Monthly Archives: April 2016

Confederation Conferences

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Charlottetown

 

It is September 6, 1864 and we are here in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edwards Island´s delegates came together to discuss the idea of building a maritime union. This meeting would not have happened if the legislatives of the colony of Canada heard of the idea and asked to be allowed to attend the meeting. The official part of the meeting began on September 1, and they are still going on, and there is no end in sight yet! We cannot really get any record of what is said in the discussion, but we can assume they are debating the financial aspects, the form the government would take and the benefits for the union. We can also observe that it is not all about business here, the delegates socialize and get a sense for common interests and living together while going to the famous Champagne dinner or the first big circus that takes place for the first time in this city. Also, they are visiting the seaside by boat and some of the delegates home, so personally they seem to get along very well, which might affect their final decision in the discussion. This is it from the meeting here in Charlottetown, but we are also going to look at the upcoming meetings in Halifax, Saint John and Fredericton.

 

 

Math 10 Week Blogpost Patterns

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Patterns make it easier to calculate or find values. A pattern is generally something that we can memorize because it  always works the same way. If there is the number 11 multiplied by 2, we get 22. The same number multiplied by 3 gives us 33.  That  pattern that stays the same for all numbers from 1 to 9 mulitplied with 11, so since we know that, whenever we have to multiply the number 11 we remember that pattern and don´t have to do all the math in our head, which saves work and time. Just when 11 is multiplied with number higher than 9, the pattern changes. There is still a pattern, it just changes a little bit.

 

IMG_3398 Kopie

 

Patterns also help us to deal with Binomials, since the way and order we solve them are always the same, even if the numbers are different. There are three different kinds of binomials, so the patterns make it way easier to solve them is less time and more efficiently once we know what kinds of binomials there are and how to use the patterns on them.

 

To make those patterns more visual, we use algebra tiles in which we can see how the factors relate to each other in a rectangle.

 

at

 

This is a really good example of an algebra tile, using the equation (x+2)(x+3). x+2 and x+3 are the sides of the rectangle, so in the diagram the sides are composed of at least 2 parts, one of which is the x, that is equal on both sides and is colored in green. Then there is the amount of smaller squares, according to how often the variable x is in the formula, in this case it is 2 and 3, which are colored in yellow. Now we extend those  lines into the rectangle, so we get many little fields inside the rectangle that represent the product of the sides. The big blue box is x^2, the smaller green fields add up to 5x and the small yellow fields represent 2*3, which is 6. If we draw the diagram properly, the amount of fields inside the rectangle will be equal to the numbers on the outside, so then we just need to count them, add them to one equation and that takes a little more time, but it prevents mistakes.

 

But also without algebra tiles there are patterns that help us to solve not only binomials, but almost for every kind of equation there are certain similarities that allow us to find patterns. The best example for this is again binomials because there the ways we solve them never change, as long as we memorize the patterns and pay attention to positive and negative values.

 

bino

 

In example a in the picture we see the binomial (x+3)(x+5), which is the first of the three binomials and the easiest one, because it has all positive values and we don’t have to worry about making mistakes there. No what we do is we multiply all the terms inside both brackets with each other, so here are all the multiplications happening in the binomial (x+3)(x+5):

 

x*x

x*3

x*5

3*5

which gives us

x^2 + 3x+5x + 15

which can be summarized to

 

x^2 + 8x+ 15

This way of solving type 1 binomials will never change, even if there is (x+100)(x+37), or any other values, which will eventually make it more difficult as the numbers get bigger.

 

Now the second and third type of binomials are different, because they have positive and negative values in them. The second type is the most difficult one because there is a negative value in both brackets so there might be mistakes happening. The third type, where one bracket is all positive and the other one has a negative value has the most significant pattern of the three:

 

(x+3)(x-3)

which gives us

x^2 – 9

because +3x-3x cancel each other out and that leaves us x^2 -9.

