Class Trip to Samboja Lodge, Kalimantan, Indonesia 2007

Samboja refers to an area in Kalimantan about an hours drive from the capital city, Balipapan. About fifty years ago the area was clear cut by logging companies and left to fend on its own. The results were typical of deforested areas: soil depletion, species loss, and hearty fast growing “weedy” plants covering the previously forested landscape. The Samboja organization, part of BOS (The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation), consists of three different projects; orangutan and sunbear rehabilitation and with the orangutans, eventual release back into their natural habitat, reforestation of the area with hardwood trees, and an ecolodge. We took our students to Samboja for a week so they could experience first had a very interesting and unique aspect of Indonesia.

Mining is big business in Kalimantan as evidenced by this sign that greets arriving visitors in the airport. This is the first sign that you see as you enter the airport from the tarmac.

This picture is taken from the lodge that is built into the slope of one side of a valley. At the base of the valley is a group of mandmade islands where the orangs that are being rehabed live. On the other slope are enormous cages that house the rehabed orangs waiting for reintroduction into their natural habitat.

The ecolodge.

The fire tower provides for an excellent survey view of the area and of the work being done by the Samboja group.

Dave H. making a commando style exit from the “Jungle Truck”, which was needed to navigate many of the muddy roads in the area.

An orang on one of the rehab islands. You can not get too close to the orangs as they must break their relationship with humans to successfully be reintroduced into the wild. Also orangs are very susceptible to human diseases, another reason for keeping the distance.

Planting teak trees. Difficult work as the scruff that has grown up in the area is quite dense and needs to be removed in order for the teak saplings to successfully take root and grow.

Taking a break courteousy of Hyun Ho while preparing seedlings back at the nursery.

The Samboja project also runs an organic farm. Here a few of the kids get their hands dirty preparing a bed to plant beans.Michelle H is a natural at farming – Insuk was much better at giving advice and encouragement!

Preparing the pots for the seedlings to be grown in.
It was not all work! One evening we took some time off to play against the Samboja team. They played some nice football but we managed to hold our own. A good time was had by all.

Surprise, surprise, Michella and Korin shouting it out in charades.

Work to do During the Flood Time Off

I hope you all are recovering from the flood. If you are not busy cleaning your houses and have some time to devote to school work here is what you can be doing for Monday – which will be a day 3 – and the week following:

MWH

You should be working on the Inventions Project. Come to school ready with an invention and a sketch of the finished project. Consider how you will advertise the product – video commercial, poster, or some other way to convince your classmates to buy the new invention.

CWH

You can begin writing a rough draft for a play about some aspect of the Cold War. When you come to class you can compare with your group what your wrote and start working on a final draft of your play. Keep in mind that you will have to act out your play in front of the class and it will be video taped as well!

Is that Andrew Mailool!!. Andrew is such a dedicated student that he took an ocek to school. He tried to convince Mr. Duell to have class even though none of his classmates made it to school. By the time Andrew decided to head home the water had increased so much that the only way he could make it home was on foot!

CWHESL

Be prepared to work hard when we get back on putting together the presentation for the bulletin board on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. I have looked at the work you completed and it looks good. Well done!

Homework Assignments for Trimester 2 and 3

Homework Assignments for December 4 – December 8

Homework Assignments for December 11- December 15

Homework Assignments for January 8 – January 12

Homework Assignments for January 15 – January 19

Homework Assignments for the week of January 22 – January 26

Homework Assignments for the week of January 29 – February 2

Look at the category section under “New! Flood Work! Check It Out!” for what you can be doing during this time off. Hope you are all well and safe.

