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My Reflection on the new Junior Cycle Science Curriculum.

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Skill focus: Student evaluation of reliable and unreliable sources.

SSI related to LO: Mica Crisis in Donegal

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Inquiry skill focus: Developing a hypothesis, Designing an investigation, Gathering & Evaluating data.

Investigating the separation of salt from water.

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6. Peer review article - Strategies of Teaching Science Using an Inquiry based Science Education

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6. Peer review article - Strategies of Teaching Science Using an Inquiry based Science Education

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This peer reviewed paper helped me get a better understanding of using an inquiry based teaching approach in science education.

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Strategies of Teaching Science Using an Inquiry based Science Education (IBSE) by Novice Chemistry Teachers

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Teaching Science is not about preparing students for a world that is static and fixed, but it concerns getting students ready to cope with changes and...

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Nature of Science: NOS 2, NoS 3. NoS 6, NoS 8, NoS 10

Other science strands: CW 2, PW 1.

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Links to other Learning Outcomes and Strands (1)

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Key skills: Key skills list: Managing information & Thinking (MI&T), Managing Myself (MM), Working with Others (WWO), Communication (C), Being Creative (BC), Being Literate (BL),

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Nature of Science: NoS 6, NoS 7, NoS 10, NoS 8, NOS 2, NoS 3. (Justification in links to other strands and LOs).

Other science strands: CW 2, PW 1,

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Lesson Plan 2 Powerpoint - Display on projector.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 2 - Powerpoint Presentation

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 2 - Powerpoint Presentation

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Powerpoint for lesson plan 2, acts as a visual resource and engages students.

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Reasons why the Earth is flat - unreliable source.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - An example of an unreliable source

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - An example of an unreliable source

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Example of an unreliable source - Wikipedia, on why the Earth is flat. Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, lacks peer-review process & is subject to bias.

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Flat Earth map drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893. The map contains several references to biblical passages as well as various jabs at the "Globe Theory".

Flat Earth is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography. The model has undergone a recent resurgence as a conspiracy theory.

The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC). However, most pre-Socratics (6th-5th century BC) retained the flat-Earth model. In the early 4th century BC, Plato wrote about a spherical Earth. By about 330 BC, his former student Aristotle had provided strong empirical evidence for a spherical Earth. Knowledge of the Earth's global shape gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world. By the early period of the Christian Church, the spherical view was widely held, with some notable exceptions.

It is a historical myth that medieval Europeans generally thought the Earth was flat. This myth was created in the 17th century by Protestants to argue against Catholic teachings. More recently, flat earth theory has seen an increase in popularity with modern flat Earth societies, and unaffiliated individuals using social media.. Despite the scientific facts and obvious effects of Earth's sphericity, pseudoscientific flat-Earth conspiracy theories prevail. Strangely, the youngest generation, raised with the internet, is the most skeptical of a spherical earth, with only 82% firmly believing the Earth is round.. However, a firm belief in a flat Earth is rare, with less than 2% acceptance in all age groups.

Belief in flat Earth

Imago Mundi Babylonian map, the oldest known world map, 6th century BC Babylonia

In early Egyptian and Mesopotamian thought, the world was portrayed as a disk floating in the ocean. A similar model is found in the Homeric account from the 8th century BC in which "Okeanos, the personified body of water surrounding the circular surface of the Earth, is the begetter of all life and possibly of all gods."

The Israelites also imagined the Earth to be a disc floating on water with an arched firmament above it that separated the Earth from the heavens. The sky was a solid dome with the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars embedded in it.

Homer's description of the disc cosmography on the shield of Achilles with the encircling ocean is repeated far later in Quintus Smyrnaeus' Posthomerica (4th century AD), which continues the narration of the Trojan War.

Philosophers

Possible rendering of Anaximander's world map[28]

Several pre-Socratic philosophers believed that the world was flat: Thales (c. 550 BC) according to several sources, and Leucippus (c. 440 BC) and Democritus (c. 460-370 BC) according to Aristotle.

