KEYWORDS!!

When we start learning more about a new subject we find that certain words seem to crop up a lot. These are words that are often used by teachers or are found in our textbooks. We call these words 'KEYWORDS', because by understanding them we then have a 'key' to unlocking the new ideas and concepts that we need to know.

There are some common keywords that we see in nearly every subject. For example, do you know the difference between 'compare' and 'contrast' or between 'explain' and 'describe'?

This useful link below helps us to understand the difference between these key terms...


https://www.studyclix.ie/Blog/Show/Compare,-Contrast,-List,-Suggest-%E2%80%93-understand-the-question-words-used-in-exams



Every subject also has its own key terms. And remember, a word may have a completely different meaning depending on what subject it is being used in. A 'bank' in Geography is different from a 'bank' in business studies for example..

Below are useful links to help understand the different key words in various subjects. Handy to know and memorise!

http://geographyhelp.co.uk/keywords/keywords1.php


http://www.alperton.brent.sch.uk/assets/Forms-Documents/PDFs/Key-Words/History-Key-Words.pdf


http://thephysicsteacher.ie/Literacy%20and%20Numeracy/JC%20Keywords%20Posters.pdf

http://www.allinfo.org.uk/revision-gcse/glossarye.htm

http://studymaths.co.uk/glossary.php

http://www.elsp.ie/subjectsS/JC/examLanguage/Exam%20Language%20Topic%20-%20Science.pdf

Always on the move…

What's under your feet? Well, depending upon where you are now, it could be dirt, rock, or grass. But what's really under your feet? If you were to dig straight down, what would you find? And how far could you dig? Could you really dig a hole all the way down to Australia?

First Year Geography students are often surprised when they learn just what exactly our planet is composed of.  Our planet is made up of a number of layers .We live on the solid outer crust of the Earth, containing our continents, seas and oceans, which is about 8-30 km deep.

Under the crust lies the Mantle; this is mainly composed of a very hot substance called magma. Below the mantle is the Core. This is our planet’s deepest, hottest layer.

The Core is made up of two parts; The ‘Outer Core’ and ‘Inner Core’.

The Outer Core is about 25500 Km and is made up of liquid metals such as uranium and platinum. Its temperature can be as hot as 5000 Degrees Celsius. Compare that with today’s temperature!

The Inner Core is about 100km thick and is like a solid ball of Iron.

The Earth’s Crust is cracked in many places. At some of these cracks magma spills out. Magma that comes out on the Earth’s surface is called lava. If a lot of lava erupts at once a volcano can form. Sometimes a lot of lava spills out and cools down to form new crust made out of igneous rocks.

The plate crack or ‘Boundary’ between Europe and America is under the Atlantic Ocean. It gets wider by about the width of a finger every year. You can see it on Google Earth. This means we are actually moving away from America!

In other parts of the world, plates sometimes collide or slip under each other, and melt when they come into contact with the magma in the mantle.

All this movement by plates happens very, very slowly over time but it does mean that the continents and oceans of the Earth are constantly changing position because the plates underneath then are shifting. We call this ‘Continental Drift’.

If you look closely at a map of the Earth you will see it like a large jigsaw; in fact Africa and South America were once stuck together many years ago! We know this because many of the rocks in both continents are similar.

Finally, have a look at this amazing video clip to see how the plates and continents have caused our continents to drift over time. Ireland was actually once on the Equator; imagine where we will be in millions of years’ time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcDed4xVD4