The Burren

"....where there is not water enough to drown a man, wood enough to hang one nor earth enough to bury one …"  Cromwellian soldier 1651

One of the most scenic and unique landscapes in the world can be found in The Burren in County Clare, in the west of Ireland.

The Burren is a Karst Landscape. This means that the main rock to be found in the area is limestone.

In the Burren the topsoil above the limestone was eroded or weathered away in the past. This meant that the exposed limestone underwent chemical weathering.

Chemical weathering is when rainwater mixes with an element in the air called carbon dioxide. This mixture is now called carbonic acid. Limestone contains a mineral called calcium carbonate. Carbonic acid dissolves the calcium carbonate which means the limestone rock is slowly dissolved over time.

The worn away limestone rock leaves grooves called grikes. The undissolved limestone remains as clints. 

The dissolved limestone disappears under the limestone pavement where it can create stalactites (growing down from the roof of a cave) or stalagmites (growing up from the floor of the cave). If stalactites and stalagmites meet they form a pillar. Streams in the Burren disappear underground through swallow holes.

The Burren in Ireland is a protected area, and is a Global Geopark along with the Cliffs of Moher.

Due to its unusual landscape and lack of human activity, the Burren is home to some rare plants and creatures such as orchids and green moths.

It is also famous for being an area of Neolithic settlement, and contains the famous Poulnabrone Dolmen.

The following video gives a good description of how karst landscapes are formed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-7vJz0nuA

This clip describe the Burren landscape, its geography, history and archaeology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wEkqiap4nw

This is another very useful video on the features of the Burren

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

Rivers

“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.” ― Laura Gilpin

A river is a natural channel of water that runs from high land to low land. Rivers drain rainwater from land and lakes and carry it off to the sea. The bottom of a river channel is called the river bed. The sides of a river channel are called banks. Here are some other important key words about rivers.

Source: The point where a river begins

Drainage Basin: The area of land that drained by a particular river and its tributaries.

Watershed: The boundary or divider between two drainage basins, like the top of a house rooftop

Course: The route taken by a river as it flows down towards the sea or ocean

Tributary: A smaller river that runs into a larger river

Confluence: The point where two or more rivers meet

Mouth: Where a river reaches the sea

Estuary: The part of the river mouth that is tidal as it merges with the sea or ocean.

All rivers have an upper, middle, and lower course.

In the Upper Course the process at work is Erosion. The features you will see are Waterfalls, Rapids and a V shaped Valley

The upper course begins in the hills or mountains. Here the river is smaller and usually has a rapid,

tumbling flow that cuts a narrow channel through rocky hills or mountains. It may roll large boulders

along in its swift current. The river can create waterfalls where it carves out layers of soft rock and leaves a cliff of hard rock standing.

It forms rapids along sloping rocky beds.

In the Middle Course the process at work is both Erosion and Deposition

The features you will see are Meanders, Oxbow Lakes

The middle course of a river has more water than in the upper course. The slope is gentler and flatter.

Erosion has widened the channel. Deposition also occurs as some of the material eroded in the

Upper Course starts to settle. The river channel has also become deeper. Meanders are typical

landforms found in this stage of the river. Oxbow lakes can also occur when the river cuts through the land in a straight line and cuts off the meander leaving it as a lake.

In the Lower Course the process at work is Deposition.

The volume of water in a river is at its greatest in the lower course. This is due to the contribution of water from tributaries. The river channel is deep and wide and the land around the river is flat. Energy in the river is at its lowest and deposition occurs.

A Delta is a feature often found at the mouth of a river. An example is the Nile Delta. Deltas are formed when a river deposits material faster than the sea can erode it. High banks called Levees can also be seen.

     Upper Course of a river, featuring waterfalls and rapids caused by the process of erosion

                                      

Middle Course of a river, featuring meanders caused by the processes of erosion and deposition

               Lower Course of a river featuring a Delta caused by the process of deposition.

River Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JM71mcw_LI

A useful video on what the ‘profile’ of a river looks like. The profile is what the river would look like if we could see it from the side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsXKv1yfNFk

A nice song to remember the most important river features and processes!

The Renaissance

About 500 years ago world history changed completely because of something that happened in Italy.

It was called The Renaissance, which means ‘Rebirth’

What happened during the Renaissance completely changed the way people thought about areas such as art, architecture, writing, science, medicine and philosophy.

Just before the Renaissance Europe had been struck by a horrible plague or disease called the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague which historians believe killed 1 in 3 Europeans.

After the Black Death had subsided people started to rebuild Europe. This was to be the start of a new era in which people decided to go back to the great days of Rome and Greece to draw inspiration for a better way of living.

The changes they came up with completely revolutionized the world and effects the way we all live today. Just as Ancient Rome gave us inventions we still use today, so did the Renaissance.

The Renaissance began in the North of Italy. It started there because there were a lot of rich people or 'Patrons' who could afford to pay people to be artists, sculptors or architects.

 

These patrons from rich families such as the De Medici family, encouraged people to develop new ways of thinking about art and science.

Patrons helped famous renaissance artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo come up with some new magnificent works of art. They used new techniques such as perspective and oil paints to make their pictures seem lifelike and real. Some artists studied anatomy to help make their statues and painting more authentic. Their works led the way for art as we know it today.

                                           

Architects explored new ways of designing buildings, and drew up plans for some of the magnificent Renaissance style buildings we can still see today. Scientists became more adventurous in exploring the world, and came up with new ideas in medicine and astronomy. Some like Galileo, who challenged old ideas weren't often so popular!

In writing, people like William Shakespeare wrote in the language of ordinary people, the vernacular, so everyone could enjoy reading plays, drama and poetry. The invention of the Printing Press greatly helped with this, and it helped spread literacy to ordinary people.

So all in all, the Renaissance really was a rebirth in so many ways!

Have a look at some interesting video clips about the Renaissance here:

Ireland's Celtic Christian Heritage

We know from our history that the Celts came to Ireland a few hundred years before Christ, from around Austria and Switzerland, the 'La Tene' area. At first these Celts would of course have been pagan, probably worshiping many different Gods.

However, thanks mainly to the efforts of St Patrick, Celtic Ireland became Christian in the Fifth Century AD. The conversion to Christianity sparked off new developments in art and architecture.

The  Christian Celts built monasteries all  round Ireland. these were famed for their High Crosses and Round Towers. They also produced magnificent works of art to celebrate their religion, including famous pieces like the Ardagh chalice and Book of Kells.

These photographs below show details from a magnificent High Cross in County Meath. The intricate art work shows passages from the Bible , which helped the monks to explain the passages to the many illiterate people of the time.

The Christian Celts produced beautiful works of art to glorify God, such as the Book of Kells (part of the Bible) and Chalices such as the Ardagh Chalice.

To keep these priceless artifacts safe from invaders such as the Vikings, they were stored in Round Towers in the Monasteries. Were a monastery to be attacked, the monks entered the Round Tower with their valuables by using a ladder to access the door. The ladder was then pulled up into the Tower.

You can read more about our famous Celtic Christian heritage here:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/celtic/celtic_art.htm

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/cultural-history-of-ireland/celtic-style-christian-art.htm

Welcome to our Open Night!

We are very glad to welcome visitors to our Learning Support Department tonight.

At St Mary's we help all students to achieve success. To achieve this aim we offer support to students who may need help with mainstream subjects or require assistance in other ways to integrate fully into school life.

Follow us on on twitter to learn more. @stmarysls

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