by Professor Lewis Lesley
Accidents are awful
Please be very careful
Enjoy your life safely
Make each step watchfully
When accidents happen, people get hurt or sometimes killed. This makes people very sad. What are accidents and why do they happen ? Some accidents are so bad that the best we can do is to try to avoid the worst, The Tsunami tidal wave that wrecked the coasts of the Indian Ocean on 26th Dec. 2004 was a natural disaster that killed over a quarter of a million people. Thankfully such disasters are rare.
Everyday people get killed in accidents on the road, in factories and even at home. These are man made accidents, and happen because people make mistakes. They try to take a short cut, use machinery dangerously or just act stupidly. Think what could happen if you did not look carefully both ways before you crossed the road ? You could get hit by a motor car and badly hurt, or even killed.
Farmers have to be very careful when they are using machines to plant crops, or when harvest comes. There are different machines, and all have to be used carefully. If machines are not used properly they can be very dangerous. This is why farmers are very skillful and learn to use their machines safely.
Many accidents happen when people slip or trip over. This may only cause a sprained ankle or bruised leg but it could also break your arm or leg. Going to hospital to get a broken arm or leg mended is not much fun. You may not be able to walk easily after.
Most accidents can be avoided. People should drive their cars safely and not too fast. If drivers did not drink alcohol, or take drugs, there would be fewer road accidents. Less accidents means that fewer children and adults would be hurt or die.
In factories and on building sites, managers have to make sure that people work safely. Workers are trained to use machinery properly and not take risks. The cost of building houses must not include an injury or death of a builder.
Many accidents happen at home. We fall off ladders, or stand on chairs, trip over wires, step on toys, are bitten by pets. Sometimes people drink rat poison or get gassed by fumes. Even electric shocks from faulty fittings can be fatal. Thankfully our homes are mostly safe. We spend a lot of time at home. Safety is no accident.
Bridges bring us nearer
Saves us walking longer.
When crossing the river
Remember the builder
Rivers and streams cut up the country and make it difficult to have easy routes. A long time ago people worked out that when a tree fell across a stream, they could walk over it. This saved getting wet and people were able to carry a heavy load. When a tree was not blown down, men found that they could cut a tree down. They could be taken to the best place to cross a stream or narrow river. We can only guess at these ancient wooden bridges. We can see many ancient bridges made out of stone because they are still in place on tracks in use many thousands of years ago.
Gradually people found out how to cut stones and shape them to makea good fit. Ancient buildings like the pyramids in Egypt , the temples of Greece and even Stonehenge in England show how skilled were those people of old. As stone cutting skills improved, the ancient bridge builders learnt that bridges would be stronger and last longer if they rested on good foundations. At first the natural rocks in the ground were used. Bridges built on bed rock are solid. What to do when there was no bed roack and the ground was soft ?
The next advance was to sink rocks into the ground until they found a firm level. That was almost as good as bed rock but the length of bridge was limited by the longest rock that could be lifted over the river, using rafts made from logs. This made bridges up to 20ft (or 6m) possible with large teams of workers to cut and haul the large stones.
The biggest advance came when men worked out how to make smaller shaped stones into arches. This was important because smaller rocks can be made and moved easily. They can be built up into a long arch to cross wider streams and even rivers. The clever bit was in making a wooden frame the shape of the arch. Then the shaped stones are built up from either side. In the centre the last stone is the most important. This is the "keystone", since this locked all the other stones into a solid arch.
Now there was almost no limit on the size of river that could be bridged as the famous stone bridge in Mostar shows. When two other ideas were worked out even longer bridges could be built. The first was the use of solid walls on the river banks, the abutments. This stops the arch slipped sideways and collapsing. The second was how to build walls, or piers, in the river. Then the bridge could have many arches and therefore cross much wider rivers like the Shannon or Liffey in Ireland .
Over the next two thousand years, new materials like bricks made arch bridges even easier. Materials like iron and steel meant new designs of bridges could cross even wider waters, even the sea. Suspension bridges take the ancient rope bridge much further. One is being built between Italy and Sicilly, almost one and a half miles long (2km). Bridges where steel ropes are used to stiffen the bridge allow whole valleys to be crossed, as with the famous motorway bridge in the south of France .
We can build bigger and stronger bridges because engineers and scientists have worked out better ways to use materials like stone and steel. But in building new bridges many people have also died, while they were being built or sometimes when the design was not strong enough and the bridge collapsed. So next time you cross a bridge remember all those who made it possible. Think how much we have learnt about the world from building bridges.
Cars are great
Travel is comfy
If you're late
Drive safely
Most people make many of their journeys by car, In Ireland, like the rest of Europe , nearly 3 out of every 4 journeys are by car. Yet 3 out of 4 car journeys are quite short, and some could easily be walked ? When cars are used for short trips, the engine does not warm up properly, and the exhaust is very dirty. Only using cars for long journeys would also make the engine last longer, since it was working for longer when warmed up.
People who drive cars need to be sure it is working safely. There needs to be enough tread on the tyres so that they can grip the road, especially when braking. The brake pads must be changed when they are worn, to keep them safe. Worn brakes cannot stop a car as quickly as new. This could be enough to avoid hitting another car, someone walking or riding a bike ?
At night we need to see and be seen. So it is important that the windows are clean and that all the lights are working. The headlights are important to let other road users see us a good way off. Keeping the windscreen clean is the job of the wiper blades. They must work properly to remove heavy rain. When dirt is thrown up from the road, this also blocks the view. So the windscreen washer must be kept full. Then all the dirt can be cleared to give a good view ahead. Many accidents happen at cross roads and junctions. Often this is because the left or right indicator lights are not working, or worse the driver forgets to use them. Telling other road users that you are going to turn is vital for safer roads.