Thales thought that the Earth floated in water like a log. It has been argued, however, that Thales actually believed in a spherical Earth. Anaximander (c. 550 BC) believed that the Earth was a short cylinder with a flat, circular top that remained stable because it was the same distance from all things. Anaximenes of Miletus believed that "the Earth is flat and rides on air; in the same way the Sun and the Moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are all fiery, ride the air because of their flatness". Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 500 BC) thought that the Earth was flat, with its upper side touching the air, and the lower side extending without limit.

Belief in a flat Earth continued into the 5th century BC. Anaxagoras (c. 450 BC) agreed that the Earth was flat, and his pupil Archelaus believed that the flat Earth was depressed in the middle like a saucer, to allow for the fact that the Sun does not rise and set at the same time for everyone.

Historians

Hecataeus of Miletus believed that the Earth was flat and surrounded by water. Herodotus in his ridiculed the belief that water encircled the world, yet most classicists agree that he still believed Earth was flat because of his descriptions of literal "ends" or "edges" of the Earth.

Northern Europe

The ancient Norse and Germanic peoples believed in a flat-Earth cosmography with the Earth surrounded by an ocean, with the axis mundi, a world tree ( Yggdrasil), or pillar ( Irminsul) in the centre. In the world-encircling ocean sat a snake called Jormungandr. The Norse creation account preserved in Gylfaginning (VIII) states that during the creation of the Earth, an impassable sea was placed around it:

And Jafnhárr said: "Of the blood, which ran and welled forth freely out of his wounds, they made the sea, when they had formed and made firm the Earth together, and laid the sea in a ring round. about her; and it may well seem a hard thing to most men to cross over it."

The late Norse Konungs skuggsjá, on the other hand, explains Earth's shape as a sphere:

If you take a lighted candle and set it in a room, you may expect it to light up the entire interior, unless something should hinder, though the room be quite large. But if you take an apple and hang it close to the flame, so near that it is heated, the apple will darken nearly half the room or even more. However, if you hang the apple near the wall, it will not get hot; the candle will light up the whole house; and the shadow on the wall where the apple hangs will be scarcely half as large as the apple itself. From this you may infer that the Earth-circle is round like a ball and not equally near the sun at every point. But where the curved surface lies nearest the sun's path, there will the greatest heat be; and some of the lands that lie continuously under the unbroken rays cannot be inhabited.

In ancient China, the prevailing belief was that the Earth was flat and square, while the heavens were round, an assumption virtually unquestioned until the introduction of European astronomy in the 17th century. The English sinologist Cullen emphasizes the point that there was no concept of a round Earth in ancient Chinese astronomy:

Chinese thought on the form of the Earth remained almost unchanged from early times until the first contacts with modern science through the medium of Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century. While the heavens were variously described as being like an umbrella covering the Earth (the Kai Tian theory), or like a sphere surrounding it (the Hun Tian theory), or as being without substance while the heavenly bodies float freely (the Hsüan yeh theory), the Earth was at all times flat, although perhaps bulging up slightly.

Illustration based on that of a 12th-century Asian cosmographer

The heavens are like a hen's egg and as round as a crossbow bullet; the Earth is like the yolk of the egg, and lies in the centre.

This analogy with a curved egg led some modern historians, notably Joseph Needham, to conjecture that Chinese astronomers were, after all, aware of the Earth's sphericity. The egg reference, however, was rather meant to clarify the relative position of the flat Earth to the heavens:

In a passage of Zhang Heng's cosmogony not translated by Needham, Zhang himself says: "Heaven takes its body from the Yang, so it is round and in motion. Earth takes its body from the Yin, so it is flat and quiescent". The point of the egg analogy is simply to stress that the Earth is completely enclosed by Heaven, rather than merely covered from above as the Kai Tian describes. Chinese astronomers, many of them brilliant men by any standards, continued to think in flat-Earth terms until the seventeenth century; this surprising fact might be the starting-point for a re-examination of the apparent facility with which the idea of a spherical Earth found acceptance in fifth-century BC Greece.