Homework Assignments for the week of February 12 – February 16

Homework Assignments for the week of February 19 – February 23

Homework Assignments for the week of February 26 – March 2

Homework Assignments for the week of March 5 – March 9

Homework Assignments for the week of March 12 – March 16

Homework Assignments for the week of March 20 – March 23

Homework Assignments for the week of April 2 – April 5

Homework Assignments for the week of April 9 – April 13

Homework Assignments for the week of April 16 – April 20

Homework Assignments for the week of April 30-May 4

Homework Assignments for the week of May 7-May 11

Homework Assignments for the week of May 14-May 18

Homework Assignments for the week of May 21 – May 25

CWH WWII Documents for Students

CWH WWII Causes and Primary Features of the war.

CWH WWII Timeline of Events and Information Links.

CWH World Map Work South America.

CWH WWII Survival Stories.

CWH WWII Conspiracy Theories.

CWH WWII Propaganda Film

CWH WWII Code Breakers: Student Generated Codes

CWH Stocks and Headlines

One of the most interesting facets of the Stock Market is its volatility, especially in these days of economic globalization. A military coup in Botswana or a new strain of the flu coming out of Vietnam can have an impact in the stock of companies located on the other side of the globe.

While investigating the Stock Market Crash and the resulting economic depression during the Interwary Years, we take a bit of time to delve deeper into the machinations of the Stock Market. The following activity is a simulation designed to enable student to see the impact that information in the form of headline news can have on the market value of stock. The idea is for the students to make predictions in the rise and fall of various stock depending on news headlines from around the world. All of the companies and headlines are fabricated but are based on reality. The ultimate goal is that students see the interconnectedness of global events and the economy.

Company Profiles

Bells Select – a fruit packaging and distribution company – owns a number of large farms in California and their products are distributed world wide under a variety of different brand names.

Lifeslark – a greeting card company and owner of a chain of stores that sell cards, party items and small gifts.

Calgor – a giant pharmaceutical company that owns many developmental drug laboratories and distributes pharmaceuticals under a number of brand names

Phat Shack – owner of barbecue equipment, a chain of restaurants, sauces – also owns several pig CAFO’s, meat processing plants that provide meat to many well known food chains

Brecks Dairy – large dairy company selling various dairy products, and owner of several ice cream bands and the world wide chain of Breck’s Dairy Creamery stores selling high quality ice cream products

Chexon – huge multinational energy and mining companAmex – well established diversified TNC

LOL – upstart in the hand phone industry marketing towards kids with lots of fun graphics, games, and music included in the hand phone software package and a fun and funky design

Stock Prices Day 1

Bells Select – 30 $ a share

Lifeslark – 20 $ a share

Calgor – 60 $ a share

Phat Shack – 40 $ a share

Brecks Dairy – 50 $

Chexon – 70 $

Amex – 60 $

LOL – 10 $

Buy Stock

Week 2 news

Tobacco legislation passed in the US and many countries in Western Europe – make it illegal to smoke in all public places

US passes strict immigration law making it a serious crime to cross the US Mexico border for the purpose of working illegally.

New world wide holiday celebrating peace and harmony announced. UN decides to publicly recognize day as an official holiday – most countries in the UN agree to make the day an official holiday in their respective countries

National Geographic team report of finding a fascinating new plant in the Amazon Rainforest. Indigenous people use the plant to treat many serious illnesses including certain cancers and previously incurable viruses.

The World health Organization publishes study comparing the health benefits of different types of meat. Results reverse previous beliefs – pork said to be one of the healthiest types of meat.

Chexon gets Indonesian government approval to open largest platinum and silver mine in the world in one of its remote provinces.

Mary Kate and Ashley spotted using “funky” new hand phones. Hollywood all abuzz.

Buy and Trade

Week Two Stock Prices

Bells Select – 20 $ a share

Lifeslark – 30 $ a share

Calgor – 70 $ a share

Phat Shack – 50 $ a share

Brecks Dairy – 50 $

Chexon – 80 $

Amex – 60 $

LOL – 20 $

Buy Stock

Week 3 news

Girl sues makers of Bodeos cookies, claiming that they are not only unhealthy but addictive and are the cause of her weight problem

Stricter laws controlling genetically grown foods favors small organic farmers.

