Genocide

This is a slideshow that shows countries that have faced a genocide, which is a mass murder. These countries went through so much to try to stop this from happening again. I hope you learn how terrible genocides are, and I hope you help make all religions comfortable to make sure this doesn't happen again.

HELP SAVE THE WORLD

"Free Image on Pixabay - Equality, Business, Man, Woman."
Free Illustration: Equality, Business, Man, Woman - Free Image
on Pixabay - 1245576. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.

Sustainable development is development that balances current needs with the needs of the future while making life better now and in the future. While investigating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I learned of the many issues our world faces and found out some ways on how I can help. The goal I researched the most was Goal #14, Life Below Water. After examining this, I have found out that overfishing and pollution of marine life are major problems our world faces. By simply not littering near oceans or on land, I will be helping the UN achieve this goal. I know I will be very careful to recycle things like plastic, which is a major pollutant of our oceans. I have already started to recycle more. Goal #5 is Gender Equality and I realize that I can also take action on this. I can help voice the awareness of this on social media. Also, I can encourage girls and boys to be friends with each other and work together cooperatively instead of against each other like it’s a competition among gender and which is better. Each person is an individual and women’s rights need to be more recognized around the world. I hope to help take a stand for equal rights for women. Someday, I hope to be able to donate or work with the UNDP or Empower to help fight violence against women. Goal #3 is

"Free Image on Pixabay - Fruit, Tour, Healthy, Nutrition ." Free Photo: Fruit, Tour, Healthy, Nutrition - Free Image on Pixabay - 16663. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.

Good Health and Well Being and ensuring healthy lives for all people is key to a happy and peaceful world. I feel this is the most important goal and by having universal health coverage so all people can have access to doctors and treatments is very important. Without good health, everything else is harder to achieve. I keep myself healthy by eating well and exercising and my parents are able to take me to doctor appointments as needed. I donate canned foods when I can and I would like to teach health someday because I think it’s crucial to all people. By donating food and money, and learning more about health and the rest of the world, it really has opened up my eyes. I did not realize the large amount of people, of all age ranges, with health problems. I plan to make you tube videos to reach out to other kids and teach them about nutrients and exercise and how we need to take care of ourselves before we can take care of our world. I also have asked my mom if I’m up to date on my vaccinations, because if everyone gets vaccinated, public health will benefit. Not only that, but every summer, I make a lemonade stand and save the money. I hope to save up enough money within the next two years to make a decent size donation to an organization that supports healthy lives. I think I can have a small influence on the world, but if every person makes small contributions, we can come together to reach many of the UN Sustainable Development goals.

Right or Left, But No Wrong

Through classroom examination of election issues and candidates, I have learned many things. I have learned that liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all. I have learned that conservatives believe more in personal responsibility with limited government action. Also, when people refer to left-wing, they mean liberal, and right-wing refers to conservative. Through the classroom activities, I learned that I am not fully right or left; however, I am more toward the left.

I found that I agreed with the liberal view more often than conservative on most issues, like on the death penalty issue, I feel it should be abolished, because I believe it is inhumane. Another issue I am liberal on is global warming/climate change. I feel we need laws to reduce carbon emissions and pollution. Healthcare is another issue where I have a more liberal view. I think all people should have the right to affordable healthcare. I realize this could cost the government money, which is a problem, but health is a priority for all people.

Though my views tend to align with Hillary Clinton’s and Jill Stein’s, I can see Donald Trump’s perspective also and can understand that the issues the candidates are faced with are all tough issues because there may not be a right or wrong, clear-cut answer to these problems, even though they may think there is. Putting their plans into actions will tell if something works out or not, long term.  

I feel that a few of the most significant issues that the United States has to deal with are illegal immigration, Syrian refugees, gun control, and ISIS. I believe illegal immigration is wrong and we need to protect our borders and have a process for all immigrants to follow to come into the country. With this view, I align more with Trump. I believe we live in a world where we just don’t know people well enough, and a thorough process should be done. I align with Hillary Clinton’s view on Syrian refugees. I feel we should allow them in, as our country is helpful and we want these people safe. We need to do thorough checks on them also, however, before allowing them in, and we should be careful about overpopulation. For gun control, I also align more with Clinton. Though I do believe our Constitution gives people the right to bear arms, I think our times have changed. We often see guns getting into the hands of insane people, or terrorists, or even kids. We need more regulations. I even think possibly just outlawing guns totally, except for military and law enforcement, might be best. We need to reduce the violent attacks and the ease of getting a gun. I don’t think we should declare war on ISIS. Again, my views tend to align with Clinton more. I feel our country and our troops would be more endangered if we did this. I think until we get really good intelligence on ISIS, we should just supply Iraq with helpful advice and armor and equipment and do the best we can from outside rather than going in and fighting. My view on this may change but for now, that’s what it is.

During this activity, I also had learned that there are more than two candidates running for President.  I had never heard of Jill Stein or Gary Johnson prior to this. I did not even know there was a “Green” party. Also, through these in class exercises, I have learned that some candidates agree on some issues and disagree on some. In the end, though, the people’s vote will count and that will determine the next President of the United States.
Before this in class activity, I really hadn’t thought about these issues or about our candidates very much, since I’m only 12 years old. I learned so many things about the real world and the problems we face as a country. In closing, I found that doing this was a great learning experience.

"Free Image on Pixabay - Presidential Election, Usa." Free Illustration: Presidential Election, Usa. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

Asking Questions and How to Google

We should use both closed and open questions.  Closed questions are typically easy to answer, quick to answer, and they provide facts.  Using closed questions can be helpful if someone just wants a yes or no answer or wants to know, for example, who invented the telephone.  Open questions are also beneficial because they result in more detailed, in depth answers to questions.  They make the responder think and reflect, which can help the questionnaire find out more about the person’s character, but also more about a particular topic.  Open questions can also result in getting someone’s opinions or feelings about situations or topics. Using both closed and open questions can provide a fuller answer including facts, reflections, explanations, and sometimes, opinions.  In a Google Search, people can type in open and closed questions as statements. For example, change the closed question into a statement and say… inventor of the telephone. This will bring up Alexander Graham Bell quickly.  If you want to know an answer to an open question, one could type the question in as a statement, like…  the effects of acidic bodies of water on fish.  If you want to narrow that down to one particular site, you could type that in and then site: .gov if you only want results coming from government sites.

Google Search tips are useful because when typing in some of the tips or operators into that search, Google becomes more efficient at getting the results you’d want.  For example, if you wanted to search for any sites that have the words math or arithmetic, you could use the operator OR in between the words.  Another example is if you want to quickly know a definition of a word, you would just type in define:word.  This is very quick and simple.  Another search tip is that capitalization doesn’t matter, so no need to spend time trying to figure out what needs capitalization when searching for sites.  One other useful tip is the minus sign.  If you want to search for George Washington, but don’t want any results to come up with George Washington University, you could type in George Washington -University.  This will leave out the University term in the search.  As you can see, using Google Search tips and open and closed questions, a researcher would benefit from both because he/she would have the knowledge and tools to more quickly and easily find out what he/she desires.