2.27.15

Today in west civ we took a test on ancient Egypt. Mr. Schick is grading them right now. I don't think I failed but it was kind of hard. There were a lot more details on the Nile River then I thought there would be, but I knew some of them. I got a 92 on the test so I'm pretty happy about that. Yay

2.26.15

1. The Nile River floods every _________ and leaves behind rich soil in _________.

(July, October)

2. Which of the following did the Egyptians NOT grow?

       a) wheat

       b) barley

       c) squash

       d) lentils  

3. Pyramids were typically made out of mud bricks, granite, or __________. 

(limestone) 

4. Which of the following is true about the ancient Egyptian writing?

       a) they wrote in hieratic script and hieroglyphs

       b) they made the exact english alphabet we have today

       c) they created paper from sago trees

       d) they drew very detailed and three dimensional pictures

5. Describe the pharaohs and how people saw them.

       The Pharaoh was an all powerful god-king to the Egyptians. He/she was worshipped as a god and intimately connected to other major gods and goddesses. Pharaohs had multiple wives and all routes to financial and social success were through the palace. When there were women pharaohs, they were able to inherit money, land, and divorce their husbands, though only a few ever wielded real political power. 

2.25.15

Today in west civ we went over the powerpoint on ancient Egypt. We started learning about the government by a god-king known as the Pharaoh. Pharaohs are the highest power in Egypt. They had multiple wives, and all routes to financial success were through the palace. Egyptian believed in an afterlife where all the (higher powered) souls go and justify themselves at the point of death and be sent to an after-world paradise, where as others will be eaten by a monster. The earliest form of Egyptian writing was from 3100 BC. They used small pictures to show religious words, parts of a word, or maybe a sentence which were called hieroglyphs. Egyptians learned to make paper and form them into scrolls. The paper they used was called papyrus. The astronomers created a calendar with a full 365 days and they used the calendar to separate the seasons so they would know when the river was going to flood, the best time for planting, etc. The doctors knew all about human anatomy and they write down things about certain health issues, they created potions, and even made cures. Wooden sailboats were made to navigate the Nile River easier.

2.24.15

Today in west civ we built pyramids online with our partners. My partner was Chesca. It took really long to do the pyramids because to successfully build it you had to get every factor right. Those included building material, where you build it, workers, taking care of the workers, the angle, and many more. It was also a challenge to navigate through through the Nile because there were crocodiles, grass, and land masses that we ran into a lot. Chesca finally figured it out and won the game. We were the third to successfully complete the pyramid, so we got a B which I am pretty happy about. It was very stressful but in the end it was fun and I'm glad we got to do that.

2.21.15

3500 years ago, Egypt broke out in wealth and power. The main cause of this was because of the architecture that they improved upon with the help of gold and gold mines. Digging for gold was a very important discovery. Gold gave the Egyptians wealth, power, and money which they could do just about anything with.

Having been along the Nile River, Egyptians had a huge advantage. They used the annual flooding to help grow crops. The second best technological advance was when they started to build dykes to control the water flow to where it would help farming. It continued farming and agriculture in Egyptian life.

Writing is the third most important development. It allowed education to expand and was the main cause job development. Egyptians wrote mainly in hieroglyphics and hieratic. It also made communication possible and it set the hierarchy.

Medicine and the discovery of human anatomy is the fourth most important technological development. Much of it was based on spiritual means along with myth and legend. They were the first to have actual physicians and doctors compared to medicine men that only used remedies based on belief.

Finally, astronomy. The Egyptians knew the years, months, and days all around and they were very aware of time in general. They used the patterns of the stars and the sun to figure out time. This continued over many years and led us to where we are today. The times of day also influenced how they built buildings in certain directions (towards or away from the sun).

2.19.15

Today in west civ we took notes on the prezi which we already took notes on cyberday. I'm not going to write them again because they're on my blog already. I have nothing else to say because that's all we did and I have all the notes.

2.18.15

I don't know if we have to blog today but I am. We would usually have class today because it's wednesday, but we went by a monday schedule.

