Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Nationalism and the Creation of Italy

Nationalism is when people fight for, root for, or basically love their country. Also to show support to people who share the same culture and history. I show that I am nationalistic by having the American flag at home. I also root for America in the Olympics and some other teams that belong to America. I enjoy past times that most Americans enjoy. I use the money that comes from and can only be used in America.

Italy was created by many people hearing about the idea of Nationalism. Nationalists wanted a united country to be independent and be free from foreigners' control. Italy was controlled by different kingdoms. Giuseppe Mazzini and Camillo di Cavor were the people who had helped Italy unite and become one nation. It became Italy by many people who had the same opinion and who had allies fought in battles until they conquered the country.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Simon Bolivar and Latin American Revolutions


Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan man, who had led a revolutionary army against Spain and had won Venezuela its independence in 1821. Simon is also known as the liberator of Latin America
He also had won the independence for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia against Spain. He wanted all the ties between Latin America and Spain to be cut. He thought that it was dumb for them to be controlled by Spain, who was at the time, ruled by a French man (Napoleon's brother). When he had went to Europe, for a time to further his studies, he had learned about people who had new ideas that thought that everyone deserves to be free. It was the Enlightenment. Simon joined the forces of Francisco de Miranda. Even though later on, Miranda had surrendered to Spain, Simon kept going with trying to win Latin America's independence. He had let the countries be free from Spain, which was what he wanted to do all along.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

John Locke and "The Enlightenment"

On the U.S. Constitution, John Locke was a person who had influenced major ideas behind it and modern democracy. In the second paragraph of the Constitution there was a lot of ideas that originally came from John Locke. The"rights" that Thomas Jefferson is talking about in the U.S. Constitution are that everyone is created equal. Everyone has the right to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Everyone has power and there voice will be heard among the government, no matter who they are and where they come from. The government gets its power from the people. The people get to decide who runs the country. We elect the politicians and vote for who we want in our government.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Copernicus and the trial of Galileo

One of the theories of the solar system is the geocentric theory. The geocentric model is the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe and that everything orbits it. This theory was used up until the 17th century. This was the first theory. It was part of Greek astronomy and philosophy. Ancient philosophers believed that every orbited and centered the Earth. People had looked at the sky and it looked like the stars, moon, the sun and etc. went in a rotation around the Earth.

Another theory of the solar system is the heliocentric theory. The heliocentric model is the theory that the Sun is the center of the theory and that everything orbits it. This theory came out of the scientific revolution. This is the correct theory and the theory that we still use today.

In 1633 Galileo Galilei was put on trial for believing that the earth was not the center of the universe, but that the sun was. He had published the book Letters on the Solar Spots, stating his beliefs on the universe. The Catholic Church put Galileo on trial because he was going against the Church's beliefs. The Catholic Church had believed in the geocentric theory, while Galileo believed in the heliocentric theory.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Scientific Revolution: The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a way to solve science problems by conducting experiments. Basically the experiments you will conduct is to see if your hypothesis is correct or incorrect. There are certain steps in the scientific method, first you have to the problem, question or theory your trying to prove. Then you find some background research to help you choose what your hypothesis which means you also need a hypothesis. You need to then conduct the experiment that will either prove or find your hypothesis correct or incorrect. This will lead to your conclusion, the conclusion is a statement that says if your correct or incorrect.
An example of a scientific experiment is testing if a certain liquid is an acid, base or if its neutral. So first you would need to know what an acid, base and a neutral liquids are. Then you have to make a hypothesis of what you think the liquid is. Then you would have to conduct the experiment using indicators testing pH levels and see what the liquid is. After that you write your conclusion stating if you got your hypothesis right and what if the liquid is a base, acid or neutral.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Evolution VS Creation

Evolution
Evolution is the theory that everything in the world had a common ancestor and we all evolved from it. Charles Darwin believed that everything was evolved from a small organism. Instead of everything becoming varied over a long period of time, entirely different species were created. Charles Darwin had also believed in "natural selection". He believed that animals would keep the stronger traits that would get passed on in their genes to their offspring. He had believed that evolution would happen over a very long period of time but it would surely happen.

Creation
Creation is the theory that God created the Earth an everything on it. People who believe in creationism are very religious and are strongly against the theory of evolution. The idea of creation came from Genesis 1-2, stating that God had created everything in 7 days.

The theory that I believe in is evolution. I believe in evolution because I believe that everything evolved from something. I believe that animals had passed on stronger traits in their genes to their offspring so that they can survive with their surroundings. I also believe that animals developed certain traits to make life easier for them in their surroundings.