Caring for our cars means that they have to be checked regularly, to make sure that everything is working properly. It is important that cars do not run out of fuel, since breaking down is a hazard to other road users, especially at night. The engine oil must also be checked, since if the engine runs out of oil, it will seize up. This is dangerous and repairs are very costly. The radiator needs to be kept full of water, so that it keeps the engine at the right level of heat. If the radiator water overheats the engine could seize up. So when we make so many journeys by car, we must not take them for granted. They need to be checked and properly maintained, so that we arrive safely, and do not pollute the air.
Water keeps us healthy.
Too much can be deadly.
Everyday drink water
And always play safer.
Water is vital for life. Nearly 70% of our body is made up of water. We need water to help cook our food, and then digest it in our bodies. Water is also the way that wastes come out of our bodies, to keep us clean and healthy. Water makes crops grow, and cows make milk. We depend on rain to give us clean water. Rain comes from the steam off seas and oceans, when the sun shines. Wind blows rain clouds over the land. Ireland is next to the Atlantic Ocean , which is very big and makes lots of rain. The wind usually blows from the Atlantic over Ireland . This is why Ireland is lucky to have so much rain. Rarely do plants and animals die for lack of water. Some places have little rain because they are hot near deserts, or far away from the sea.
Yet while rain is a mercy for farming and drinking, there is another side. When it rains too much we get floods. People getting too wet in heavy rain can become ill. This is most dangerous when it is also windy. They get very cold and can die from exposure. keeping our houses and other buildings dry is also important to health. Many illnesses are caused or made worse by dampness.
Getting water which is vital to life, also means keeping our homes and selves dry to stay healthy.
Energy drives us,
Moves our car and bus
Please use it wisely
To keep you warmly
Until two hundred years ago there were two kinds of energy, animal power and renewables like; the sun, wood, wind and water. The sun was used to dry and preserve crops from the summer through the winter, and to dry clothes after washing. Growing forests for timber allowed furnaces to melt metals and fires to heat our homes and cook our food. Using the power of the wind to drive windmills allowed us to grind our corn into flour and in some countries like Holland , to pump water and so allow more crops to be grown. Water flowing along a river, and especially over a water fall has a lot of energy. Getting that energy out of the water took a lot of engineers to work on ideas for controlling rivers.
In some places there are natural barriers like waterfalls. By digging short canals ,water can be taken to another place. There it can fall over a wheel with paddles. This turned the wheel and the power can be used to grind corn or saw timber. Later as bigger wheels were built and dams or weirs trapped more water, small factories could be powered, driving spinning wheels and looms, to make thread and cloth.
Later still these water mills drove fans to make furnaces hotter and allow new metals like steel to be made pure. Metal working mills were limited by the amount of power that could be got from a flowing river.
All this changed when coal was discovered three hundered years ago. Coal is a fossil fuel made hundreds of millions of years ago, when ancient forests where covered and the wood compressed and preserved into coal. Coal allowed factories to be built anywhere. Coal can easily be carried by barge or train. This made it possible to have factories closer to where people lived and could buy the products made.
An even more important discovery was oil, petroleum - means rock oil. Another fossil fuel made hunderds of millions of years ago when little animals died, rotted and then were covered. Oil has proved to be a very useful form of energy, making oil lamps to give us light a hundred years ago, driving cars, making jet planes possible, and powering mighty ships to cross the oceans.
Most recently natural gas another fossil fuel has been found buried under the ground. Gas can heat our homes and cook our food. The Kinsale gas field in Ireland , is an example of this.
In the twentieth century the way things are made out of atoms was worked out. Then it was found that the atom could be split. This releases energy and makes atom bombs as well as atomic power stations possible. Atomic wastes are difficult to handle.
As fossil fuels run out they cost more. So people are now trying to find better ways of using the sun, wood, wind and water power. These are renewable energy and will always be there, as they were before we started using fossil fuels.
Learn to cook food.
Eat well, grow strong.
A healthy life long
And active growed.
Food is a kind of energy to help us do things. Food also has vital vitamins and other good things, which keep our body strong and healthy. Good food everyday is very important. There are lots of different foods, fruits, nuts, vegetables, meat, fish, rice, corn, bread and pastas. Thousands of years ago people used to eat food raw without cooking, just as all other animals do today. Why did people learn to cook ?
Cooking food kills off any bad bugs, so we do not get ill when we eat it. Cooking makes tough food easier to chew and eat. Cooking lets us keep our food longer, so we can save it to the next day. A fridge makes food last even longer. Cooking also makes food tastier, so that we enjoy different foods.
Learning to cook is important. The science of what happens when food is cooked is known. We can make all sorts of dishes. There are lots of cookery books whee we can learn fromothers how to cook new dishes. Thanks to engineers we also have many ways of cooking. We can boil food, bake it, roast it, grill it, fry it, steam it, microwave it and gridle it.
Parents have in important job in making sure that their children get good food everyday. Children have to learn to eat different foods. Then you get all the energy and vitamins you need to learn at school, play games and be healthy. Do you help cook food at home ? What can you cook, toast, eggs, potatoes ? Keeping well means you do not have to go to hospital and miss your friends. Good food is important to keeping healthy. Every day you need to eat lots of different foods.
As important as eating, people have to drink liquids. All animals drink water, and a large part of our bodies is made up of water. All drinks are made with water. Different drinks with different tastes help us to drink enough water everyday. We need to drink at least 2 pints or one litre a day. Can you check how much you drink today ? Some drinks are hot and on cold days help to warm us up. Some drinks are cold and on warm days help us to feel cooler.
Eating and drinking are easy ways to keep active and healthy.