 

This pattern will only work as long as the number values in the brackets are the same, it would not work in for example:

 

(x+3)(x-2)

 

Here they do subtract each other but it leaves 1x because one number is bigger than the other

 

 

 

Binomials is always about multiplying brackets. For the pattern that I described in this post it does not matter how often we do that. If it is only twice, or five times that we multiply the bracket with itself, does´t change the pattern, it may just look a little bit more complicated because the equation gets longer, but we still distribute all the factors with each other.

bino 2

 

 

 

Those were only a few examples of patterns in math, but there is a lot more that we either commonly use or haven´t learned yet, and also some people have different patterns that they find convenient for themselves, so we do by far not know all of them yet. The ones that we do know save us a lot of time and work and prevent mistakes which is why we pay attention to them in math class.

 

 

 

American Civil War

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  1. Summarize the following: American Civil War (Trent Affair as well as St. Albans). Manifest Destiny, Fenian Raids, Britain´s feelings about the BNA colonies.

American Civil War:

Between 1861 and 1865 several southern American states formed the Confederate States of America. The government saw that as an attempted rebellion. For control of political and economical decision making the southern states fought a brutal war against the northern states. The northern states won that war, but the consequences of that war reached far more than just the states inside America. the South, who provided Cotton for the British textile industry, blocked ships from leaving to cut the British off the Cotton supplies. The British build so called blockade runners, which were small, fast ships that could snuggle through the blockade and get the Cotton from the Southern States.

 

The trent affair: The United States stopped a British mail ship with two national agents on board and took the agents as prisoners, even though they were in neutral water. Resulting from that the British sent 14000 troops to British North America, what took the a long time because there was no railway and threatened to attack. In the end they never actually did attack.

 

St. Albans Raid: Confederate soldiers attacked the town St. Albans in Vermont and used Montreal as their base. Because they did not wanna get put into prison they escaped back across the border to the United States.

 

 

Manifest Destiny: American Believe that one day they should rule all of North America.

 

 

Fenian Raids: A group of Irish people formed a group called „the Fenians“, whose target it was to free the Irish from British control. Their strategy was to capture British North American colonies and trade them back for Irish freedom. They tried attacks in East and West Canada, but they only killed a few Canadians and then were forced back across the border. Those attacks got the British North American Colonies to believe they needed a common defense against possible future raids.

 

 

Why did the rebellion 1837 fail?

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On the first page the author said that they had to organize themselves, so they were not really organized or coordinated.

In line 13 on the second page he said they had rifles and guns of various kinds and some of them were old, so their equipment was not really good. Also eventually some of their rifles might not be effective and that could make them easier to attack. Just after that, in line 14/15 he said when they had to reload their guns, they did not „step aside to make from for those behind“, but stayed where they were so those behind them who were ready to fire could not shoot because their teammates were in the way. In the same lines he says their coordination was that bad that they could more likely die from one of their teammate´s guns than an enemy´s gun.

 

Later, on page 3 he says that people who heard the firing and saw people fall to the ground ran away as fast as they could, so even their own people and possible support ran away and left the warriors behind.

Movie Pitch

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Ideas:

 

Opening scene: The location is on a farm with a lot of slaves. Some of them get rescued by people from the undergrund railroad but halway through executing their plan they get caught, so the ones who already left the farm have to run away and in that moment the character sees that his family hasn´t made it and he has to leave them on the farm. When they go over a hill and he looks back a last time he sees how the slaves who could not get rescued get beaten and whipped and so does his family.

 

Character 1:

There is a free black man who got saved by the underground railroad an is in one of the free states. But his family did not get saved, so he realizes it is not worth being free without his family being there. So he makes a decision: He will go back south on the underground railroad. He starts his way on the railroad in Windsor, Canada where he reached free dom and was accepted by society. so now he has to go all the way back. He talks to people who are headed north and asks for directions or locations of safehouses. He causes confusion between those people who are wondering why he would want to go back south after he has been rescued, some people even say: „This is so dangerous, what if you get caught and have to be a slave again?“ Now he ralizes how bad all those people want to get out of their situation and it is not only about his family, it is about hundreds, if not thousands of families.

