December 1

Social 30-1

I gave you an outline of important upcoming dates in Social 30-1. We will be picking up the pace this month to finish off material related to Unit 3. Please remember that your USA/Canada Comparison Chart is due tomorrow. I went through the last half of a PowerPoint presentation that corresponds to Chapter 10 in your textbook. Please print off the presentation called "Political Challenges to Liberalism" (4-6 slides per page) and bring it to class tomorrow. I looked at various types of authoritarian governments today and I also gave you a reading called "The End of Democracy?" that you should have been able to finish during class time. I also gave you an assignment today that covers the concept of majority tyranny very nicely. There are three parts to this assignment: the first two parts are for separate homework check marks, and the last part requires you to make an essay outline (I will be sending this to your e-mail accounts). This Civil Rights Movement Assignment is due next Tuesday (December 8th). Tomorrow, we will be examining China as a case study of an authoritarian government.

Social 10-1

In connection with watching "Shipbreakers" last week, and talking about the life cycle of a ship and the sustainability of the shipbreaking industry, I thought it would be interesting to look at another example of an industry that has environmental consequences that are sort of "out of sight, out of mind". I'm talking about e-waste. We watched a short excerpt from the CBC News in Review on "Electronic Waste and China". Next, I gave you a hard copy of an article that was in National Geographic Magazine in their January 2008 issue that I would like you to read. Here is the hyperlink to the article: click here. I'm giving you some time to read this article and complete a one-page written response to the article (this written response is due on Friday, December 4th, it'll be for homework check marks incidentally). In your written response to the magazine article I would like you to focus on the following question: What can be done to make e-waste more environmentally friendly, and increase the sustainability of this industry? You should be thinking about possible solutions to the problem, in other words, what can individuals do, what can governments do, what can corporations do, etc.