The birds and bees
Live in harmony with trees,
Follow their lead
And only use what you need
Have you wondered how birds have enough to eat and feed their babies ? They have to work very hard looking for food. Some birds eat nuts, berries and other parts of plants. Other birds eat slugs, snails and worms. Then there are the birds which eat little animals like mice, voles and even baby rabbits. But they only eat when they are hungry.
We can learn many lessons from birds and other animals about the way we live with nature. Over the millions of years in which the natural world has developed, everything lives in harmony. The trees in the forest clean up the air, and give homes to many animals, birds and insects. We can cut down the trees to make planks and beams and build houses for ourselves. We must not be greedy. If we cut down all the trees, the forests will die and the air will get impure. So we must look after the forests and replant the trees we cut down.
The same goes for the food we grow. We must look after the soil and keep it healthy by growing different plants every year and putting manure and other composts to enrich the soil. The soil then stays healthy because many insects like worms work in the earth to make it fertile. There are also millions of microbes which turn dead materials into healthy soil.
Scientists and engineers have learned how these natural processes work, and use them to change wastes into useful things, and to recycle materials so that we do not need to dig more land fill sites, when we have used all the old mines and quarries. New ways to make things need less materials and energy. Today we do things better than yesterday. Tomorrow will be even better ?
Our homes are important and we need to keep them clean to stay healthy. But we must be careful when we throw things out. We should live like the natural world and try not to waste anything. Eat only the food we need, buy only the things we need and try not to dump anything. Making use of everything and repairing when damaged, helps reduce the waste to be dumped. Dumping wastes into holes in the ground does not help our country. So waste not - want not . Living green does not cost the earth.
It's nice to watch TV
Sitting on a sofa.
After you have tea.
Be a good home helper
We love our homes. They keep up warm in winter, give us somewhere safe to sleep and let us play with our mums, dads, brothers and sisters. We can enjoy our pets. Some people like dogs, some like cats, others birds or fish and some even like snakes ? Relaxing at home and watching TV is easy when we turn a switch. Like a miracle we have a window to see other parts of the world. We can see other children playing, animals from different countries, and how people live in other places.
Sending and getting messages by wires or radio was discovered by scientists, and the machines needed were designed and built by engineers. When our parents were children mobile phones were the size of a suitcase. Today we can slip them into our pocket. Videos and ipods bring many different films and music into our hand.
In the kitchen we can keep and cook food in so many different ways. And we have machines that help up prepare foods. Before this needed much strength, stiring and skills. Tasty cooking and nice foods make up happy and keep us healthy. These are possible because electricity and gas comes into our homes to power cookers, fridges and lights.
The biggest miracle is getting clean water from the tap. Not so long ago water would be got from a well, by a pump from the ground, and carried in a bucket into the house. In many parts of the world children are not so lucky and have to walk very far to get water. This may not be clean, so they suffer from many illnesses. Remember how lucky we are to have fresh water from a tap, and not have to go to collect it.
With clean water we can also keep ourselves and clothes clean. Taking a shower is so nice and we feel fresh afterwards. Help your mum in keeping your home clean and tidy. Help in the kitchen with the cooking and you will deserve some time watching the TV at the touch of a button.
The internet's there
For everyone to share
At the press of a key
A new world can you see ?
Today I sit at my computer writing a note to my friend in Australia . It will take less than a minute to arrive, and I will get an answer back almost at once. Not so long ago the faster way to get a letter to Australia was by air mail which took over a week, and before that when letters had to go by ship, it took 3 months. This rapid contact has been made possible by the Internet. My computer is linked by the telephone to another computer, which acts like a giant connector to my friend's computer in Australia . If the internet was only a better way of sending letters, it would be very limited.
It is much more than a global letter sending system. Any information, pictures as well as music can now be sent by internet. This is very helpful when your family has pictures of a happy event for relatives and friends in another country. With pictures, especially if a video camera is used, people in another place can see our new baby being christened, or the bride and groom coming out of the church, or you taking part in a concert at school ?
The most important use of the internet is to find information. It is a massive library but instead of lots of books, there are millions of websites around the world. Each website might have more information than the local library. If you know which website you need, you can get the informaiton you need very quickly. But may be there are many websites with the information you want. How can you find those ? Internet Search Engines are supercomputers that can look at every website in the world in less than a second, and find anything that is linked to the informaiton you need. Tthis is not only possible in European Languages but also languages which use different letters, like Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian and Greek.
As the links between computers can carry large volumes of data, now 8 million pieces of information a second can now be sent to my computer. If my computer was big enough I could get the whole of the Encyclopeadia Britannica in under five minutes. This speedy data exchange also means that music and films and be swapped over the internet. Many people now buy their music and films this way.
Many shops are also linked to the internet and many offer a service of buying your things on-line. What you want is either posted to you, or some companies have their own vehicles and bring your things to the front door. In future we may be able to do many things at home without going out. This is the power of the internet. The internet also allows people to share information, without the Government controlling it. Some governments feel threatened by this freedom of information. Luckily in the Ireland and the European Union, freedom of information is a basic right.
Traffic jams slow us down
When we all go to town,
At the same time we race
To get to the same place
When too many people try to drive their cars on the same road at the same time there is a traffic jam. Congested roads are commonplace everywhere. Small towns and villages which used to be quiet, now have traffic passing through all day long. The most congested times are when people go to work and school in the morning and return home at night. There are also local traffic jams at supermarkets for example on Saturday afternoon, when people go to do their weekly shopping.
Everyone would like to have a car because you can drive where and when you want. This freedom to move is important to many people. Sadly when many people want to drive at the same time they jam each other. At the start of school holidays there are jams at airports, when people fly to holiday places at the same time.