Further examples cited by Needham supposed to demonstrate dissenting voices from the ancient Chinese consensus actually refer without exception to the Earth being square, not to it being flat. Accordingly, the 13th-century scholar Li Ye, who argued that the movements of the round heaven would be hindered by a square Earth, did not advocate a spherical Earth, but rather that its edge should be rounded off so as to be circular. However, Needham disagrees, affirming that Li Ye believed the Earth to be spherical, similar in shape to the heavens but much smaller. This was preconceived by the 4th-century scholar Yu Xi, who argued for the infinity of outer space surrounding the Earth and that the latter could be either square or round, in accordance to the shape of the heavens. When Chinese geographers of the 17th century, influenced by European cartography and astronomy, showed the Earth as a sphere that could be circumnavigated by sailing around the globe, they did so with formulaic terminology previously used by Zhang Heng to describe the spherical shape of the Sun and Moon (i.e. that they were as round as a crossbow bullet).

As noted in the book , in the 2nd century BC, Chinese astronomers effectively inverted Eratosthenes' calculation of the curvature of the Earth to calculate the height of the Sun above the Earth. By assuming the Earth was flat, they arrived at a distance of (approximately ). The Zhoubi Suanjing also discusses how to determine the distance of the Sun by measuring the length of noontime shadows at different latitudes, a method similar to Eratosthenes' measurement of the circumference of the Earth, but the Zhoubi Suanjing assumes that the Earth is flat.

Alternate or mixed theories

Greece: spherical Earth

Semi-circular shadow of Earth on the Moon during a partial lunar eclipse

Pythagoras in the 6th century BC and Parmenides in the 5th century BC stated that the Earth is spherical, and this view spread rapidly in the Greek world. Around 330 BC, Aristotle maintained on the basis of physical theory and observational evidence that the Earth was spherical, and reported an estimate of its circumference. The Earth's circumference was first determined around 240 BC by Eratosthenes. By the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy had derived his maps from a globe and developed the system of latitude, longitude, and climes. His was written in Greek and only translated into Latin in the 11th century from Arabic translations.

Lucretius (1st century BC) opposed the concept of a spherical Earth, because he considered that an infinite universe had no center towards which heavy bodies would tend. Thus, he thought the idea of animals walking around topsy-turvy under the Earth was absurd. By the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder was in a position to say that everyone agreed on the spherical shape of Earth, though disputes continued regarding the nature of the antipodes, and how it is possible to keep the ocean in a curved shape.

An image of Thorntonbank Wind Farm (near the Belgian coast) with the lower parts of the more distant towers increasingly hidden by the horizon, demonstrating the curvature of the Earth

The Vedic texts depict the cosmos in many ways. One of the earliest Indian cosmological texts pictures the Earth as one of a stack of flat disks.

In the Vedic texts, Dyaus (heaven) and Prithvi (Earth) are compared to wheels on an axle, yielding a flat model. They are also described as bowls or leather bags, yielding a concave model. According to Macdonell: "the conception of the Earth being a disc surrounded by an ocean does not appear in the Samhitas. But it was naturally regarded as circular, being compared with a wheel (10.89) and expressly called circular (parimandala) in the Shatapatha Brahmana."

By about the 5th century AD, the astronomy texts of South Asia, particularly of Aryabhata, assume a spherical Earth as they develop mathematical methods for quantitative astronomy for calendar and time keeping.

The medieval Indian texts called the Puranas describe the Earth as a flat-bottomed, circular disk with concentric oceans and continents. This general scheme is present not only in the Hindu cosmologies, but also in Buddhist and Jain cosmologies of South Asia. However, some Puranas include other models. The fifth canto of the Bhagavata Purana, for example, includes sections that describe the Earth both as flat and spherical.

