Canada Timeline - Basak Kalkavan

Basak delivered an amazing SS11 project that demonstrated both her interest in the subject matter and her adherence to academic discipline. Good job Basak! Thank you for the hard work!

> Mr. MacIntosh

People Can Be Influenced By Their Environment by Stephanie Tsai

The Chinese have a traditional saying, that every new born baby is a sheet of blank paper. As a person grows older, their experiences and memories will enrich their lives just as many colours might be added to create an image on a piece of paper. In the same way, people are influenced by their environment, and develop from a blank paper into a colourful paper. Other factors affect our development too, and people, especially teenagers, can be either inspired or oppressed by family, friends and their school lives.
Parents are usually the closest friends for every child. They accompany us through our childhood and teach us many things. As they play such an important role in our lives, we respect, admire and treat them as our role models. Teenagers follow the way their family members act and often they are an inspiration to teenagers. Usually, family members are people who instill positive mind concepts in teenagers. However, elders are not always right, and as they are role models of teenagers they can have a negative effect. Just as parents can pass on good habits, they can pass on bad habits too, and many inconsiderate teenagers are simply imitating their parents’ behaviour.

Although family members do instill their ideas into teenagers, peers are the most influential group who bring positive and negative influences to teenagers, as teenagers are easily affected by their peers. Peer pressure is very hard to resist Say, for example, a group of my friends start smoking and ask me to smoke too. I know that smoking is not good for health and that I should not do it. However, as I am afraid that I will be excluded from the peer group, I feel forced to smoke. Peer pressure is what makes many teenagers go on a wrong path.

Of course, mates do not only sway us in a bad way. When a teenager is disheartened, it is always friends who manage to help. Since teenagers usually share their thoughts with friends, friends are the ones who really understand them in this stage of their lives. Friends will always find ways to cheer their mates up and help them solve problems and lead them out of misery. For this reason, companionship is a vital necessity.

In addition to the time that teenagers spend with family and friends, they spend a lot of time at school, studying. The school environment also plays a significant role in teaching positive concepts to teenagers. Although school is a place for education, however, this does not mean that it will certainly motivate teenagers in a positive way. If the teaching system of the school is not strict enough, there will be great opportunities for teenagers to learn bad manners and attitudes. For example, I can compare my two cousins. One of them studies in a Band 1 school and the other studies in a Band 3 school in Hong Kong. Bands are levels which indicate different schools’ teaching standards. Band 1 is the best and Band 3 is the worst. As we can imagine, my cousin who studies in a Band 1 school studies well and has good manners, whereas my other cousin who studies in a Band 3 school has low grades in every subject and as a result she cannot get into university. Thus, this reveals that not every educational environment influences teenagers in a good way.

As we all begin as a blank sheet of paper, family, friends and school lives are able to add colour to the blank sheet, and help to lead us to a meaningful life. It is up to us to use those colours, and choose the picture we want them to form.

Stephanie's composition submitted by: < Ms. Brown

Are There Limits to Population Growth?
Research Essay by Srishti Chandola

Introduction:
 
In this essay I plan to argue that there are limits to population growth, that we simply cannot grow exponentially year after year. This essay will analyze the impact of human activity on the environment. Our environment has limits such as fresh water availability, food availability, basically availability of natural resources. Our natural resources are not infinite, not even water. 2.5% of the water available on Earth is fresh water and of that less than 1% is available for drinking. The rest is frozen in ice caps, glaciers and such1. I am going into such detail about water because it is necessary for the human survival. We cannot survive without water, on average, for more than three days2. Along with water our other resources are running out quickly too. This is because the Earth has to support larger number of people with every second that passes. Our population grows by three people per second, which means 259,200 people in a day!

Background:

It is difficult for me to understand people who believe that by the time we reach a crisis in our environment we will have come up with a technology to deal with it. If we are able to come up with technological solutions then why have we not already dealt with problems of food and water shortage in places like Africa and India? As we deplete our resources, we put a greater strain on ourselves and this causes our society to have a breakdown. Increases and advances in technology are not possible at such time because resources are low and our main aim becomes to survive. The people of Easter Island are an example of this.