Character 2:

A landlord in England was rich and had lots of slaves but he lost everything when the fields and the land he owned burned down in a revolt started by people from that town. He used to let them live on his land, but then he wanted to make more and more money for himself and started taking it away from them again. Now they start a revolt and burn down all the plants that his farm has grown and the forest he owns and his house. From now on all he does is try to get rich again by trying to rebuild his farm and begging for money from his friends to start up a new farm. At the same time he sees how it is to have nothing and having to find a way to get enough food to eat.

Character 3:

An Irish man is controlled by absentee lanldords from England, who only give him the bad land where he cannot grow anything. He decides to go to Canada after the landlord takes away his last piece of land. He takes the next Coffin Ship to Canada, but that is going to be a very hard journey because the hygiene on that ship is really really bad. He manages to not get sick, but he sees people get sick and die and the crew on the ship makes him throw over the barrels that they put the bodys in. The Irish man still does not get sick, but he learns a lecture: He does not want anybody else to live in conditions like he did most of his life. Especially when he gets to Windsor, Canada and is accepted for the first time in his life he wants to help other people get frredom too.

 

Story:

It is an adventure movie mixed with a drama

The basic idea is that a man who had to leave his family behind does the journey on the underground railroad again to save them

The main conflict is that there is too many people that have to be saved

He goes from the free states back to the slave states on the underground railroad

 

 

Clearing Land:

They need to clear land to create farmland

It is so important that they get other people to help and give them some of the cleared land

 

 

Barter:

They don´t have a currency

They trade their work and help on the boat for the Metis to take them on the journey

 

 

Absente Landlord

The farm that the free black man escaped from was owned by an absentee landlord

Later the slaves are absentee landlords, when they go back to the slave states and let the former British landlord work on their farm

 

 

Metis/ Voyageurs

Both the British landlord and the group of the free black man, the Irish man and the slaves go with a group of Metis because they know the region

The Irish man falls in love with a Metis woman, so her family helps them bring more people to Rural Canada

Voyageurs go on journeys to Rural Canada with Metis

 

 

Portages:

The slaves have no problem carrying the boat over Portages because they worked hard all their live

The former landlord struggles at the portages because he has never done hard work and now he has to carry the heavy boat through the mud

 

Pemmican

 

The Metis women prepare Pemmican that they give to to group of Voyageurs when they come to the camps

The landlord is also struggling here because he is used to eating only the best food and not the same food everyday

For the slaves this food is very good because they never got that much food at a time

The food does not turn bad quickly and it is nutritious so it is really good for the journey

 

Catholic/ Protestant

The absentee landlord is British, so he is protestant and he is rich in the beginning

The Irish man is Catholic, so he was controlled by the British landlords

 

 

Acceptance of Irish and Black people

In the United States black people are slaves unless they get to the free states

Irish people are not slaves, but they still cannot get good jobs and are descriminated

In Canada they all are accepted

 

 

Coffin Ship experience

The Irish man arrives with a Coffin Ship

He manages not to get sick, but he is exhausted from the jourey

The free black man has to help him recover

He did not enjoy the journey on the coffin ship

 

 

Slavery:

The slaves in the opening scene who got caught got beat up

Some of them get sold at an auction because the landlord does not want them anymore

The slaves who get caught shipping themselves get whipped and brought back to the farm where they came from

 

Underground Railroad

The uderground railraod is the free black man´s way back to the farm to safe his family

They spend their nights at safehouses along the underground railroad

People on the way can tell them the way south

People who are headed North are confused because they do not know why somebody would go back south

They build up their own network on the underground railroad to be able to get more people North and not always have to all the way back by themselves

 

Womens´Role

In the Metis community the women make snowshoes, warm clothes, navigate and are the factor of surviving

In urban Canada, where they arrive, women are doing domestic chores and carinf for the children

There are not many women outside because most of their jobs are done inside the house

 

 

Visualization:

 

Barter

 

 

 

 

 

Clearing land

 

 

 

 

Slaves Escaping

 

 

 

 

 

Box

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffin Ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trigonometry Blogspost

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IMG_3040

In the triangle angle b= 33° and side b= 28 cm were given. I found out side a= 43,1 cm by tan (33°), so now the Pythagoras theorem helped me find out the las missing side. Now, for the last angle, which is angle x= 57° I could choose between sin, cos or tan because I knew all the sides of the triangle.