Early Christian Church

During the early period of the Christian Church, the spherical view continued to be widely held, with some notable exceptions. Athenagoras, an eastern Christian writing around the year 175 AD, said that the Earth was spherical. Methodius (c. 290 AD), an eastern Christian writing against "the theory of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians" said: "Let us first lay bare ... the theory of the Chaldeans and the Egyptians. They say that the circumference of the universe is likened to the turnings of a well-rounded globe, the Earth being a central point. They say that since its outline is spherical, ... the Earth should be the center of the universe, around which the heaven is whirling." Lactantius, a western Christian writer and advisor to the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, writing sometime between 304 and 313 AD, ridiculed the notion of and the philosophers who fancied that "the universe is round like a ball. They also thought that heaven revolves in accordance with the motion of the heavenly bodies. ... For that reason, they constructed brass globes, as though after the figure of the universe." Arnobius, another eastern Christian writing sometime around 305 AD, described the round Earth: "In the first place, indeed, the world itself is neither right nor left. It has neither upper nor lower regions, nor front nor back. For whatever is round and bounded on every side by the circumference of a solid sphere, has no beginning or end ..."

But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the Earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours that is on no ground credible. And, indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that the Earth is suspended within the concavity of the sky, and that it has as much room on the one side of it as on the other: hence they say that the part that is beneath must also be inhabited. But they do not remark that, although it be supposed or scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical form, yet it does not follow that the other side of the Earth is bare of water; nor even, though it be bare, does it immediately follow that it is peopled. For Scripture, which proves the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false information; and it is too absurd to say, that some men might have taken ship and traversed the whole wide ocean, and crossed from this side of the world to the other, and that thus even the inhabitants of that distant region are descended from that one first man.

Some historians do not view Augustine's scriptural commentaries as endorsing any particular cosmological model, endorsing instead the view that Augustine shared the common view of his contemporaries that the Earth is spherical, in line with his endorsement of science in De Genesi ad litteram. C. P. E. Nothaft, responding to writers like Leo Ferrari who described Augustine as endorsing a flat Earth, says that "...other recent writers on the subject treat Augustine's acceptance of the earth's spherical shape as a well-established fact".

Cosmas Indicopleustes' world view - flat Earth in a Tabernacle

Diodorus of Tarsus, a leading figure in the School of Antioch and mentor of John Chrysostom, may have argued for a flat Earth; however, Diodorus' opinion on the matter is known only from a later criticism. Chrysostom, one of the four Great Church Fathers of the Eastern Church and Archbishop of Constantinople, explicitly espoused the idea, based on scripture, that the Earth floats miraculously on the water beneath the firmament.

Christian Topography (547) by the Alexandrian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, who had traveled as far as Sri Lanka and the source of the Blue Nile, is now widely considered the most valuable geographical document of the early medieval age, although it received relatively little attention from contemporaries. In it, the author repeatedly expounds the doctrine that the universe consists of only two places, the Earth below the firmament and heaven above it. Carefully drawing on arguments from scripture, he describes the Earth as a rectangle, 400 days' journey long by 200 wide, surrounded by four oceans and enclosed by four massive walls which support the firmament. The spherical Earth theory is contemptuously dismissed as "pagan".

Severian, Bishop of Gabala ( d. 408), wrote that the Earth is flat and the Sun does not pass under it in the night, but "travels through the northern parts as if hidden by a wall". Basil of Caesarea (329-379) argued that the matter was theologically irrelevant.

Europe: Early Middle Ages

Early medieval Christian writers felt little urge to assume flatness of the Earth, though they had fuzzy impressions of the writings of Ptolemy and Aristotle, relying more on Pliny.

9th-century Macrobian cosmic diagram showing the sphere of the Earth at the center (globus terrae)

With the end of the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe entered the Middle Ages with great difficulties that affected the continent's intellectual production. Most scientific treatises of classical antiquity (in Greek) were unavailable, leaving only simplified summaries and compilations. In contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire did not fall, and it preserved the learning. Still, many textbooks of the Early Middle Ages supported the sphericity of the Earth in the western part of Europe.

