Becca’s GED Social Studies Blog

I found this great article by a Peace Corps volunteer who’s working in Honduras. When you want a glass of water, you probably turn on your faucet and there it is. You’re probably like me, you don’t even think about it. But this village in Honduras, they have pipes that go to a stream nearby. In the summer, they’re all dried up, and in the winter, the water’s not clean.

This is the story of the Peace Corps volunteer, Joan Heberger, trying to get a plan together to get water to the village.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/stories/stories.cfm?psid=49&gid=3

Read the story, and I’ll have a GED practice question for it next week.

How’s GED studyin’ going? It’s still early in the year… holidays are over… time to get on track for the GED this year! And I’ve got a GED topic that’s still boggling my mind, like I talked about last time. That’s the International Date Line. (Read on …)

I don’t know why, but the GED test social studies section seems hard to a lot of people. I guess it’s because there’s so much history, and economics, and geography in the whole world. And people ask me, what does looking into local history help? Who knows what’s going to be on the test!

And maybe there’ll be stuff about Spain three hundred years ago or something, but the most important thing is figuring out how to think about what you’re reading. That’s why I say, read about anything that interests you! Because you’re learning to read about stuff, learning to learn new information. That’s the most important thing for the GED social science test.

It’s like how I was interested to read about Clara Barton. As I said, you can read about her at: http://www.civilwar.com/content/view/257/53/
Here’s part of what it says about her:

Clara Barton settled in Danville, N.Y., where for several years she was a semi-invalid. In 1877 she wrote a founder of the International Red Cross, offering to lead an American branch of the organization. Thus, at 56 she began a new career.
In 1881 Barton incorporated the American Red Cross, with herself as president. A year later her extraordinary efforts brought about United States ratification of the Geneva Convention. She herself attended conferences of the International Red Cross as the American representative. She was, however, far from bureaucratic in interests. Although wholly individualistic and unlike reformers who worked on programs for social change, she did a great social service as activist and propagandist.

The social studies test might have a reading like that, and probably it’s something you’ve never read about before! Then, there’s a question, and you can probably answer it just by reading the passage carefully. Try it!

Question: According to the information, Clara Barton was most interested in:

1. founding organizations.
2. having an important position.
3. attending conferences.
4. ratifying conventions.
5. social activism.

What do you think?

Hey everyone, isn’t it just horrible what happened in Haiti? If you haven’t heard yet, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to the number 90999, and the money will be added to your next phone bill. Or you can go redcross.org and donate there. I picked a practice question today that talks about Haiti’s past–particularly about the language they speak.

photo taken by dominic arizona : azfoto.com

• In the early 15th century, the Spanish took control of the island of Hispaniola for its gold, killing many of the indigenous peoples with disease.

• In the 16th century, Africans were brought to the island as slaves.

• Many French pirates made their homes on the western shores of Hispaniola.

• France eventually gained control over the western portion of the island, and many battles for independence were fought until 1804, when independence was won, and the nation was renamed to Haiti.

• In the 20th century, the United states occupied Haiti in an attempt to help stabilize their government. During this time, Haitian Creole was also accepted as an official language of Haiti, particularly in education.

• Throughout the turbulent years of Haiti’s past, many Haitians have left to try and make a better life for themselves in other parts of the Caribbean and North America. (Read on …)

In today’s day and age, we’re bombarded with a lot of advertisements, and a lot of the time there’s a ton of information thrown at you at once. Sometimes it’s not even related to the product, like when they have women in bikinis playing volleyball in the snowy Alps for a beer commercial. Sometimes there is a lot of relevant information though, and it’s good to know exactly what the ad is trying to get at.

In the above image, what information about the product is most important to the advertisement?