2.17.15

Ancient Egypt

geography

-life is centered around the Nile River

- water for drinking, irrigating, bathing, transportation

- floods every july

- every october it leaves rich soil

- delta is a broad, marshy triangular area of fertile soil

- managing rover required technological breakthroughs in irrigation

Pyramids

- Great Sphinx of Giza (built 2555-2532 BC)

- a recumbent lion with human head

- oldest monumental statue in the world

 Daily Life

1. Pharaoh

2. gov officials, nobles, priests

3. soldiers (weapons, bow/arrow, ride chariots)

4. scribes (keep records, stories, poetry, described anatomy/medical stuff, wrote in hieroglyphs/hieratic) 

5. merchants

6. artisans

7. farmers

8. slaves/servants

- people raised wheat, barley, lentils onions

- artisans carve statues showing battles/scenes from afterlife

- money/barter system was used (trade grain, coins, etc)

one upper class=White Kilt Class (priests, physisians, engineers)

Pharaohs

- political/religious leader of Egytipan people

- owned all land, made laws, controlled taxes

Hatshepsut=woman pharaoh

Cleopatra VII= woman pharaoh (51-30 BC)

Gods/Goddesses

- over 2000 of them 

- "controlled" human lives 

2.12.15

Today in west civ we didn't do much. We went over our grades again and reviewed our two most recent tests. I got As on both of those so I was really happy about that. Mr. Schick also told us a cool trick for writing our test answers down and being able to study them. Instead of circling the letter, he told us to put the letter on the edge of the paper so we can cover them up and figure out the answer. It was a good class and I'm excited to learn new things.

2.11.15

Today in west civ we took a test. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I didn't fail. Mr. Schick graded them before we left and I got a 92% which I was really happy about. We didn't go over them, though.  I don't know what wasn't a hobby of Jared Dimond. I said nature photographer but I could be wrong. Since I got an A, I know I only got a few wrong so I'm happy with my grade.

2.6.15

Today in west civ we presented our power points on each of our subjects. Each group had one of animals, crops, germs, technology, and geography. Mr. Schick said the test was mostly on Guns, Germs, and Steel, so I didn't take notes on the power points even though each related to some things in the movie. It was a fun thing to do and I'm glad Mr. Schick had us do that. I learned a lot about each presentation and I think it will help us on the test. I think this test will be a little harder because even though we have good notes, we don't have a power point to study from. Speaking of tests, we finally got our early age people test back. I got a 91% and I was pretty happy because I think that's my best test grade since human geo.

2.5.15

Today in west civ we got into groups and gathered some facts about a specific topic. Our group got animals. Mr. Schick had us use a specific website to get information, and our animals were llamas, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, cattle, and zebra. I don't think I'm forgetting any..? It was fun because we made a really good powerpoint and had funny pictures. It was a fun day.

2.4.15

Today in west civ we finished watching the movie. We talked about how people came about building their houses and how the houses evolved over many years. The people learned that if they heated limestone to a thousand degrees, it would melt into a pasty liquid that they could use as plaster for their houses. This was very useful to keep their homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter. One thing Jared Diamond noticed about the New Guineans was that almost all of the things they did to make a living today were the same things they did thousands of years ago. It shows how little they have progressed in their way of life. Their living isn't a bad thing, it's just that they don't know how much easier life could be with some of the new modern technology. The US started growing wheat a long time ago and it wasn't even fertile to anywhere in the US, but now today americans eat about 20 million tons of wheat in one year. At the end of the video, Diamond answered Yalee's question with "Geography." There are some other factors as for why some areas are more advanced from others, but  it really matter where you are.

2.3.15

Today in west civ we continued watching the video on New Guinea and other people. We learned how in different areas advanced because they had animals, good resources, and were geographically lucky. We talked about how the New Guineans happened to be in an area where there is not much to use for survival, but they were still able to thrive. Eventually, they got barley and wheat because it's a lot better to store and they can grow a lot of it. Later on, animals were domesticated by humans, but there were only fourteen large animals that they were actually able to domesticate and use as farm animals to plow and use for their milk and hyde of clothing.