12th-century T and O map representing the inhabited world as described by Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae (chapter 14, de terra et partibus)

Europe's view of the shape of the Earth in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages may be best expressed by the writings of early Christian scholars:

Bishop Isidore of Seville (560-636) taught in his widely read encyclopedia, the Etymologies, diverse views such as that the Earth "resembles a wheel" resembling Anaximander in language and the map that he provided. This was widely interpreted as referring to a disc-shaped Earth. An illustration from Isidore's De Natura Rerum shows the five zones of the Earth as adjacent circles. Some have concluded that he thought the Arctic and Antarctic zones were adjacent to each other. He did not admit the possibility of antipodes, which he took to mean people dwelling on the opposite side of the Earth, considering them legendary and noting that there was no evidence for their existence. Isidore's T and O map, which was seen as representing a small part of a spherical Earth, continued to be used by authors through the Middle Ages, e.g. the 9th-century bishop Rabanus Maurus, who compared the habitable part of the northern hemisphere ( Aristotle's northern temperate clime) with a wheel. At the same time, Isidore's works also gave the views of sphericity, for example, in chapter 28 of De Natura Rerum, Isidore claims that the Sun orbits the Earth and illuminates the other side when it is night on this side. See French translation of De Natura Rerum. In his other work Etymologies, there are also affirmations that the sphere of the sky has Earth in its center and the sky being equally distant on all sides. Other researchers have argued these points as well. "The work remained unsurpassed until the thirteenth century and was regarded as the summit of all knowledge. It became an essential part of European medieval culture. Soon after the invention of typography it appeared many times in print." However, "The Scholastics - later medieval philosophers, theologians, and scientists - were helped by the Arabic translators and commentaries, but they hardly needed to struggle against a flat-Earth legacy from the early middle ages (500-1050). Early medieval writers often had fuzzy and imprecise impressions of both Ptolemy and Aristotle and relied more on Pliny, but they felt (with one exception), little urge to assume flatness."

Isidore's portrayal of the five zones of the Earth

As for the perverse and sinful doctrine which he (Virgil) against God and his own soul has uttered - if it shall be clearly established that he professes belief in another world and other men existing beneath the Earth, or in (another) sun and moon there, thou art to hold a council, deprive him of his sacerdotal rank, and expel him from the Church.

Some authorities have suggested that the sphericity of the Earth was among the aspects of Vergilius's teachings that Boniface and Zachary considered objectionable. Others have considered this unlikely, and take the wording of Zachary's response to indicate at most an objection to belief in the existence of humans living in the antipodes. In any case, there is no record of any further action having been taken against Vergilius. He was later appointed bishop of Salzburg and was canonised in the 13th century.

12th-century depiction of a spherical Earth with the four seasons (book Liber Divinorum Operum by Hildegard of Bingen)

A possible non-literary but graphic indication that people in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth (or perhaps the world) was a sphere is the use of the orb ( globus cruciger) in the regalia of many kingdoms and of the Holy Roman Empire. It is attested from the time of the Christian late-Roman emperor Theodosius II (423) throughout the Middle Ages; the Reichsapfel was used in 1191 at the coronation of emperor Henry VI. However the word orbis means "circle", and there is no record of a globe as a representation of the Earth since ancient times in the west until that of Martin Behaim in 1492. Additionally it could well be a representation of the entire "world" or cosmos.

A recent study of medieval concepts of the sphericity of the Earth noted that "since the eighth century, no cosmographer worthy of note has called into question the sphericity of the Earth". However, the work of these intellectuals may not have had significant influence on public opinion, and it is difficult to tell what the wider population may have thought of the shape of the Earth if they considered the question at all.

Europe: Late Middle Ages

Picture from a 1550 edition of On the Sphere of the World, the most influential astronomy textbook of 13th-century Europe

Hermannus Contractus (1013-1054) was among the earliest Christian scholars to estimate the circumference of Earth with Eratosthenes' method. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the most widely taught theologian of the Middle Ages, believed in a spherical Earth and took for granted that his readers also knew the Earth is round. Lectures in the medieval universities commonly advanced evidence in favor of the idea that the Earth was a sphere.

Illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th-century copy of L'Image du monde (c. 1246)

Jill Tattersall shows that in many vernacular works in 12th- and 13th-century French texts the Earth was considered "round like a table" rather than "round like an apple". She writes, "[I]n virtually all the examples quoted ... from epics and from non-'historical' romances (that is, works of a less learned character) the actual form of words used suggests strongly a circle rather than a sphere", though she notes that even in these works the language is ambiguous.

Portuguese navigation down and around the coast of Africa in the latter half of the 1400s gave wide-scale observational evidence for Earth's sphericity. In these explorations, the Sun's position moved more northward the further south the explorers travelled. Its position directly overhead at noon gave evidence for crossing the equator. These apparent solar motions in detail were more consistent with north-south curvature and a distant Sun, than with any flat-Earth explanation. The ultimate demonstration came when Ferdinand Magellan's expedition completed the first global circumnavigation in 1521. Antonio Pigafetta, one of the few survivors of the voyage, recorded the loss of a day in the course of the voyage, giving evidence for east-west curvature.

Middle East: Islamic scholars

Prior to the introduction of Greek cosmology into the Islamic world, Muslims tended to view the Earth as flat, and Muslim traditionalists who rejected Greek philosophy continued to hold to this view later on while various theologians held opposing opinions. Beginning in the 10th century onwards, some Muslim traditionalists began to adopt the notion of a spherical Earth with the influence of Greek and Ptolemaic cosmology.

The Quran mentions that the Earth ( al-arḍ) was "spread out." Whether or not this implies a flat earth was debated by Muslims. Some modern historians believe the Quran saw the world as flat. On the other hand, the 12th-century commentary, the Tafsir al-Kabir (al-Razi) by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi argues that though this verse does describe a flat surface, it is limited in its application to local regions of the Earth which are roughly flat as opposed to the Earth as a whole. Others who would support a ball-shaped Earth included Ibn Hazm.

Ming Dynasty in China

A spherical terrestrial globe was introduced to Yuan-era Khanbaliq (i.e. Beijing) in 1267 by the Persian astronomer Jamal ad-Din, but it is not known to have made an impact on the traditional Chinese conception of the shape of the Earth. As late as 1595, an early Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci, recorded that the Ming-dynasty Chinese say: "The Earth is flat and square, and the sky is a round canopy; they did not succeed in conceiving the possibility of the antipodes."

In the 17th century, the idea of a spherical Earth spread in China due to the influence of the Jesuits, who held high positions as astronomers at the imperial court. Matteo Ricci, in collaboration with Chinese cartographers and translator Li Zhizao, published the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu in 1602, the first Chinese world map based on European discoveries. The astronomical and geographical treatise Gezhicao () written in 1648 by Xiong Mingyu () explained that the Earth was spherical, not flat or square, and could be circumnavigated.

Myth of flat-Earth prevalence

In the 19th century, a historical myth arose which held that the predominant cosmological doctrine during the Middle Ages was that the Earth was flat. An early proponent of this myth was the American writer Washington Irving, who maintained that Christopher Columbus had to overcome the opposition of churchmen to gain sponsorship for his voyage of exploration. Later significant advocates of this view were John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White, who used it as a major element in their advocacy of the thesis that there was a long-lasting and essential conflict between science and religion. Some studies of the historical connections between science and religion have demonstrated that theories of their mutual antagonism ignore examples of their mutual support.

Subsequent studies of medieval science have shown that most scholars in the Middle Ages, including those read by Christopher Columbus, maintained that the Earth was spherical.

Modern flat Earth beliefs

Logo of the Flat Earth Society

In the modern era, the pseudoscientific belief in a flat Earth originated with the English writer Samuel Rowbotham with the 1849 pamphlet Zetetic Astronomy. Lady Elizabeth Blount established the Universal Zetetic Society in 1893, which published journals. In 1956, Samuel Shenton set up the International Flat Earth Research Society, better known as the "Flat Earth Society" from Dover, England, as a direct descendant of the Universal Zetetic Society.

In the Internet era, the availability of communications technology and social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have made it easy for individuals, famous or not, to spread disinformation and attract others to erroneous ideas, including that of the flat Earth.

Modern believers in a flat Earth face overwhelming publicly accessible evidence of Earth's sphericity. They also need to explain why governments, media outlets, schools, scientists, surveyors, airlines and other organizations accept that the world is spherical. To satisfy these tensions and maintain their beliefs, they generally embrace some form of conspiracy theory. In addition, believers tend to not trust observations they have not made themselves, and often distrust, disagree with or accuse each other of being in league with conspiracies.