Latest Hollywood fashion accessory craze. Paris Hilton and friends seen at club dancing the night away with fun new hand phone dangling from their wrists.

Strange weather patterns cause storm of the century in African country of Madagascar – destroys entire countries vanilla bean crop. Madagascar is the world’s largest exporter of high grade vanilla beans

President Bush serves up a Texas style barbecue at his ranch outside of Houston. Various heads of state seen to be enjoying the traditional American food. Bush quoted as saying he chose barbecue because it is a truly American food and he wants to try and change the negative image people have of pork in an effort to help the American pork industry.

First ever World Peace Day ends in disaster. Several countries have demonstrations that lead to violence.

Rebels make their move in remote Indonesian province. Several foreign workers at a mine taken hostage.

Buy and Trade

Bells Select – 20 $ a share

Lifeslark – 20 $ a share

Calgor – 70 $ a share

Phat Shack – 60 $ a share

Brecks Dairy – 40 $

Chexon – 70 $

Amex – 50 $

LOL – 30 $

Buy Stock

Week 4 News

Hand phone upstart makes multimillion dollar deal with technology giant Nokia. Nokia agrees to use its advertising and distribution network to sell the quirky new hand phones

Hostages feared dead. Mining company closes its operations in Indonesia. Indonesian government refuses to reimburse the company for royalties paid in excess of 50,000,000 in advance by the company for rights to mine the land

Wonder drug gets FDA approval. Company posed to flood the market with new cure all elixir

Amex, the giant TNC’s and parent company of cookies and snack cakes under the Bodeos brand and several brands of cigarettes organize a high profile group of lawyers to do battle in the courts. The company is claiming that not allowing smoking in public places is against the Constitutions right to personal freedom and expression and that Bodeos snack cakes are not unhealthy or addicitive if eaten in moderation

Bells Select announces total restructuring of its company. The produce giant promises to use more natural methods to grow foods and plans to devote much of its farms to grow organic crops and employ only legally registered farm workers. President and CEO Al Sharpton explained that in the long run it will benefit the consumers and thus the company as a whole.

Invasive beetle destroys West Africa’s cocoa crop.

Buy and Trade

Bells Select – 30 $ a share

Lifeslark – 20 $ a share

Calgor – 80 $ a share

Phat Shack – 60 $ a share

Brecks Dairy – 30 $

Chexon – 50 $

Amex – 60 $

LOL – 50 $

Buy and Trade Final

Week 5 News

Hand phone upstart LOL makes another big splash in the tech industry – signs a multimillion dollar deal to design groovy, computer consoles for Macs new line of computers. The company plans to allow buyers the option of creating their own personal design console or choose from a number of groovy designs

Amex loses big in court. A US supreme court ruled against the company in both of their legal battles stating that smoking in public denies other peoples right to pursue happiness and that the Bodeos cookies ingredients list was misleading. The court ordered a full investigation into the companies more than 100 other food brands to see if the ingredients labels are misleading. The company will be embroiled in a legal battle for years to come and will accrue huge court fees. If the company is found guilty their future could be in serious trouble.

The blockbuster movie hit “Mothers Day” focusing on the story of two mothers in London, England after WWII and how they fought to raise their kids in post war Europe has a huge impact on Mother’s Day celebrations. Retail stores selling Mother’s Day related items record record sales.

Breck’s Dairy closes many of its stores and halts production of their two most popular selling ice cream brands due to the destruction of the vanilla and cocoa crops in Africa. Baskin Robbins is threatening a hostile take over of the company that has fallen on hard times.

Phat Shack makes deal with Walmart and Carrefour to open barbecue restaurants in the stores food courts around the world.

The new wonder drug recently made available by the giant pharmaceutical company Calgor is being investigated by scientist as a possible cure to AIDS. Latest reports from independent labratories in Geneva, Switzerland spearheading the research say that all the preliminary tests look exceptionally promising.

