Category: School Resource

Blennerville, Tralee – Photo by C Costelloe (From TodayFM)

Many schools around the country are closed this week due to the adverse weather across Ireland. A full list of those school closures can be found at www.schooldays.ie visit their website for the latest news on schools that are closed.

Great photo from the Irish Times today of Irish motorways being cleared of snow. Use the photo in class to explain how bad weather can have an affect on the economy, due to reduced movement of goods and service, plus the hazards of people traveling and being unable to go to work.

Snow Ploughs clear the M9 at Mullinavat county Kilkenny. Picture Dylan Vaughan.

Past Irish Winners.

Google each year holds the Doodle 4 Google art competition. The winning student will have their doodle appear on the Google Ireland homepage for 24 hours. They will also receive a laptop for themselves and one for their teacher, and their school will receive a €10,000 technology grant!

Hundreds of primary and secondary schools throughout Ireland have already registered for this year’s Doodle 4 Google art competition but there is still time for your school to enter.

Deadline for entries: 10th of December 2010.

Learn more from Google.

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The Nile Delta at Night

A fantastic photo of the Nile Delta at Night from NASA. This is great to illustrate the population that grows around a river and an excellent geography resource. The photo was take on October 28, 2010 by an astronaut on the ISS (International Space Station).

The Nile River and its delta look like a brilliant, long-stemmed flower in this astronaut photograph of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea, as seen from the International Space Station. The Cairo metropolitan area forms a particularly bright base of the flower. The smaller cities and towns within the Nile Delta tend to be hard to see amidst the dense agricultural vegetation during the day. However, these settled areas and the connecting roads between them become clearly visible at night. Likewise, urbanized regions and infrastructure along the Nile River becomes apparent (see also The Great Bend of Nile, Day & Night.)

More information can be found at the NASA website.

If you like our tips and resource links to help teach geography, become fan of us on Facebook or follow our Twitter feed. We regularly post resources for use in the classroom.

More great photos of Earth from the International Space Station are available, including an excellent photo of Italy.

NASA High Res Photos of Italy
Wired.com Photo Summary, plus more links.

Photo of spill in the towns of Kolontar and Devecser in Hungary.

Great photo from NASA taken on October 9, 2010 of the recent toxic sludge in Hungary.

On October 4, 2010, an accident occurred at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina (aluminum oxide) plant in western Hungary. A corner wall of a waste-retaining pond broke, releasing a torrent of toxic red sludge down a local stream. Several nearby towns were inundated, including Kolontar and Devecser, where the sludge was 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep in places. Four people were killed immediately, likely from drowning, and several more were missing. Dozens of residents were hospitalized for chemical burns.

To read more, or to view high resolution photos from NASA plus a Google Earth link visit the NASA website.

Where in Hungary did the spill occur, we have marked it on the map of Hungary below by the orange triangle, just north of Lake Balaton.

Map of Hungary (higher resolution maps in Know Your Europe)

To learn more about Hungary, Europe and the European Union please try our Know Your Europe software, great for classroom or home use and available to purchase from our website.