For young children who have not yet received information from their social environment, their own perception of their surroundings often leads to a false concept about the shape of the underground on the horizon. Many children think that the Earth ends there and that one can fall off the edge. The education they receive helps them to gradually change their false concept into a realist one of a spherical Earth.

References

Bibliography

Garwood, Christine (2007), Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea, Pan Books, ISBN 978-1-4050-4702-9

Hatcher, William E. (1908), John Jasper, New York, NY: Fleming Revell

Simek, Rudolf (1996) [1992]. Heaven and Earth in the Middle Ages: The Physical World Before Columbus. Angela Hall (trans.). The Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851156088.

Plofker, Kim (2009). Mathematics in India. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691120676.

Randolph, Edwin Archer (1884), The Life of Rev. John Jasper, Pastor of Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., from His Birth to the Present Time, with His Theory on the Rotation of the Sun, Richmond, VA: R.T. Hill & Co.

Further reading

Fraser, Raymond (2007). When The Earth Was Flat: Remembering Leonard Cohen, Alden Nowlan, the Flat Earth Society, the King James monarchy hoax, the Montreal Story Tellers and other curious matters. Black Moss Press, ISBN 978-0-88753-439-3

External links

Robbins, Stuart (May 1, 2012). "Episode 33: Flat Earth". Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast.

Robbins, Stuart (September 5, 2016). "Episode 145: Modern Flat Earth Theory, Part 1". Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast.

Robbins, Stuart (October 4, 2016). "Episode 149: Modern Flat Earth Thought, Part 2". Exposing PseudoAstronomy Podcast.

Power, Myles; James, James (October 31, 2016). "Episode 146: The Lies of the Sun". League of Nerds (YouTube). Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. - Review of a pro-Flat Earth documentary.

The Myth of the Flat Earth

The Myth of the Flat Universe

You say the earth is round? Prove it (from The Straight Dope)

Flat Earth Fallacy Archived 2001-04-29 at the Wayback Machine

Zetetic Astronomy, or Earth Not a Globe by Parallax (Samuel Birley Rowbotham (1816-1884)) at sacred-texts.com

Flat Earth idea of the Suns trajectory

Flat Earth Theory of the Moon & Sun's paths around the world

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Flat Earth is an archaic and scientifically disproven conception of the Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat-Earth cosmography. The model has undergone a recent resurgence as a conspiracy theory. The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC).

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Video Resource 2

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Video Resource 2

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Euro News video on the shock and outrage caused by the Mica Crisis.

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Ireland's Mica scandal: Owners of crumbling homes march in Dublin seeking full compensation

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Video Resource 1

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Video Resource 1

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RTE News reporting on Mica Crisis in Donegal. Allows students to gain an insight of the effects of the mica scandal.

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Experts shocked at scale of mica devastation in Donegal

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Separating Mixtures Powerpoint Presentation to be displayed on projector

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 1 - Mixtures PowerPoint

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 1 - Mixtures PowerPoint

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Presentation used as a teaching resource. Acts as a visual resource to engage students.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 1 - Reflection worksheet

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 1 - Reflection worksheet

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In class worksheet on separating mixtures. Students fill out the tables based on what they have learned.

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Separating Mixtures Reflection Worksheet (1)

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 homework

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 homework

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Homework sheet on separating mixtures to assess learning.

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Separating mixtures matching homework worksheet

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 3

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 3

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Wikipedia article on the Mica Crisis in Donegal. It is an unreliable article as it is from a site anyone can edit, leading to bias and misinformation.

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Excessive Mica minerals in concrete blocks

The Irish defective block crisis affects several counties within the Republic of Ireland. To date the counties most severely impacted have been County Donegal and County Mayo, with other counties having fewer affected buildings. An expert committee established in 2016 by the then Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal investigated the causes in both County Donegal and County Mayo, and concluded that the principal cause of the damage was due to the use of defective concrete blocks. Within county Donegal this was originally termed the Mica scandal in 2011, which is the point at which homes and other buildings began showing signs of cracking and decay. The term "mica scandal" arose because the expert committee had observed that defective concrete blocks within County Donegal contained excessive quantities of the mineral mica liberated within the binder. Within County Mayo the expert committee concluded that the defective blocks were caused by internal sulphate attack sourced from framboidal pyrite within the aggregate, as evidenced from both presence of framboidal pyrite and elevated sulphate content.

