2.3 September is Natural Disasters Preparedness Month

Are you ready for a big winter storm that could snow you in to your house for days?  What about a flood, what would you do to prepare for that?  Or what if you were without electricity for several days (oh my no technology!) what would you do?
Read and think:
1) Is your family prepared for a natural disasters?  Do you have a family plan to make sure everyone is safe?
2) Why do we need agencies like the USGS?  Is there something like that in Canada?
3) Other than a zombie apocalypse!  What would be the worst natural disaster to hit Barrie?  Why?
4) How accurate are these predictions made by the USGS?

http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/september-is-national-preparedness-month-3/

2.2 Aurora Borealis

So there was a solar flare up last week and it caused some really cool Northern Lights (aka Aurora Borealis).  Do you see them?  I was outside the whole evening but didn't see them as I had my back to the North and I think it was cloudy but anyway read and think:
1) Have you ever witnessed the Auroras?  Where? What was your thought on them?
2) What causes the Northern Lights?  Why do they form more in the North?
3) Why are they called Aurora Borealis? Where does the term come from?
4) What is a solar flare up? Describe it.

http://www.cbc.ca/1.2765776

2.1 El Nino

This winter is looking like it might be similar to last winter's mess.  Cold, snowy and typical of what the winters were like when your parents were a kid. Yuck!
Read and think:
1) Do you like this prediction?  Why or why not?
2) What is causing this change in weather?  How?
3) Is this a result of global warming/climate change?  How?
4)  How does El Nino which is far from here affect us in Barrie?

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/insider-insights/articles/how-will-el-nino-impact-weather-patterns/28437/

Week 1.1 The Clouds Are Rolling In

On Friday last week we saw a pretty good storm roll through here and there were some very cool pics taken.  If you have one please share it on here.  For now though read the following articles and comment on the storm.
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2014/09/05/nasty-weather-moved-through-the-barrie-area-friday-evening
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/environment-canada-confirms-tornado-touchdown-east-of-orillia-/35458/
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2014/09/06/orillias-couchiching-beach-park-badly-damaged-by-storm

1) Where were you?  Did you get to see the clouds, hear the thunder etc?
2) What was it like for you? Were you scared, amazed, or what?
3) Have you ever witnessed a sever storm like that before?  How was is?  Where was it?  How did you feel?
4) What caused this storm to form?

Blog Overview

This is an overview.
In general you can post to the news events of the day by selecting from the tabs on the right of the screen.  They are organized by the week.
You will be responsible for posting one natural disaster event from a world region per week AND commenting on two or your classmates posts as well.
You can post as many as you like.  One, Twenty, but I will only select one for evaluation.
That post should contain a MINIMUM of ONE source (not including your newslink itself).. Please try to abstain from using wikipedia, random websites, etc.

You will begin that post with the statement "This is my weekly post ..." or "Mark this one"

Try to comment on another student's post so that it feels like a conversation/debate/or learning table.  You may even include a response as one of your selected posts to be evaluated.  In fact, I encourage it.

As the course develops and we begin to understand more about our Earth, you may wish to explore a particular topic more in-depth.  A particular topic may strike a chord with you.  You may also take part in a long-term ongoing conversation on that topic that lasts the duration of the school semester.

If you want to add another sub-topic to each unit, make a request for me to add it  by going to the tab on the right titled "Mr. Lahaie please add..."  And I can create a new sub-heading where we can create a discussion board on that topic.

There are roughly 17 weeks to the course and there are 17.5% marks allocated to the area of Thinking/Inquiry.  Convenient. This means you will receive approximately 1% of that mark component based on your weekly participation.  You will be expected to tie in course material that we cover on methods of critical thinking and analyzing Natural Disasters.

This blog is live - this means it is a work in progress and can be modified to suit the needs of your learning.  Feel free to post comments/suggestions under the tab titled "Mr. Lahaie please add"
Let's get this started then shall we?

Enjoy!

Testing, testing

Just checking to see if this thing called the internet and blogging actually works.  Let me know if you are able to see this by replying to this post.