have less children and focus more on career and life before having children.

Watching 3 Demographic Transition Videos

Khan Academy Video:

1. You can find the growth rate of a country by subtracting the initial population from the current population and then dividing by the initial population. Once you do that, you can multiply that new number by 100 to get a percentage. 
2. The first stage of the demographic transition shows a decrease in population. The second and third stages show an increase in population due to technological advances. The fourth stage shows a decrease in population because of the lowered number of people having children. 
3. The fifth stage of demographic transition is simply a theory with many questions, but some scientist and people say that the worlds population may stabilize over the years of possibly begin to decline as people continue to use up our natural resources. 

Kim Smith Video:

1. A crazy fact in this video is that the worlds population is expected to continue to grow until we reach 9-10 billion people in around 2050. To me this is a scary facts because I already worry about the 7.6 billion people we have right now on earth. We already need so many resources and supplies that we may run out of by then. 
2. In the early stages of demographic transition, the birth rates were so high because women and children were seen as property. Birth rates were higher than today because children were more beneficial to have around as an extra set of workers at the house with farming and other tasks. Today birth rates have dropped because there is not that high demand for extra labor in the homes. People still have children though to create their families, but now children become liabilities and cost more. 
3. A major concern with over population is called the demographic trap. People have theorized that if a regions population becomes to high, they will begin to lose many required and essential resources for survival so they would be pushed back into stage one. 

Why Populations Grow Video:

1. Population growth can sometimes be calculated by finding the doubling time or the time it takes a regions population to double. This can be calculated by dividing 70 by the growth rate. 
2. The lack of high death rates in developing countries is do to things such as famine, poor quality water sources, high amounts of disease from low sanitation, war, and more. The falling death rate has been improved by improved sanitation, improved food production, and improved medical items.
3. Most developed countries are found in stage four. This means their population is stable. Reasons behind this could include having strong economies, having more educated citizens, strong health care systems, more women in the work force and are highly urbanized. 

The most helpful video for me was the Khan Academy Video. I enjoyed have the visuals with graphs and images to help give me a better understanding and clearer view of what demographic transition is and how it changes over time. I also felt that the example of having a new country and showing the demographic transition over time of that one country helped me to see what is happening to the population through each stage. This video also had population periods to show the change over time which was useful for me since I had previous knowledge on how to read and understand what is happening in a population pyramid. This video helped me the most in getting a more complete understanding of what a demographic transition is. 

Demographic Transition

Today we read an article about demographic transitions. A demographic transition is a process of change in a societies population from high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population. There are four to five total stages and there is country that is in every one. The first stage is low growth. The is a very high CBR, very high CDR, and a very low NIR. When food was easily available and obtained the population grew. When food, animals, and vegetation were not as easily accessible, the population declined. The second stage is high growth. Stage 2 has high CBR, rapidly declining CDR, and very high NIR. Developed regions entered this stage after the Industrial Revolution while developing nations entered this stage in the medical revolution. Stage 3 has moderate growth. There was rapidly declining CBR, moderately declining CDR, and moderate NIR. This is when people decided to have fewer children causing a drop in CBR.  Developed regions entered in the first half of the twentieth century. Developing regions entered in the second half of the twentieth century. The fourth stage has low growth. There is very low CBR, low or slightly increasing CDR, and zero or negative NIR. This stage is when the CBR declines to the point where it equals the CDR and the NIR is zero. This is zero population growth.