Body:

Easter Island is a place found in the Pacific Ocean. It was inhabited by 7,000 people many centuries ago3. These people started a great and complex society. They grew crops and made huge stone statues that they worshiped. Many giant trees must have been used to make these humungous statues yet today there are barely any trees on the island and there is nothing left of the society that used to be, except for the huge stone figures that have witnessed the peak and the demise of the society. We now know that there came a point when the islanders used their last tree. The island was able to support 7,000 people but as their population started growing exponentially the resources of the island collapsed. With this came the collapse of the people and their society.

Today we are heading in the same direction. Our population is growing rapidly and if we don’t do something to control our population soon we will be heading towards the limits of the Earth. Paul Wood, a conservation professor at the University of British Columbia, estimates that it would take three Earths to support the population of Earth if everyone lived they way North Americans do4. We cannot talk of development and growth until we reign in our population. India and China alone have a population of 2 billion people. The sort of population growth we are experiencing today is just not sustainable.

As the human population increases, the population of other species decreases. This is because we are using their share of resources. As the Living Planet report tells us, the average human footprint is 2.2 gha per person while the average footprint of a North American is 9.6 gha per person!5

If a single American consumes this level of resources per year, and there are 304,289,968 Americans, then it’s not surprising that our biological diversity is decreasing rather quickly6. To top it all off, the rest of us are trying very hard to elevate our standards to those of the western world! In order for us to even stay afloat as a society, without collapsing, we need to cut down our numbers and control our population.

Both Sides of the Argument:

Many people feel that all people should have the right to have as many kids as they would like, but do we ever consider the rights of other species? We are denying other species the right to resources because we are using their share. In biology a high rate of reproduction equates to fitness, but I think that after a certain point the high rate of reproduction harms the species itself because it causes great competition not only with other species but within the species as well. We humans have ‘out competed’ the other species for resources. But now we are competing among each other for them. I do not see any advantages in a world over populated by human beings. I am not saying that I hate my species and the world is better off without us. All I am saying is that we need to stop our gluttony and we need to control our numbers.

Though an economist might think otherwise, the growing population of a country like India does not mean its doom. Rather, population growth is helping India to become a super power. “India has a great potential to become an economic super power because of its growing young population”7. For the people of India, a growing population is proving to be a boon because the up-coming generation is young , and because of this the economy is going to surge. The boom in the economy may prove to be great for the people but has anyone considered how it is going to affect the Bengal tiger, an already endangered species? The economic boom is going to mean higher resource use by the population of India, which at the moment is 1,129,866,154!

Homo sapiens at this moment can easily be labeled as being the leaders of planet Earth. This role brings many benefits, like total control of resources, but it also gives responsibility. No leader in today’s world is free of responsibilities. We associate leadership with responsibility. Yet we as a species are shunning our responsibilities towards nature and other species. We are acting as though our actions have no consequences, and this is proving to be disastrous. For example, carbon dioxide levels have shot up in an alarmingly short period of time, and human activities have contributed to a hole in the ozone layer. We are the major cause of global warming! Even in the face of such devastating events our population is growing in leaps and bounds.

Conclusion:

I am able to picture a civilization, long after ours is gone, studying our civilization and desolately nodding their heads at our errors as we do at the mistakes of the Mayans and the Easter Islanders. Though humans have caused this destruction it is only humans that can bring about a change. We need to propagate family planning and promote sustainable resource use in order to make the world we live in livable for the future generations.

1 http://www.ec.gc.ca/WATER/en/info/facts/
e_quantity.htm
2 http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/
071212-live-without-water.html
3 Diamond, Jared: Collapse
4 Wood, Paul: University of British Columbia
5 The Living Planet Report, World Wildlife Federation
6 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/print/us.html
7 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/
1716181.cms

Essay submitted by Mr. R. Smith.

Note: This research essay was the Bodwell High School winner of the Summer 2008 semester Bodwell/Kenya Essay Competition. Congratulations to Srishti and to Joseph Kariuki Gitati, the Kenyan competition winner.