Ending Stock Value

Bells Select – 30 $ a share

Lifeslark – 30 $ a share

Calgor – 100 $ a share

Phat Shack – 70 $ a share

Brecks Dairy – 20 $

Chexon – 50 $

Amex – 30 $

LOL – 60 $

This is a follow up assignment that can be used along with the activity.

 

CWH
Mr. Duell
Stock Exchange and the News

Bells Select – a fruit packaging and distribution company – owns a number of large farms in California and their products are distributed world wide under a variety of different brand names.

Lifeslark – a greeting card company and owner of a chain of stores that sell cards, party items and small gifts.

Calgor – a giant pharmaceutical company that owns many developmental drug laboratories and distributes pharmaceuticals under a number of brand names

Phat Shack – owner of barbecue equipment, a chain of restaurants, sauces – also owns several pig CAFO’s, meat processing plants that provide meat to many well known food chains

Brecks Dairy – large dairy company selling various dairy products, and owner of several ice cream bands and the world wide chain of Breck’s Dairy Creamery stores selling high quality ice cream products

Chexon – huge multinational energy and mining company

Amex – well established diversified TNC

LOL – upstart in the hand phone industry marketing towards kids with lots of fun graphics, games, and music included in the hand phone software package and a fun and funky design

Select an article from the newspaper and use it to increase or decrease the stock of one of the company portfolios. In order to have the desired effect you must be able to explain how the information in the article would influence the price of the stock.

Homework

Select an article from the newspaper and write a paragraph explaining how the information in the article would increase or decrease the stock price of a well known globally recognized company. Attach the article to your explanation.

This is a link to articles within this website related to this follow up activity.

Stocks and News

 

 

CWH WWI and the Inter War Years Documents for Students

Click on the appropriate link below for a copy of the document.

CWH WWI and the Interwar Years – Life of a WWI Soldier Trash and Treasure Notetaking and Essay

CWH WWI and the Interwar Years – Social/Political/Economic Ideologies

CWH WWI and the Interwar Years – Time Capsule Project

CWH WWI and the Interwar Years – News and the Stock Market

MWH Enlightenment Documents for Students

Click on the appropriate underlined description below to open up a copy of the document.

MWH Enlightenment: Absolute vs Relative – which are you?

MWH Enlightenment: A Little Philosophy – Socratic Method and “Allegory of the Cave”

MWH Enlightenment: Information Quest.

MWH Enlightenment: Review.

MWH Enlightenment: Music – Child Prodigy Comparison

MWH French and American Revolution Comparison

MWH American Revolution Causes Skit

MWH American Revolution Causes

MWH American Revolution Causes

Fun With Language

From a menu in a Chinese restaurant in Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is an excellent example of how difficult the English language can be and also how much language is connected to the social context of a society. The restaurant propietors, not familiar with American culture, were oblivious to the dramatic affect of their mispelling of the word “crab”.

Language is a fascinating part of culture. There exist some 6000 languages in the world. Language serves as both a primary unifying and divisive factor in human relations (I remember in high school we thought we French students were way cooler than those taking Spanish). It serves as a primary defining characteristic of a culture. In France, it is illegal to publicly display the use of a foreign word if a suitable French word exists to express the same meaning. A sign for your NYC styled restaurant reading “Cafe Central Park” would have the language police all over your derriere. Think how many words and phrases we use that make very little sense outside of the cultural context. A very simple example of this is the phrase “have a ball”. Outside the confines of the culture in which it is understood to mean “enjoy”, the phrase is silly, unless that is you are politely offering someone a ball – then it makes perfect sense. An excellent examples of this was recounted in a documentary about refugees from Sudan getting use to living in the States. When one of the young men boarded a Seattle bus the driver told him “it’s cool” (I forget to what she was referring). He responded very politely that it actually was not cool but quite warm which he found pleasant.

