Brianne's Blog

Today in Western Civ class we worked on a worksheet that can help us on our test on Egypt that is on Monday.  Mr Schick let us work on it for most of the class but he couldn't help us with like three of the questions because he didn't do the worksheet.  He was helping out with the babies last night and he said Isaiah was crying so he had to stay a little bit later.  On the worksheet we had to find the definitions of words from our book and write them down.  Mr. Schick had to look up two of the words because they weren't in our book.  one new thing I learned today was that a cataract is a bolder that causes rapid making water impossible.  One other word I learned was ka.  Ka is a king ruled even after his death, like eternal life force.  We didn't finish the other side of the worksheet because we didn't have time ti go over them and the other side was really hard. Lets hope Mr. Schick comes more prepared to class tomorrow!

1. Terms and Names A delta is a marshy region formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river Narmer was an Egyptian king who created a double crown from the red and white crown which symbolized a united kingdom. A pharaoh  i s a king of ancient Egypt, considered a god as well as a political and military leader. A theocracy is a government in which the ruler os viewed as a divine figure.  Another definition is a government controlled by religious leaders. A pyramid is a massive structure with a rectangular base and four triangular sides, like those that were built in Egypt as burial places for Old Kingdom pharaohs. Mummification is a process of embalming and drying corpses to prevent them from decaying. Hieroglyphics is an ancient Egyptian writing system in which pictures were used to represent ideas and sounds Papyrus is a tall reed that grows in the Nile delta, used by the ancient Egyptians to make a paper like material for writing on. Main Ideas 3...

In Western Civ class today I found we have a quiz tomorrow. YAY!!!  Cuneiform is the earliest form of writing.  The Fertile Crescent includes modern day Syria, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey.  The Tigers and Euphrates River provides good water and good soil.  A city state is a form of government to control cities and the surrounding areas.  Gilgamesh was a king who created a flood that destroyed to earth and he repopulated the whole world.  A dynasty is a series of rulers from a single family.  Cultural Diffusion is a process that includes ideas, beliefs, and culture that is spread from people to people.  Polytheism is belief in multiple gods.  Monarchy is when one king rules a government.  A ziggurat is a place of worship and is also where the government meets.  Silt is rich soil that comes from flooding.  At the end of class, Mr Schick told us about his trip to Paris and saw the Mona Lisa and how he saw Hammurabi's Co...

Today in Western Civ class, we handed in our homework and then we worked on the yellow sheet from last class on Hammurabi's code.  The sheet was our homework but a lit of kids in my class didn't do it.  We went around the room and filled in the laws of Hammurabi during that time period.  After that, we were asking Mr. Schick a lot of questions about sports and we got a little off topic for a while.  I learned that John Carroll has a really good badminton team.  We also handed in the blue paper from class to get a grade on that,  Then, with like 15 minutes of class left, we had to take notes in our copybook on Egypt.  I learned that The Nile River flows southward and is the longest river in the world.  The Nile River is 1,160 miles.

Today in Western Civ class we were a little crazy at the beginning of class.  Mr. Schick got upset with us but then we calmed down and focused.  We got to either work by ourselves or work with a partner on a worksheet about Hammurabi's code.  The worksheet had six scenarios and we had to write what we would have done if were the judge in each of the scenarios.  We had to keep in mind everything that we know now in the 21st century and use that to the situations back then.  Some of the scenarios were a little weird but the people that did them should have been punished.  One of the scenarios was a boy hit his father but we don't know if the father did anything to the son.  I agree the child should be punished but I think we should investigate and figure out if the son was abused by his father.  we went over our answers and then class was over.  On the way out, Mr.Schick gave us a worksheet to do for homework!

Today in Western Civ we had a mini lesson about Saint Valentine and then we took more notes off of the powerpoint.  We learned that Sumerian gods represented nature.  Epic of Gilgamesh is the world's largest story about how the earth came to be.  We started talking about Noah and the arc and how he took each species of animal on the arc with him to save them.  A ziggurat is a Sumerian temple built on top of a mountain of earth.  In 2350 Bc Sumer was conquered by the Akkadians and their gods took place of their previous gods and they were forced to worship them.  King of Hammurabi of Babylon created Hammurabi's Code which were laws that the town had to obey.  The laws included "an eye for an eye", regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crime.  At the end of class, we looked at the laws and I realized that a lot of them are harsh and violent.

Today in Western Civ class, we took notes off of a powerpoint.  The notes we took were about Prehistory Civilization, Hunter/Gatherers, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Egypt.  About 20,000 years ago a human species emerged in Southwestern Africa.  The earliest prehistoric age was called the Paleolithic Age.  The New Stone Age was called Neolithic Age and it was marked by advanced tool making and beginnings of agriculture.  The Agricultural Revolution is a shift from hungering/gathering to permanent settlements.  The population started to increase because of the surplus of food and villagers tended to polytheistic.  The modern places in the Fertile Crescent are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and Israel.  Sumer is between the Tigers and Euphrates Rivers and cities and towns were founded and some of them had 40,000 people in them.  Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing called cuneiform.  Some professions were priests, tradesmen, artisans, po...

Today in Western Civ class, we took more notes from the textbook and learned more about how to take notes accurately for when we go to college.  We took notes on section 1 called City-States in Mesopotamia.  The main idea is the earliest civilization in Asia arose in Mesopotamia and organized into city-states.  This matters now because the development of this civilization reflects a settlement pattern that has occurred repeatedly throughout history.  We also learned about the Fertile Crescent and the geography.  The silt is rich soil that is good for farming and is left behind after floods.  Some environmental issues are unpredictable floods and no natural barriers.  The five characteristics of civilization are advanced cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and improved tech.  City states are cities with area around it.  This is mostly everything we worked on this class!

Today, I left western civ early so didn't get any notes or anything.

Today in Western Civ class, we took notes out of the textbook and we learned about early river valley civilizations from 2500BC-4500BC.  Some of the most important things that I took notes on were that the earliest civilizations formed on fertile river plains, facing challenges such as seasonal flooding and a limited growing area.  Projects such as irrigation system required leadership and laws. They were controlled by priests, military leaders, and or kings.  Also, early civilizations developed bronze tools, the wheel, the sail, the plow, writing and mathematics.  These spread through trade, wars, and the movement of peoples.  The Hammurabi's code was the first set of laws that were written down in 1792BC.  I learned that the regions curved shape and the richness of its land led scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent.  Mesopotamia means "land between the rivers."  One other thing I learned is that the two rivers framing Mesopotamia are the Tigr...

Today in Western Civ class, we took a test on the Gun, Germs, and Steel video.  We had to know about Jared Diamond and Papua New Guinea.  We had to know about the crops that were grown there and how they lived.  They grew wheat and barely there but we also had to know about the different crops in different countries like in China they grew rice.  In the Americas they grew corn, squash, and beans.  In Africa they grew sorghum, millet, and yams.  I think these were one of the things I got wrong on the test.  One thing I thought I did good on the test was remembering the animals that have been successfully domesticated.  I also got to do the extra credit because I remembered four more of the 14 animals.  Then, after I handed in the test, Mr. Schick let us work on our blogs for the rest fo the class.

I wasn't in Western Civ class today because I missed second mod due to singing in music ministry for mass.