Today's lesson focused on the Greenhouse effect. Josh read material about the greenhouse effect and global warming. Josh answered questions and completed activities based on the unit topic.

Today's lesson focused on Global Warming. Josh reviewed materials that detailed our country's global warming crisis and how humans play a significant role in creating and preventing further damage. Josh answered questions about the material.

Regions: The U.S. East of the Mississippi and the U.S. West of the Mississippi.
Sub-Regions of the U.S. East of the Mississippi: New England, The Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the Southeast.
We discussed the words Metropolis and Megalopolis - a string of cities that have suburban areas that virtually overlap each other. Such a geographic region exists in the northeast expanding south from NYC to Washington, DC.
At the end of class, Elle took me on a Google Earth tour of her homes in FL, TX and Nantucket. She is a real Google Earth afficianado!

Today concluded this 3-part lesson, which I began scaffolding in lessons prior. First, we simply identified the fundamental debate in Climate Change and pointed-out various arguments on each side. In the previous lesson, Bobby shared some research he had done at home as well as a recent article in which scientists increased their dire predictions. During that lesson, Bobby detailed the arguments on each side and concluded that the end result was the same, rather the cause of the climate change was the issue at hand. During today's lesson, I engaged Bobby in an exploration of the future obstacles humanity would face when climate change happens. Bobby was not convinced that the World would warm, then freeze quickly becoming a new "Ice Age" as leading scientists had predicted on the side of non-human related causes. So, we evaluated each potential of a very warm Earth atmosphere versus a very cold one. Bobby identified fresh drinking water and electricity as the most significant resources people will need in a future changed climate. We spent the final minutes proposing possible solutions to these huge obstacles. Bobby took a moment to express his interest in business ownership/entrepreneurship. To which, I joked that if we could solve just one of these huge problems, we could become some of the wealthiest people in the World.

Today's first lesson focused on learning about Elle and her academic past experiences in social studies.

We spent the remainder of the period playing a U.S. map I.D. Quiz. Elle began rusty, but seems to enjoy knowing where things are - visual memory seems good - she went from 53% on her first try to 70% on her second try.

I look forward to working with Elle this year!

Bari Kaplan

Dylan and I reviewed for the first part of his Final Exam. Then Dylan started the final.

We covered the chapters on Eastern Europe and Russia and reviewed vocabulary for Dylan's final.

To begin, I did a quick review with Dylan for his test. Dylan then took test #9 on Northern Africa. Afterwards, we did a review of the regional history and physical characteristics of Western Europe from chapters 14 and 15. Dylan will bring the notes from the second semester to our next session and we will continue to review for his exam.

Dylan completed his test number 8B. Then he took notes on chapter 24 and 25 which covered the physical geography of Africa and the history of civilization in the northern region. We ended by viewing the beginning of the documentary "The Square," which follows a few young revolutionaries during the Arab Spring in Egypt in 2011.

First we read an article from the Economist on "Saudi Arabia's post-oil future". Then, we reviewed the contents of chapter 23, then Dylan took a quiz on the last two sections, and then a test on the entire chapter.