Journey by Water

For the past few weeks, you have been looking at the issue of water from political, social, and environmental perspectives in preparation for the paper you are writing. Last week, we started reading the novel, Journey to the River Sea, which is set, for the most part, on the Amazon River and which provides a different outlook on the importance of water. Based on your reading from the first seven chapters, choose one of the following questions to answer for this week's blog assignment. It is due by midnght on Tuesday, October 4.

1. When Maia, the main character, learns that she will be going to live in Manaus, Brazil, her perceptions of the Amazon are very different from those of her classmates. Before you started reading the novel, what were your impressions of the Amazon? Are they changing as you continue to read? Find at least 2 new facts about the Amazon today that you didn't already know and share them. Be sure to list your source.
2. Unlike most of the reading you have already done about water, Journey to the River Sea is fiction, so its main purpose is to entertain rather than to inform or convince. However, novels can also provide readers with valuable knowledge about people and places. Give at least three examples from the novel of ways that Eva Ibbotson provides valuable geographic and cultural information in the course of the story. 
3. In what ways do the people of the story--natives, plantation owners, and townspeople, rely on the river and its tributaries in their daily lives. Give examples from each group.

Issues of Water

Recently, we've been looking at the issue of water as it relates to the world's poorest, particularly women, and have recognized the inequity of water distribution. Some governments have experimented with handing over their water resources to private water utilities and some have applied fees on water to the very people who can least afford to pay. Lakes are drying up and water tables are diminishinig and there is little clean water for many people throughout the world. According to Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, water may be the "new oil."
Task: Read the following 5 questions and choose one to comment on. To support your points, you must use quotations or paraphrasing from the many readings and videos you have watched. You will be graded on 2 things - your comments and relevant support from a source. You must identify the source that you quote, in parentheses. Use APA style documentation if you know how. You will have until Tuesday, September 27th to comment.

1. Do you think water should be a commodity to be bought and sold, or a shared natural resource?
2. Is water the new oil?
3. Nestle takes 5 million litres of water per day from Ontario lakes, bottles it and sells it back to us. Should private companies be able to take the water resources? Should they pay for the water resource?
4. 1/6 of all people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water. What do you think the answer is to solving this problem? Who is to blame?
5. Does Canada need a national water policy? Explain

Water Photos

Click on Water Crisis Photos and view all 22 images from Time magazine and read the captions underneath. Some photographs are breathtakingly beautiful and some are alarming. Look at all of them and then choose one that has affected you in some way, either positively or negatively. Explain how you feel about the photograph and why.

Enjoy reading what your classmates have to say. You will have until Tuesday, September 20th at midnight to post your comments.

Week 3 - Save Water, Save Life

Do you know that a typical Canadian uses 335 litres of water every day, and that an average European uses only about 160 litres per day? (Gilchrist, Calgary Herald) We waste an enormous amount of water in this country. We also believe in the 'myth' that we have an abundant supply of fresh water.

Thinking about how to conserve water in our own daily lives is a good way to start making this topic real to us.

To see how you are doing at reducing your water footprint, go to http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home. From the sidebar on the left, choose "Your Water Footprint" and then "Quick Calculator" or "Extended Calculator." (When I tried both I got very different results, so I'd highly recommend doing the more detailed one or both.)

In your blog post, comment on the results of your test and some ways that you might be able to conserve water in your homes in the following areas: kitchen, bathroom, and outside your home.Share your  ideas with your classmates.

You will have until Tuesday, September 13 at midnight to post your comments. I realize that by starting with the first blog post a little later than Cathy's class started and then adding a second one during week 2, this puts us a little ahead of the game. Throughout the rest of the semester, I will post a new blog every Friday, and you will post your comments by the following Tuesday at midnight. Because there is a bit of an overlap now, I will allow you to miss one blog entry throughout the course. You can skip any one you want, so you may want to save up for a time when you are feeling a little overwhelmed with assignments to omit that one.

As usual, please let me know if you are having any technical or other difficulties posting to the blog.

Week 2: Vocabulary Strategies

Welcome to the new blog! If you are new to blogging, we'll get familiar with it together. If not, you may be able to help your classmates--and me--as we manoeuvre our way around unfamiliar territory!

I enjoyed reading your posts last week on what it means to you to succeed in EAP. This week the topic is vocabulary and how you learn it. Please share with us some of the things you've done to learn new words--both in the classroom or on your own--and tell which of those strategies you feel have been most helpful for you. (Feel free to share those you feel haven't been very successful, too!)

Because of the shortened week and because we are just getting the new blog up and running, your posts are due before midnight on Tuesday, September 13. After that, they will be due before midnight every Tuesday.

If you're having trouble posting, please send me an email and let me know.