Mr. Rogers' Challenge

In examining Literature, students often focus on themselves. Their own experiences, successes, failures, changes, life, everything becomes a lens through which to examine and try to understand others. Grade 11 English students were recently asked to think about the effect Bodwell has had on them. The following responses are samples of what the students came up with after evaluating the below-noted challenge statement:

In 150 – 300 words, comment on how your experiences at Bodwell have changed your view of yourself, your country, and your way (s) of interrelating with others (from your country and others).

Mr. Rogers

Man Ning's Response

Bodwell is a special school that let me realize the actuality of the human mind in the world. I met many different countries people here, and I understood that all of us had lots of cultural and personal barriers. When I lived and studied in Hong Kong, I could do whatever I wanted to do, and say whatever I wanted to say in front of people who had grown up with me and shared cultures and customs. I didn’t need to worry about would they get mad for my speech or action because I could directly understand what kind of joke would make them mad. However, when I came to Canada and to Bodwell to study with different kinds of people, I couldn’t use my old way of treating them because they were different thought and mind from the people in Hong Kong. Bodwell exactly helped me to realize that I was very ignorant about the mind of others, and I could understand there are many kinds of people in that world.

Andy's Response

Two years ago I was still a junior high school student in Taiwan, and I thought I will stay in Taiwan, then become a typical Taiwanese worker in the future. I didn’t expect too much and I didn’t have any dreams or real goals. After my parents sent me to Bodwell High School, I felt that I was just a piece of sand in the world. Students here like to compete with each other in both academics and athletics. Students always try to do their best. In contrast, I am always the one who is too shy to show my real side to others, but after judged by my classmates, I set up my mind to be the best because I want to get the respect back. I spent at least two hours a day for doing my homework and studying because I want everything to be perfect and gradually it had become my habit. At the same time, I can feel I’m fitting in this society somehow. I have more friends and I feel that I am now a Bodwell student. I realized afterwards that people weren’t trying to be mean to me; they were trying to help me, but just in a hard way. However, I’ve grown up a lot during these two years. My goal is to graduate soon and get into Simon Fraser University and my dream is to become a diplomat.

Yuki's Response

Bodwell is an international school. It is somewhat bizarre that there is an international school in an English speaking country, but Canada is a multi-cultural place and so, in reflecting that, it does make sense. My background is also multi-cultural. When I went to school in Japan, I went to an international school also, but I felt no difference because I was still in my country. At Bodwell, however, I learn and experience so many new things with many different kinds of people. I also see many friends from my own country and so never feel lonely. I experienced dormitory life here for the first time. Although it was difficult at first, living by myself and having to care about and other people’s points of view (which were often very different from my own), I have learned to adapt to my circumstances. I am now more open-minded and easy-going in my relationships. Bodwell is a small community; trying to get on as well as possible with every student is the only way to stay a participating part of the group. In this sense I have learned to not think only about myself, but about those around me as well. In the international environment created at Bodwell this has often meant disregarding the stereo-typical conceptions I previously held about different countries and people.

Neilson's Response

Bodwell has exposed me to an abundance of cultural and language differences. The school has enabled me to gain new perspective into several cultural exchanges that may prove to be beneficial for me in the future. Despite the sometimes challenging aspect of facing multiple cultures at once, socializing at Bodwell is fairly pleasant due to a majority of amicable individuals who bring an exemplary name to the already dignified and ravishing stature of the school with its dedicated, intelligent and hardworking students. Since I originate from the country of Singapore, international relations are excellent among neighbouring countries. Seeking an enlightened comprehension of cultures would not prove to be too challenging. In the case of interrelating with others, I feel that involvement in a period of orientation is necessary. Most students arrive in this new and foreign country with little or no knowledge of what to expect. To host an international crowd, students will relate better to others by participating in sessions involving English dialogue practice and the various differences between English pronunciation and accents. I feel that a cultural melting pot is a wonderful experience only if the furnace and mason work together in achieving the best quality metal. In conclusion it is an honour to be a part of Bodwell as it teaches me the humanistic values of morality, fair judgement and principalities of congruent nature and meaning of being an all-round citizen and ambassador of the world. This cannot be achieved without the altruistic and compassionate teaching staff of the school, who spend much time and sweat in shaping students for the world ahead.