Is there a cure for jams ? Traffic and highway engineers look at roads, much of the time there is little traffic. There are only jams at certain times of the day, or on special days of the week. Could we solve jams by building more roads ? If it was possible to build all the new roads at once, local jams would decrease but new jams would start. This is specially true in town centres, where there is little parking. There would be jams as people tried to get a parking space.
Another way to reduce jams, is by people starting their journeys at different times. This would mean that the same number of people could drive their cars but the traffic would be spread over a longer period. What about people who do not drive because they do not like jams ? They might see emptier roads and decide to drive after all. In the end the jam would be over a much longer period.
What about people who travel by bus. If there is a traffic jam their bus will get stuck and they will be late for school or work. Is it fair that 50 people who travel by bus, taking up the space of 3 cars , are treated the same ways as three cars which if full can only carry 12 people but more usually 4 ? In many towns and cities in Europe there are special lanes reserved only for buses, sometimes shared with taxis and bikes. This means that people in buses travel past those in their cars stuck in jams.
Cudly Kittens purr
Have fluffy warm fur,
Take care of creatures
And take good pictures.
Kittens are baby cats. All animals have babies. Some babies like birds are made in eggs with shells, which their mothers lay before hatching. When they break the shell, baby birds are ready to live. Other babies are born very small out of their mothers. Their mothers feed them and help them to learn how to get on. When they can feed themselves they leave. All babies are made by mothers and fathers coming together. A baby gets some things from their mother and some from their father, like the colour of your eyes. Every baby is different and over millions of years small changes have helped some animals to get better at living, and to be able to cope with changes in the world. By evolving, some animals like cockroaches have been on earth for over 200million years. Other animals like human beings have been on earth for only about a million years.
Some animals have lots of babies at the same time, to make sure that at least some live. A cat may have 8 kittens, a pig 14 piglets. The time a baby takes to form and be ready for birth varies in different animals. Kittens are born after 4 weeks and weigh only 100 grammes. For people it takes 9 months for a baby to be born, they usually weigh about 3kg. A baby elephant takes 18months and weighs 200kg, more than two grown up people. A baby whale takes 2 years and weighs more than a tonne, heavier than a car.
If only babies were born, there would soon be no space left on earth. When they get old animals die. Some animals die because they are eaten by other animals for food, like birds eating worms. Others die because there is no food, when there is a famine. Others die when there is an accident, or disaster like a tsunami, earthquake, hurricane or volcano erupting. Animals which survive all these hazards die when they get a bad illness, or become very old and weak.
Nearly all children are brought up by their mothers and fathers. Many also have grannies and granddads, aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives. Everyone is happy when a baby is born. People are sad when their grand parents die.
Let there be sun light
But sometimes it's night
When the switch you turn
No candle need burn.
Our eyes give us about 70% of the information that reaches our brains. Light is vital for the way we work. During the day the sun gives us plenty of light, so that we can play, see our friends, do our school work and eat our food. During the night we find it difficult to see without artificial light. Until about 100 years ago most people only had candles and oil lamps to see during the night. The light from these is very dim, so many people went to bed when it got dark, and got up when the sun rose. This meant that in winter people only had a few hours of day light to work. In the summer on the other hand, the working days were very long. This was just as well as most people lived and worked on farms in the country. In the summer there are crops to harvest, and prepare for storage over winter.
Light is made up of different colours, and takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to get to us on earth. If there was a disaster in the sun and it stopped shining, we would be quickly in the dark and cold. The different colours in light, make a rainbow, when there is rain in the sky. White light can also be split up into its different colours with a special piece of glass, called a prism. At one end of the rainbow is red light and at the other is blue light. In between is orange, yellow and purple. Black means that there is no light.
With electricity we have many different ways of making light, using bulbs, tubes, LEDs and even halogen bulbs. We can also carry torches with batteries to see in the dark, or in dark places. Artificial light means that work, schools, shops and many other things can still go on when it is dark outside. Many factories even work 24hours every day, 7 days a week. Workers have to get used to sleeping during daylight hours and working when it is dark at night. Some people find this very hard.
Light also gives us new forms of entertainment. The cinema, television, the theatre would not be possible without electric lights. We can also floodlight historic and important buildings at night, to make them look special. Floodlights allow football matches to be played in the evening during the winter. Street lights help us to drive safely at night. On many farms chickens have light in their houses in winter so that they will lay eggs. Imagine how dull life would be without lights ?
Machines make life handy
They lift, and move and spin
Things that are too heavy
We get them easily in
As soon as man learned to walk on two legs, stand up and use his hand as a tool he started inventing machines to make life easier. The first machine was a long branch fallen from a tree. Ancient men learned how to use long branches as levers to lift and move big stones. A lever is a simple machine which helps to increase the strength of men's arms to do things which would not be possible.
The second important machine invented was the wheel, although some civilisations in the mountains of South America got by without wheels. Wheels made it possible to carry heavy loads over long distances. In some places where there was a lot of water, rafts made from logs were another way to carry heavy loads. The improvement of wheels meant that bigger and faster carts and carriages could be built.
Machines were also invented to help make farming easier. A plough means that a farmer can prepare much more ground than is possible using a spade or hoe. At first teams of men pulled ploughs but later animals were trained; cows, horses, donkeys have all worked on farms. When not pulling ploughs, they can pull carts to move crops around.
Moving water and wind can turn wheels, and these were used to grind corn and cut wood. Later water power drove the machines in factories, to made thread and weave cloth.
A most important invention was the steam engine. For the first time machines could be worked no matter what the state of wind or water. Miners had to dig coal of the ground instead of wood from forests which had been cut down. Steam engines also transformed transport. Heavy loads in fast railway trains were possible, carrying goods and people over mountains. Steam ships were able to cross the oceans much faster than sailing ships.
