Crazy About Caves Marble Arch Caves Outreach Course Programme Course Title: Crazy about Caves Level: KS2 & ROI Equivalent Connected themes: The world around us, change over time, movement and energy, place. Subject(s): Geography, Biology & History Core Theme(s): Cave environments, Geology & Water, Sustainability Learning outcomes ● Understand how caves can change slowly over time, through erosion and deposition. ● Use questioning and planning skills to select caving equipment to solve cave related problems. ● Use skills of memory and planning to understand the impact of weather, i.e. rainfall farther up the mountain on the cave water level. ● Use information from the presentation to estimate how the cave and formations might change in the future. Pre-course Activity: Ask students to draw, or design using recyclable materials, what they think the inside of a typical cave looks like Presentation with a Marble Arch Caves Guide (*20mins preparation timed required*) Session Topics Covered; Introduction – The ● Who we are. Marble Arch Caves. ● Where we are. ● What we offer. ● Part of the wider Geopark. What are Caves? What is a Cave? Definition - “A hole in the ground/surface of the earth large enough for people to enter.” ● Information on the Marble Arch Cave – depth, length, showcase, longest cave in Ireland, age of the cave (Image/diagram, map of the cave). How do Caves Form? A Q&A Class Discussion ● They are a number of forces which create caves; water (coastal & fluvial)/volcanoes/earthquakes/frost/man-made (mining) – Images & Diagrams Stalactites Vs Stalagmites; ● How they grow ● How to remember the difference ● Demonstration of a stalactite brought from MAC ● History – How were the caves discovered? Did humans live in caves like the movies and do they live in caves today? How Did the Marble Arch Caves Form? 1. First we have to think about the geology (the rocks) Limestone – it’s formation - sedimentary - soluble rock - Calcium Carbonate. Made from microscopic sea creatures that were fossilised 340 million years ago! 2. Second is the water Precipitation/rainfall – Cuilcagh Mountain – Streams/Rivers – Runoff – Sinks Cuilcagh (3 rivers) – weakly acidic water (CO2 from the atmosphere & acidification by the peatland mosses). Have you ever mixed an acid and an alkaline? The water finds weakness/faults/bedding planes within the rock channels water, dissolving – cavities & channels – the cracks grow larger = chambers & passageways Let’s explore a A series of brief slides showing detailed pictures of cave features such as limestone cave! stalactites, flowstones, chambers and fossils. These slides are interspersed with ‘obstacle’ slides where the class is asked to reason which pieces of caving equipment are required to safely pass. This is accompanied by demonstrations of caving equipment and techniques. ● L/O- Caves are beautiful, but dangerous environments, requiring specialist knowledge and equipment. ● Cave science is one of the few sciences so closely related to a sport, Cave science requires caving skill and caving requires scientific knowledge. ● The same things (water and limestone) can produce many different effects depending on how they are interacting. Activity CAVO (Cave ● Distribute cave bingo sheets and randomly draw cave formations Bingo) until someone calls ‘CAVO’! ● repeat a few times, until we have recapped each type of formation. Does anything live in ● Cave dwellers – troglobites, troglophiles, etc. – Bats, insects, caves? springtails, cave spiders ● Zones of light within the cave – photosynthesis, fungi (fool’s gold). ● No plants in pure darkness – what this means for food chains ● 0% darkness animal adaptations (reminder that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face) ● Temporary Cave dwellers ⮚ Things washed in (fish, macroinvertebrates, bones e.g. bear bones) ⮚ Cave dwelling life cycles – Herald Moth Caves around the ● Some example of other local caves world ● Expand further to other countries ● Cave comparisons (gypsum, ice caves, sea caves etc.) Activity: Cookie ● This activity involves the class attempting to extract the chocolate mining. chips from a cookie without damaging the biscuit. This is to explain that mining minerals from the earth is a destructive process that cannot be reversed. Classroom Resources Required What we will need; 1. A projector and screen. 2. A way to darken the room ‘as we enter the cave’. 3. Approximately 20 minutes prep time before and between sessions If you have any related topics or concepts that you would like us to link to, emphasize or introduce, please let us know. Possible extension activities: ● Creative writing about a cave journey, describing features(fiction) . ● Researching and writing factsheets about cave features/ equipment (non-fiction). ● Make a collage of a cave with stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones .