A Message from Mother Nature? ♥

1) The main point of the article is that many scientists have the theory of extreme weather is linked to climate change and global warming, but they still don't have proofs for it.

2) monsoon - winds that change directions due to the seasons

reluctant - unwilling, be forced to do something

skeptics - a person who doubts about everything

parched - extremely dry

3) Weather is the change of atmosphere conditions in a short period of time. Climate is the repetition of weather in a long period of time, for example: decades, hundred years, etc.

4) Some examples of extreme weather:

• In Russia, a record-breaking heat wave with a record-breaking drought destroyed millions destroyed millions of plants, especially wheat, and sparked wildfires that killed dozens. 
• In the U.S, floods battered New England, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, while the huge heat wave baked the entire eastern part of the country.
• Torrential monsoon rains in Pakistan caused the worst flooding in decades, killing more than 1,500 people and uprooting millions.

5) I've never been through any wild, or extreme weather before, but I've experienced the craziest rain ever. I was on my way coming home when suddenly a torrential rain poured down from the sky. My dad and I put on our raincoats as fast as we could and continued to ride the motorbike. Because my house is placed on a very low land, so the whole area was 'covered' in water. It definitely felt like a flood in the city. The water was so high that it reached my hip, caused our motor's engine dead; we had to push the motorbike all the way to my house. It was a very rare and special rain that I've ever experienced. 

6) 'Perception' means the understanding of something.

7) My perception of global climate change is that the climate is really changing. Even though that there's not really any proof, but based on what the weather has changed in many years lately, I can predict that the climate is starting to change slowly. In my opinion, this climate changing is kind of linked to global warming, because according to the article, the climatologists theorized that the added heat would cause more record highs than lows, which means the trend is toward warmer climate.

PFF Land - 5 Themes of Geography ♥

Location – Phineasopia and Ferbland are two of the three countries that make up PFF Land (which stands for Phineas and Ferb Forever Land). The whole land covers from 2000^o N, 3000^o W, to 1500^o S, 500^o E. These two countries are separated by a huge mountain, called the Iron Mt.

Movement – There will be many movements which occur on Mars from 5025 to 5077. The first big movement is from Heartlessia to Phineasopia, because they want to help humans to fight against the Martians. When the Martians and humans finally get along, ‘people’ from Jupiter invade and start another war in Phineasopia. This time, the whole country suffers serious damage. Therefore, Phineasopian have to move to Ferbland for peace.

Human – Environment Interaction – There are only two bodies of water here because it’s a super dry land. Some people live near the Electronic River because they’re mad scientists who can use electricity to invent machines that can produce materials. Two thirds of the Phineasopian and Ferbies live next to or near the Cytoplasm Ocean. Those are not scientists, so they need real sources to live and near the sea, the ocean is the best choice.

Place – The most gorgeous and natural place is Fructose Valley in Phineasopia. It is 100km deep. Fructose Valley is beautiful but dangerous; it’s also really precious. It mines all kinds of sugar, especially FRUCTOSE (of course!). It takes a long time walking down there so Phineas builds an elevator just for mining.

Region – Even though Phineasopia and Ferbland are created by two brothers, the physical characteristics are really different. Ferbland and Heartlessia actually have a lot of things in common. They mostly consist of plains, many bodies of water like rivers and lakes. There are a few hills in these two countries, but they’re only between 500m and 700m high.

Study Guide ♥

Vocabulary:

1. Geography - the study of people and environment of places
2. Spatial - where a place is located and its' physical relationship to other places, people or environment
3. Environment - the physical surroundings of location
4. Region: an area that has one or more common characteristics that unite or connect it with other area
5. Place - a geographical term that describes the physical and human characteristics of a location
6. Location - an exact position using latitude and longitude, or a description of a place in relation to places around it

Topics:

1. The 5 Themes of Geography - place, location, movement, regions, and human- environment interaction
2. The 6 Essential Elements of Geography - the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, the uses of geography. 
3. Kinds of Maps - Political, Physical, and Thematic
4.  Family Tree
5. Jobs in Geography - Land Surveyor, Location Analyst, Urban Planner, Climatologist, Cartographer
   
   

Idea:

1. How to read maps
2. How to think "outside the box"
3. What is Geography?
4. How do people who work in "Geography section" work?
5. How cultures are different or similar? 

What I've Learned (:

I really enjoyed planning and working on this project, and I've also learned a lot from it. Before this project, I just know that my family does this and that, but after doing this, I really know the reason why we do these things. For example, I found out why my parents always have the "Mai Tree" in our house on Tet holiday: it's because they believe that the flowers on the tree will bring us good luck in the new year. I know more about Vietnamese history, too, like the legend of the food: bánh chưng and bánh dày. This project gave me a chance to look back at my memories, such as pictures of my family and me when I was a little kid, so it's really special to me.

What I've learned more are my friends' cultures and countries. Like Norway. Jennifer told me a lot of information about what I need to know about her country. Now I know that people who live in Norway are mostly from other countries, and only 1/10 of people there are really from Norway. Or another interesting thing is the boy scout that Henry and Jack told the class. I've heard about those activities, but it was the first time I could actually see the uniform, the badges, etc. It was something that was really exceptional for me to see and know.

I can now truly understand how cultures can be different from different countries or different backgrounds. The 'Family Project' really DID give me the idea of differences in people, and why people act in different ways and celebrate or believe in different things. And that's a really efficient and useful way for people to know why they should respect each other because everyone's different in a specific way, but still similar in general.