The internal combustion engine, powered by petrol or diesel, meant that machines could be smaller and portable, and with the electric motor machines can be operated almost anywhere. Today the computer is an important machine, doing sums, sending and getting information across the world, and controlling the many machines which we need to make our lives safe and healthy.
Under your foot live a million things.
Can you imagine all those long strings
That link us all in one family
Of animals, plants and great oak tree
There are millions of animals and plants on the earth and in the seas. Most of the plants and animals have two important jobs. They have to make babies and some are eaten by other plants or animals. Some plants and animals live on the wastes of other plants and animals, and turn these into useful things. Worms eat dead leaves and grass and turn it into fertile soil, where good crops wll grow. Flowers make nectar, which has a scent to attract bees. In collecting the nectar bees visit many flowers and help the flowers make seeds for new flowers. The bees turn the nectar into honey, which helps them to survive over the winter when there are no flowers.
Some plants and animals take their food from living things. Fleas and mosquitos suck the blood out of the animals they bite. Some plants grow on trees and suck the sap. These are called parasites. Other animals hunt for their food. Swallows fly around the sky very fast swallowing insects in the air. Eagles and other birds of prey swoop down on little animals or birds, to eat them.
Cats are famous for their hunting, moving very quietly and then jumping suddenly to catch a mouse or bird. Big cats like lions will catch and kill animals the size of cows but then share it between the whole pride of mummy and baby lions. Many animals only eat plants and fruits, like grass, leaves and nuts. Many plants like trees make millions of seeds like the acorns from oak trees, so there are plenty for animals. It only takes a few nuts to start new baby trees that grow big when the old trees die, or to replace those lost when there is a fire.
Trees and other plants also have another job. They use sunshine to take carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into oxygen. Without oxygen we and most animals could not breath. This is not so for fish and other sea creatures who take water and suck out the oxygen. Trees in forests make homes for millions of insects, birds and other animals. They also give food for tiny plants like mushrooms, which take dead matter and turn it into useful things.
Over the millions of years since the first micro animals appeared on earth, the natural world has grown into a balance where all creatures depend on and help each other. The human animal, people, have in many places upset this balance. Men have cut down trees, polluted water and air , By burning fossil fuels we are making the earth hotter. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap the heat from the sun. The seas are warming, ice at the north and south poles is melting. Within 100 hundred years we will change the world more quickly than the natural world has in the last million years.
Doing things together
Is always much more fun
Than all helter skelter,
When things must to be done.
Many animals work in teams. Look up in the sky and see the geese flying north. They fly in a triangle with the point in front. This makes flying easier. The geese take it in turns to be the leader so that none gets over tired. Dolphins swim in teams to go fishing. When they find a schoal of fish, they make a circle so that the fish cannot escape. They take it in turns to eat the fish but they only eat what they need. The rest of the fish swim away. Bees work together to find where are the best flowers. They guide each other to collect the nectar easily to make the most honey.
Men have taken working together to a very high level. The whole world works together today. Thousands of years ago the men of a tribe would capture a mammoth together. A mammoth was a huge animal like but much bigger than an elephant. No one man by himself could capture a mammoth. Working as a team it was easy to drive a mammoth over a cliff. This would give enough meat for the tribe for over a week.
Men learned that some are good at one thing, and others good at other things. Some could make good spears and others were good at throwing spears. People doing what they are best at, means that the team can work even better. As farming developed, new skills were needed. The soil has to be prepared , and planted for crops. Bringing in the harvest, and making it ready to eat over the winter needed even more skills. Finally men learned that cooking food made it easier to eat and by putting together different things, new tastes were possible.
In those long gone days people worked co-operatively, helping each other as was needed. The farmer would give the ploughman food. The blacksmith would make and repair tools for the farmer. For many people food was like money. Today most people work in teams and are paid only with money. They can use the money to buy houses, clothes, food, books and the other things which make life nice. A team works best when there is a leader, who everyone can trust and who is able to organise the work fairly.
Metals, plastics, wood,
Everything we use,
Plastics are so good
To make things we choose
Until two hundred years ago people used natural materials like wood, stone and straw to make houses and tools. With the industrial revolution new ways of refining rocks were found. So that metals can be purified. Iron could be smelted from rocks crushed into ore. Adding carbon created steel, a stronger metal. Steel made even sharper tools possible. Other rocks contained copper, zinc, lead, aluminium and many other metals. From these metals more special tools and machines were made. The science of these processes came from chemistry. Chemists were able to seperate the different elements on the world and found that there are over one hundred basic materials, which have different weights and qualities.
The next thing chemists did was to put together different elements in new ways. This created new materials. With the discovery of oil, chemists had even more new materials to work on. They discovered not just that elements could be added together but that the basic part of an element is the atom. The next big step forward was making new atoms, and putting atoms together into bigger pieces called molecules. With oil it was found that very complex new molecules can be made. These complex molecules are called polymers.
Polymers are the basis of all the plastics we take for granted today. Many plastics have names which start with "poly", like polythene. This means that the plastic is made from big molecules. Chemists discovered that special materials could make molecules come and stay together. These special mateirials are catalysts. These are needed for chemical reactions, without which plastics could not be made.
So many things are made out of plastics, which can be shaped into complicated parts. The front bumper of a car or the body of a mobile phone are two examples. Plastics have special qualities. Some protect against heat or electricity. Some are very strong and can be made into ropes stronger than steel. Some are very light and help to make airplanes fly better. It is hard to imagine that our great great grandfathers only had wood, stone and iron to make things, when today we have so many new materials.
