A GHOST STORY

In the city of Edinburgh, under its bussy streets, there are hidden corridors and quarters. It is a hidden city, used for different purposes through out history. Some people talk about ghost haunting the place. One of the most famous ghost storires is tha of Annie, a small girl, who is said to have died of The Sickness, who has been seen looking for her lost doll. Now, in one of the quaters of Mary King's Close, people leave dolls for Annie. You can find more information in the official Mary King's Close website or in the page of the Royal Mile. Do you know any ghost story? Is there any local ghost story? We could try and find one. Write one as a coment.

A HILL AND A RIVER

In the battlefield, landforms are very important. They serve as defensive or attacking positions, depending on their geographical characteristics. In Scotland, one of the most important battles fought for Scottish independence is The Battle of Sterling Bridge. It is represented in the film Braveheart, starred by Mell Gibson. The scottish took a hill across a river where there was a castle. They waited there until the English crossed the river. The bridge was very narrow. So only two men could cross at a time. The Scots ran down the hill and slayed the English. In the film they didn't use the bridge. You can see the castles position in the map.


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Why do you think a castle could be built in this position?

LOCH NESS!

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One of the most famous landmarks in Scotland is Loch Ness. Why do you think this is so? ... Yes you got it: beacause of the Loch Ness Monster legend (?). What do you know about Nessy? Zoom out with google maps and see where the lake is in Scotland. Can you give us its coordinates? That's a difficult one, isn't it? Click on ver mapa más grande. I'll give you a hint: you can find the coordinates in enlazar, top right corner of the map. Add the coordinates in a comment under this post. To find out more information about Nessy and Loch Ness, visit this page.

THE QUIZ

Just in case you want to have another copy of the quiz we are working in class with.

DAYLIGHT!

You can check here where in the world there is light from the Sun. You can check every now and then on the side of the blog.

SOME WEATHER FORECASTING?

Many factors affect the weather we enjoy (normally) in the Canary Islands. The weather elements are Temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, precipitations, wind and the sky. Take a look at some info in this BBC page. After you do that, you can do your own weather forecast. There is a nice game (based on the US, but I think it could be useful anyway) that would give an idea. Have a look here.

EARTH TILT

WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE IN YOUR CITY?

It is interesting to see our islands from above, isn't it? This picture probably represents one of the main characteristics of life in the Canary Islands: the weather. People normally say we are in Spring all year round. But, what are the seasons? What makes the change of seasons happen? There are many myths (see some here), but we now know what the reason is. In the National Geograpics web page they state that "the Earth rotates on an axis that is tilted. In other words, our planet never stands upright—it is always leaning to the side. The direction of this lean never changes. As the Earth travels along its orbit, it sometimes leans toward the sun and sometimes away from the sun".

To get a visual impression of the phenomenon, "point at an static object in the classroom and walk in a circle around a friend while he/she remains static. Remember to keep pointing at the object; this way you are always pointing in the same direction, no matter how you move. As you "orbit your friend", observe that the direction you are pointing sometimes goes directly toward your friend, sometimes directly away from him and sometimes to the side; the Earth behaves in the same way toward the sun." (slightely adpated from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/07/season.html).

So, what is solstice? Check the difinition in the Simple English Wikipedia (click here) and try to draw the phenomenon in your notebooks. Do the same with equinox (click here).

Now, let's go to National Geographics again: find and click on the text "cosmic map." We'll do this on the board.