Aborigines

The Aborigines have stayed in Australia for more than 40,000 years. They hunt and collect fruits for food. They believe that Australia is a sacred land and they will protect it. Thus, they do not go to the urban life. They make rattan, baskets for a living. They have a rich culture, languages and art. They are used to their way of life for years. They do not built shelters for resting.

They do not use any electricity before the colonization. They are like a tribe. They have formal ceremony and they play their own creation of instrument during the ceremony.

The growing demand of rice from parts of the world are causing the risen retail prices of rice. As Asia being the world's 'food basket' is trying hard to meet the growing demand. In order to help Asia meet the growing demand, countries are helping small scale farmers to grow more food.

Coniferous forests

The last geography lesson was on coniferous forest. We learnt that these forests are much more different than the tropical rainforest and tropical monsoon rainforest we learnt about earlier. To begin with the forest are found mainly in places that experience a cool temperate climate, usually around 60 to 70 degrees north and south of the equator. The structure of the forest is very different from the tropical rainforest as in only has one layer and all the trees in the forest grow tall and uniform in height, around 20 to 30 metres. The diversity of the plants is also quite lowa s not many plants that can adapt to the temperatures and precipitation of that kind of climate. The density of the forest is low. As for the leaves, most of the trees have needle like leaves and are evergreen as the leaves need tp be ready for photosynthesis the moment the temperature reaches above 6 degrees celcius. The main flower the trees bear are cones, hence the name coniferous forest. The seeds can be dispersed by wind or by animals. The trees bark and branches are thick and help protect them from the harsh conditions of the winters and they have flexible branches to let the snow slide of them.

Reflection on article

Hi, I missed the last geography lesson so I am not so sure what was taught during the lesson. However I do Know it was about mangroves and I recieved the article on mangroves so heres my reflection on it.

I think the article was very meaningful as nowadays not many people appreciate the natural wonders of the world esspecially in Singapore. I had a small personal connection to this article because when i was very young my father used to take my brothers and I to the Pasir Ris mangrove swamps and I always was very excited when we went. I personally think mangroves are very nice and peaceful, although it is true that it is dirty and muddy and has insects to a certain extent, it is all part of nature and I think everyone should try to appreciate natural vegetations and forest such as this. I like how the family in the article did not appreciate the mangrove at first but ended up loving their experience. I think whenever you have the opportunity you should definately visit a mangrove as they are going to dissapear soon enough.

In conclusion I think mangroves are not only helpful to the enviroment, in that they help to prevent soil errosion and pollution in the waters, but they are also beautiful and very few so appreciate them while you can.

First Geography lesson 11th january 2011

Today we learnt the about the different climates and forests around the world. We learnt about the 3 different type of forest, tropical forest, the desciduous forest and the conifeous forest. The lesson was mostly focussed on the tropical rainforest and abit of the tropical monsoon rainforest.
Tropical rainforest are mostly found in places that experience a tropical equatorial climate. We also learnt about the structure of the tropical and monsoon rainforest. There are 5 layers, from highest point to lowest, the emergent layer, canopy layer, understorey layer, shrub layer and the undergrowth layer. The last part of the lesson was about the differences between the tropical and monsoon rainforests. They're main differnces are that a tropical rainforest it is more dense while a tropical monsoon rainforest is less dense. A tropical rainforest is also more diverse has more evergreen trees.