Our doctor is clever
He makes us all better,
Many things he knows
His Certificate proves.
Everyone can learn new skills, or develop special talents. We can improve these by learning better ways of doing things. We learn from teachers, who may be at school or our parents and friends, who already are good at things. Some crafts need skillful hands and eyes. Craftsmen working with wood, metal or stone make many things. These help to make our homes nice or comfortable. Sculptures can make our towns beautiful. Apprentices learn these crafts from master craftsmen. Many pictures by Vermeer were part painted by his apprentices.
Today new skills are needed for machines like computers. New ideas in engineering and science mean that industry is improved and there are even better ways of doing things. The speed of improvement is so fast that a seven year apprentiship may not always be the best way to learn. In the past everyone in the village knew everyone else. Everyone knew who the good farmers were, who the good blacksmith, cobbler, carpenter, tailor and so on.
Most people now live in towns and cities where they are not known, and their special skills are not appreciated. So a new way of making these skills known has been invented. This is the qualification, which proves that you have the special knowledge or skill. A qualification is recognised, and proves that you have a high level of skill in a special subject. These qualifications and the learning which achieves them are set down in standards. Often these qualifications are accepted internationally, so that a doctor who learns medicine in an Irish hospital, can work in a French or American hospital.
This also means that students at an Irish University who get a qualification in say science, can use it anywhere in the European Union. The way in which qualifications are accepted, means that new knowledge can be spread faster, and more people benefit from doing things in better ways. Doctors who learn medicine in Poland , now make people better in Ireland .
Qualifications are an important way for people to prove their knowledge and the level of skill they have. A qualificaiton can be taken from place to place, and be accepted without having to learn all over again.
Imagine all the potholes
If our roads were not mended.
Smooth roads, small bends, hills and dales
Engineers, the roads tended.
The earliest roads were the tracks worn by many feet sometimes by people and sometimes by animals. In walking along the same way, the ground in pressed hard and the plants are killed. This makes it easier to walk, and later allowed wheels to roll along smoothly. The next stage in making roads was to put stones on the top, so that wagons and horses would not wear away the surface.
Over hundreds of years better materials for making roads have been developed. All of these are based on crushed rocks, usually limestone as a widely available and strong material. Rolling the crushed stone into the surface would work for a while but would become disturbed by wheels and rain. The next step was learning how to stick the crushed stone together so that it could last longer. The most widely used material is tar, which is part of the tarmac used on most roads. In places where tar is expensive, cement has also been used in making concrete roads.
Better roads allowed bigger and heavier vehicles to run. Today the biggest lorry weighs 44tonnes. Forty years ago the biggest lorry was only 24tonnes. Bigger lorries on heavier wheels put more pressure into roads. This soon finds the weak spots, scooping out a little material, especially when turning corners. Once a weakness has started, water collects and this makes even more damage.
Road engineers know how important it is to catch these potholes and repair them before the whole road it damaged. The regular checking of the road by eye or machines, allows the engineers to know how long a road will last before it needs to be replaced. Often a good repair can make a road last much longer. So next time you are in a car or bus, and feel it bumping over a pothole, remember that most of the road is smooth and gives a good ride. The road engineer helps to make our roads safer and give comfortable rides.
Science helps us all learn
What makes the big world turn,
Scientists find a star,
And make a safer car
Chemists know how materials are made. Chemists understand what atoms are and how they can be put together to make new materials like plastics. Phyisists know how materials and bodies impact on each other. Physicists know about the forces needed to move cars and the friction which makes the brakes work. Biologists study how plants and animals live together, and what illness make them weak and how to make them strong. Astronomers know about the sun, moon, planets, galaxies and the universe. Looking through telescopes they can see stars exploding and new stars forming. Geologists have studied how the earth was made, what are the rocks and where they can be found. They understand the way volcanoes work and why there are earth quakes.
There are many different kinds of scientists. They all work using the same method, which was invented by the Greeks over two thousand years ago. The experiment is the way in which scientists have been able to find out how things work. In an experiment the scientist can control everything that is going on. By changing one thing at a time, the scientist is able to know how things are linked together. Scientists collect a lot of data. TRhey make many measurements and the conditions are recorded as numbers. Sometimes even with the most careful experiment, there are several changes happening at the same time. This makes it difficult to be certain as to the link between cause and effect.
Mathematics is a branch of science which understands how numbers work. A special branch of mathematics is statistics, which allows lots of data to be considered. From this analysis, the relationship between different factors can be found. Scientists can do further experiments to find out better what is happening. Scientists have to be very careful to record everything that happens
The most important part of science comes in writing and publishing the results of experiments. This has two special benefits. The first allows other scientists to try the same experiments to see if they get the same results. If they do, then this become proof. The second benefit is that the results are then put into books, so that lots of people can learn about the science without having to do the experiments. Collectiing knowledge in books is the most important way in which science and engineering have advanced. We can send men to the moon, and submarines can search the bottom of the oceans, thanks to the knowledge gained by scientists and engineers.
Transport gets us school,
And keeps full all the shops.
Travelling is really cool,
Making short trips or long hops.
Men learned to develop special skills. They found that working in teams was more effective. They also learned that some places could grow certain crops, other places has special materials and rocks. Life would be better if the timber from one place could be used with stone from another to make bigger and stronger houses. Often the timber came from forests where food could not be grown. So trade began of swapping food for materials. This trade needed a means to move timber, stone and food.
At first logs made into canoes or rafts where used to move things along rivers. This was easy when things move down river, with the flow of the water but harder in the other direction. It was often difficult in summer if there was less water in the river but this was a good time to build. In winter it could also be difficult if the river was in flood. Luckily the wheel, building roads and taming animals meant that things could be transported away from rivers and throughout the year, if the horses were fed properly.