1. It catches a lot of dirt.

2. It cleans quickly.

3. It has bristles made out of nanotubes.

4. It’s red.

5. It’s inexpensive. (Read on …)

I once visited the Grand Canyon, and let me tell you, it was a real sight to see. I mean, I’ve seen holes in the earth before, so I wasn’t even really sure I’d be as impressed as people tell you you’ll be, but once you get out there, and stand on the edge of a cliff dropping right down into that giant hole, it really takes your breath away.

Later I read about how the Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. I’ve never seen most of the others, except the Northern Lights, which I once saw on a long haul up to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It was real pretty. Kinda like bright white, greenish clouds, only at night. And they’d kinda shifted and moved around real fast, like there was a giant fan up in space blowing them around. I can definitely see why the Grand Canyon and the Northern Lights are part of the Seven Natural Wonders. I think I’d like to see all the rest someday, even they are all across the globe, like Mount Everest way over there in Asia.

I started looking up some of the other wonders of the world, and found out that there’s a lot of different lists! One of the most popular is the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That’s got the Pyramids in it, along with a lot of other neat things. Here’s a practice question about one of them that I thought was pretty hard. (Read on …)

Hey there! You’re all workin’ on your GED, and so money’s probably tight. Though when I was working as a truck driver, I was doin’ okay. What happened was, my back went out. Now, there’s no way I can drive a truck, so I gotta work on doing something else. That’s when I found out I needed my GED for any decent job. For options, you know. Because things go wrong. Well, when my back first went out, let me tell you, dealing with the insurance company and doctors and medical bills… it was no easy thing. That’s why I was interested in this article I read… and I feel pretty lucky, because bein’ put outta work and havin’ medical expenses, it could’ve been a lot worse.

Here’s a good GED social studies article… it talks about how according to one stud, 60% of bankruptcies are because of medical bills, even though a lot of the people have medical insurance: Medical bills prompt more than 60% of U.S. bankruptcies (CNN) … now, how bout a GED practice question about it?

The study may overestimate the number of bankruptcies caused by medical bills yet underestimate the financial burden of health care on American families, because most people struggle along but don’t end up declaring bankruptcy, according to Cunningham.

“Bankruptcy is the most extreme or final step for people who are having problems paying medical bills,” he says. “Medical bills and medical costs are an issue that can very easily and in pretty short order overwhelm a lot families who are on otherwise solid financial ground, including those with private insurance.”

Which of the following is the best conclusion based on Cunningham’s viewpoint?

1) Health care financial problems can be solved by more families having private insurance.

2) No bankruptcies are truly caused by medical expenses.

3) Families that incur high medical expenses usually have unstable finances.

4) No study could accurately estimate the contribution of health care expenses to bankruptcy.

5) Private insurance alone is not a complete solution to the financial burden of health care costs.

So, have you thought about the question? What do you think is the right answer? Read more to find out how I approached it… (Read on …)

Okay, I guess Cheerios aren’t a drug. But here’s the thing… as you’re studying for your GED, seriously the best thing is to check the news headlines and keep in touch with what’s going on all around. Because this article I read about Cheerios is just social studies in action. The government, economics, wars, people making history, it’s all GED social science, and it’s all over the news. But, what I was saying is about Cheerios. So, you’ve seen those ads, you can lower cholesterol 4 percent in 6 weeks by eating Cheerios? It’s interesting to me, because I’ve got to keep an eye on my cholesterol. Too much bad cholesterol can lead to heart problems, you know. But the FDA stepped in, and said Cheerios can’t claim that. They’re advertising Cheerios like it’s a heart drug, and heart medicines have got to be proven to work and approved by the FDA. (Read on …)

To make sure that you understand the information, the GED social studies test sometimes asks you to recognize something you’ve read, said over again in different words. In other words, it’s restated! If you can understand the same thing in different words, then you really understood what it meant. (Read on …)

Hey, everyone! How’s the GED studying going? Here’s something interesting in the news that I think is good for GED social studies. It really raised a lot of questions with me! It’s the journalist in Iraq who threw his shoes at President Bush. (Read on …)