For whatever reason shirts with words or phrases written in a language other than the language of the land are quite popular. It is quite trendy for people in the States to wear shirts with words written using Japanese/Chinese kanji, Japanese hiragana and/or katakana. When asked if they know what their shirt says most say no. The response to the follow up question – then why wear the shirt – is typically “Because it looks cool” (accompanied by a look that says get out of my face and let me get on with my groovy self in my funky foreign language t – shirt). And typically it does look cool but more often than not says something absolutely meaningless. This situation gets quite a bit more interesting when the meaning of a word or phrase is vulgar, offensive, off color, etc.. But keep in mind that often the words of a language are culturally defined. Outside the cultural context they mean nothing. One could write a very offensive word in the language of the Khoisan, and it would mean nothing to the majority of the people in the world. You could repeat the word to your mom, kids at school, boss etc and nothing – blank stares all around. But if a person popped up in the area of Botswana where Khoisan is used and greeted the first person with such a word they would most likely get a bit more than a blank stare.

The following are excellent examples of how much language is connected to the social context of a culture and outside of that context means very little.

“The other day I was at the bowling alley overseeing the afternoon activity period and noticed a fellow with the word “walrus” printed boldly on his shirt. That was it – a green shirt with “walrus” emblazed across his chest. No image, no quirky description just “walrus”.

“At the mall the other day Alicia noticed a young girl, probably in 5th grade or so sporting a shirt with (and I am going to use censors here for those of the social context where this word is culturally quite offensive and certainly not emblazoned across 10 year old girls shirts!) “F……. U” as in “Harvard U” or “Stanford U”

– both described by an American living in Jakarta, Indonesia

McAsia: The Columbian Exchange Revisited – Western Food Culture Hits Asia Hard

The neon lights say it all: Makudonarudo – Hanbaga. A Japanese McDonalds tempting passerbyes with the delights of Western fast food culture.

The Columbian Exchange saw the transfer of all sorts of things between the Old and New Worlds including a vast array of food stuffs. Europe was transformed by the potato as the nutritious and hardy tubor grew the populations of Europe to the point where leaders felt the need to expand their living space resulting in world wars. The Americas were introduced to all sorts of new foods in the form of domesticated animals. This snorting Old World biomass quickly and completely trampled and/or ate up most of the America’s indigenous flora allowing Old Word plants to take root and eventually dominate the American landscape.

The transfer of food items has not slowed down one bit and the impact is just as great today. Recently the world has experienced an explosion of food cultures moving around the world due primarily to globalization and the tremendous ability of certain multinationals to push their products. Ten years ago “pad tai” to most living in the US was an exotic culinary adventure. Now adays it is boxed and frozen and sitting in very close proximity to the Swanson Hungry Man meatloaf dinner in the frozen food aisle of many local supermarkets. But it is the transfer of Western fast food culture around the world that is perhaps enjoying the most recent success, and not without some alarming results.

The other day we conducted a survey in class of how often the kids eat fast food in Jakarta and the establishemnets where they do their eating. The list was primarily of Western fast food places, most from the US. Indonesia, like many Asian countries have a relatively healthy traditional diet consisting primarily of rice, vegetables and a bit of meat and fish now and then. But with the influx of cheap and very available Western fast food the dietary trends of many Asians is changing and the repurcussions are quite dramatic. Many experts predict that health problems related to eating processed Western style fast foods and snacks will reach epidemic proportions as the present generation matures. The health care systems of most Asian countries are not prepared to deal with a massive influx of patients suffering health issues caused by eating processed foods with a high sugar and fat content. The media has already begun waving a red flag as statistics reveal increasing cases of diabetes and heart disease plaguing countries that traditionally had neglible numbers of their populations suffering from such ailments; most fingers point to a change in diet as the primary culprit. One such article from the NY Times concerning the rise of diabetes among the middle and upper class in India can be read here. Only time will tell how this latest exchange of food plays out in our global society.

6 + 1 Traits of Writing Sample Grading Rubric

Click here to see an example of a rubric based on the 6 +1 traits used to grade student writing assignments.