Today we have many different ways to move cargoes of food, timber, metals and the other things we need to live. There are lorries on our roads. Trains 2 miles long in many places move many thousands of tonnes of cargo. Supertankers carry half a million tonnes of oil, and jumbo jets fly half way across the world in a day. Fresh fruit and vegetables are flown from Africa , so that we can eat salads even in the middle of winter.
We can also visit Africa or any other part of the world and spend a holiday on a sunny beach in the tropics. Mostly we make short journeys, half are under 5 km long, which only takes a few minutes by car. Imagine if you had to walk to school how long would it take. Five km would take well over an hour. One hundred years ago walking was the only transport most people had, unless they were lucky and had a bike. So remember that transport is very important not just getting you to school but also in helping to get food to the shops, and the world trade in food, fuel and important materials.
Under the sea is another world,
Fish and plants untold,
Waves turn rocks into pebbles and sand,
And make us new land
It is said that we know less about life under the seas than we do about the moon. The fact is that the moon is smaller than all the seas and oceans on earth, which cover two thirds of the earth's surface. At the north and south pole the sea is covered by ice, because it is so cold. What is under the sea is more amazing, if we knew even a small part of it. Some parts of the Pacific Ocean are so deep that Mount Everest our tallest mountain would be completely covered by water.
We also know that there are earthquakes under the sea, many we do not notice. Some are disastrous. The Christmas 2004 earthquake near Indonesia , caused a tidal wave Tsunami, that swept onto the shores of India , Sri Lanka , Burma , Thailand and Indonesia , killing a third of a million people. This was one of the worst natural disasters in history.
Under the sea are many fish and plants. Some live so deep under water, where the light does not reach, that they are blind. Others live near volcanoes where the water is more like acid, and fish and insects have adapted to this. Some of the animals in the sea are mammals like people, dolphins and whales. The blue whale is the biggest creature ever to live on the earth, weighing about 100tonnes, much bigger than any dinasaur. And there are fish as old as dinasaurs, once thought to be extinct, but caught by fishermen from time to time.
The wind blowing over the sea and the moon raising and lowering the tides create powerful forces that can crash on the shore, turning rocks into stones, stones into pebbles and pebbles into sand.
We know that there were earlier seas which have disappeared. Much of Ireland used to be under a warm ocean, rich in shell fish, that died and over millions of years formed layers of limestone. Mount Everest used to be under the sea, as there are sea creature fossils in the rocks at its top. Under the sea lie stores of oil and gas, like Kinsale. Many island people depend on the sea for food, and materials. One day we will know a lot more about what is under the sea. This may save us from an energy crisis. If we can use the wind, waves and tides we can get a lot of energy.
Veins carry our blood.
It's the body's food
We can run, work and think
Thanks to those pipes which are pink
A town needs pipes to bring water and gas to our homes and then carry away the waste from our toilets and sinks. Without these supplies our homes would not be very comfortable places to live. Waste must be removed, so our homes are healthy places. Our bodies have a system of pipes to feed us, and remove the wastes we make. The veins are the waste removal system of the body. Our bodies are very clever. We recycle many things and waste only a few.
Blood is the method of carrying food and wastes around our bodies. Our heart is a very efficient pump, beating about 70 times a minute> All the blood in our body, about 5 litres (8pints) goes right round many times a day. Our veins take the waste blood from the different parts of our bodies into our kidneys and liver, where the blood is cleaned, wastes are removed, including old blood cells, and new blood cells put in to keep the body working properly.
Then the veins connect our stomach where food in the form of sugars and vitamins are collected, and lungs where oxygen is put in. These then are pumped through the heart, where some is taken out ot give the heart its power. About a quarter of the energy in our blood is used in our brains. No wonder we feel tired when we get home from a lot of work at school. The rest the energy is used in our muscles.
Blood in our muscles allows us to run, walk and work. This turns the food and oxygen into energy, and makes carbon dioxide as a waste. Old bits of muscle are taken away by the blood and some of it is recycled. The carbon dioxide is breathed out from our lungs. The work of our veins goes on, even when we are asleep. So when you have an accident and cut yourself, you bleed. It is important to stop the bleeding. Any blood you lose will soon be made up again, by the every efficient liver.
Woods are full of trees,
And many kinds of animals,
Wild birds, mice and bees
Some are big, most are small
If men did not live on earth, most of the land would be covered by trees and forests. Trees are almost the largest plants on earth and they do important work. Trees turn carbon dioxide with the help of the sun, into oxygen. We breath oxygen to live and work. Trees give food to lots of animals and other plants. Trees absorb the heat of hte sun and help to keep the earth cool. Trees give shade, so that animals do not get too hot in the middle of the day.
Woods and forests allow lots of trees to grow and support each other. As old trees die, new trees shoot up from seeds. This means that the forest is always being renewed. Under the shade of trees, special plants like mushrooms grow in the cool and damp soil. They help to turn dead trees into new soil and fertilise the ground.
Lots of animals live in woods. There are many insects like spiders, worms and bees, that live under the ground or in the bark of the trees. There are birds that eat insects, leaves and the nuts which grow on trees. Many birds make their nests above the ground on tree branches. Then there are bigger animals like mice, badgers and hedgehogs that eat seeds and insects. They make the ground ready for new plants by turning it over. In some forests live even bigger animals like wild boar, deer , bears goats and sheep. In olden days people used to hunt these animals.
Many trees in tropical forests have special flowers or bark that can be used as medicines. In some places people know about the importance of herbs to make us better when we are ill, and help to keep us healthy. In many forests there are still plants and animals about which we know nothing. There may be as many plants to be found, as the ones we already know. Woods and forests are important to life on earth. Stories about woods can be found in the ancient Celtic and other old cultures.
My Doctor uses X-Rays to check
That there's no bone broken in my neck,
And they use medicines or a pill
To make us better when we are ill
Doctors are like scientists, they study hard and long and do experiments to find better ways to make us better when we are ill. Doctors also help us stay healthy with advice on what to eat and how to exercise. Everyone needs a doctor, who will be helped by nurses and other people with special knowledge about the body, like physiotherapists. They help our muscles get stronger after we have broken a bone.
Doctors also have many machines to help them find out what is making us ill. Almost the oldest is the X - Ray machine which can take pictures inside our bodies. This helps doctors find broken bones in our arm, if we trip over badly. From the X -Ray the doctor can see exactly how to repair the damage, and make our arm as good as new.
Some diseases are spread by microbes, tiny creatures too small to see by eye. In some places these bugs live in water, and people are made ill from drinking dirty water. Using microscopes, doctors can see which bugs make you ill, and what is the best medicine to make you better again. Some diseases are spread by animals like fleas and rats. So keeping our bodies and houses clean makes it unlikely that you will be bitten. Some diseases can be prevented by immunisation. Our bodies are good at looking after our health. If we get a slight illness, our body will make a defence in anti-bodies. These will kill any of those bugs trying to make us ill again.
Keeping healthy is better than trying to find a cure when we are ill. Before doctors discovered so many medicines, people would die when they were young. Today we all live much longer, thanks to good food, clean houses, safe water, proper sewers and doctors who know how to make us better when we get ill. Everyday new medicines are found which help to keep people well and make them better if they get ill.
Yesterday I was younger.
Many yesterdays make a year.
Years ago mum was a baby dear.
More than that we cannot remember.
Can you remember what happened yesterday ? Did you learn something special, like a new way of doing things ? Can you remember it today, or do you have to learn it again ? Learning things and being able to remember is one of the ways that people have advanced. Learning and remembering is important in science, medicine and in engineering.
People record their discoveries in books. So more people can find out, without having to make the discovery all over again Books are important. Books store knowledge and help us become smarter. Books help scientists and engineers make advance knowledge. They build on the work of engineers and scientists in the olden days. We can use their discoveries and inventions. Today there are many new ways of passing on knowledge. Films, videos, DVDs and the internet are all ways in which knowledge is stored and shared.
Knowledge learnt in different parts of the world can be shared and compared by other people, who may even speak another language. Farmers in one part of the world can see how farmers grow crops in other places. From this, even better ways can be found to farm. we can learn to make new machines or treat illnesses. It may be that a problem in one place has already been solved somewhere else. This can save lives, time and money. Learning from yesterday's experience has made us able to control big rivers, get the power out of atoms, send men to the moon and find out how the smallest particle behaves. Atoms make up everything on earth and in space.
Passing knowledge has not always been easy. There was a time called the Dark Ages when a lot of knowledge was forgotten, and people lived less well. There have even been times when the books and libraries were burnt, because the rulers did not think that old knowledge was any good. Luckily even when books could only be made by hand, like the Book of Kells, many survived in other places. So we know about the ancient people of Babylon , Egypt , Greece and Rome because of many old books and records. Sometimes the languages they spoke have been forgotten, or are written in special signs. With careful study these dead languages have been understood. We can learn what happened and how they thought all those yesterdays ago.
Today printing makes it easy to have lots of books. Everyone in school can have their own book. When we read a book, we can learn about yesterday or even 2000 years ago. We can share this and learn about new discoveries today. Reading books is a good way to learn, and helps to make our lives better.
Zero is nothing at all.
We can count using numbers
All the bricks in the school wall
And measure the roof timbers.
Numbers are very funny things. They do all sorts of jobs. They can count the number of bricks in the school wall, or how much you weigh or high how you are tall. Numbers can also be used to make sort of names, like the numbers that all cars have, or the telephone at home, or even our house. Then there are numbers which tell in what order things happen. The December 25th is an important number for lots of people. The first match of the season is nearly as important as the last, when you are supporting a team working hard to become the champion. Numbers which measure things are called cardinals. There are also cardinals in the Church so they are very important. Numbers that give name are nominals, and those that tell us what is the order are ordinals.
There are special scientists called mathematicians who know a lot about numbers and how they behave. The Greeks made important discoveries about numbers over 2 thousand years ago. They even worked out how round was the world, when many people thought it was flat. A 1000 years before the Greeks, the Babylonians used to count in 60's. This is why there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. 60 can be divided by 12, and so we have 12 hours on our clocks and 12 months in the year. 12 can be divided by 4 and 3, so we have four seasons in the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, and there are three parts to the Holy Trinity.
Numbers as we know them were developed by the Arabs 1500 years ago. We even use their signs to write our numbers. The biggest advance that Arabian mathematicians made was to invent the number zero, 0 = nothing. From the Arabs we got numbers in groups of 10, which makes adding, taking away, multiplying and dividing very easy. The Arabs were advancing mathematics when most of Europe was in the "Dark Ages". Then the knowledge of science and engineering was lost in Europe . Luckily numbers were found again, so that scientists like Galileo and Kepler could study the stars and know that the world was round. They also worked out that the world went round the sun, and that only the moon goes round the earth.
Scientists and engineers need numbers to work out how strong is a bridge, how fast a plane can fly and lots of other things. Without numbers, computers would not be possible. Computers make working out difficult sums easy. Computers can store lots of information, and make it easy to get is back, sort it out and control machines. Even mobile phones depend on cardinals to make them work, nominals to ring friends and ordinals to tell you about the calls you have missed. Without a zero none of this would be possible.