The scandal led to calls for, and then the establishment of, a scheme to fund affected homeowners of the fault to repair, or demolish and rebuild, their homes. A similar issue with the presence of pyrite in the hardfill of properties was also identified in 2007, originating within quarries in the east of Ireland, and legislation was enacted to address both of the issues similarly. During 2023, new theories were advanced as to the source of the problems with the blocks, specifically that within County Donegal elevated concentrations of pyrrhotite (above relevant EN 12620 guidance) was the principal cause of the problem, albeit with the elevated mica contributing to a weakened binder. At present the root cause in County Mayo and other counties is considered to be the presence of framboidal pyrite as highlighted by the original expert report.

More than five thousand houses and an unknown number of office and other buildings have been affected, with some owners moving out of their homes as they are no longer safe. Damage generally manifests on properties as cracking of render and walls, expansion of concrete and the eventual loss of structural integrity. The majority of affected homes are in County Donegal, but there are also some in County Mayo, County Clare, County Limerick and elsewhere. Around the same time, the use of pyrite in construction caused similar issues for buildings in the East of Ireland. Cracking and bulging appeared in flooring concrete and other materials soon after construction.

Muscovite (also known as common mica) can be found in rocks used to make concrete blocks. It is estimated that a presence of 1% of muscovite in concrete reduces the strength of the internal bonding by 5%, and further that such blocks bond poorly with cement paste. Mica also absorbs water, and excess water can cause problems in cold winters as the process of freezing and thawing damages the blocks. During 2023, additional scientific evidence as to the root cause possibilities emerged, suggesting that the issue may lie more with the iron compound pyrrhotite than with mica, although the high mica content of the binder may still be relevant due to its impact on binder quality, making it more susceptible to internal sulphate attack from the oxidising pyrrhotite.

An expert panel reported to government in 2017 that the problems in these counties add to "the legacy of building failures or severe non-compliance concerns following the downturn in economic and construction activity in 2008, which exposed vulnerabilities in the building control system that was in place at that time". The report included information from the National Standards Authority of Ireland that mica and other harmful impurities are limited to 1% of concrete blocks and this is covered by a statutory instrument. In some affected homes in Donegal, the amount of mica in samples was significantly above the limit, potentially up to 14%. Companies producing building materials must comply with regulations such as the Building Control Regulations.

The report stated that building control authorities lacked the ability to test materials in-house and that all ability to enforce regulations was limited by local authority budgets.

Owners' campaign

Campaigns seeking redress for the issue began in 2011.

Partly as a result of homeowner campaigning, the Defective Block Scheme was opened in June 2020. The scheme offers five options, from replacing an external wall, with a limit of €49,500, to demolition and rebuilding, with a limit of €247,500. 433 people in Donegal had engaged with the scheme as of June 2021. Campaigners pointed out that homeowners had to pay €5,000 for a mica test to apply to the scheme and that this was a barrier for those who were in financial difficulty. They also wanted the scheme to cover 100% of costs, instead of the proposed 90% of costs. The grant was updated in November 2021, with the limit increased to €420,000, and 100% cover for costs. Houses in Clare and Limerick were added to the scheme, with estimates suggesting that over one thousand homes could be affected in those counties. In June 2022, ministers were advised that the cost of the scheme could reach €3.65 billion if inflation remained high. A similar redress scheme was announced for those affected by pyrite usage in construction, similarly covering 100% of costs, but only for repair works.

Protest marches were held in Dublin in June and October 2021, with thousands of people reported to have attended.

In 2023, the Donegal Mica Action Group founded 100% Redress, a political party registered to contest local and Dáil elections.

2,000 or more legal actions were initiated against suppliers of defective blocks, as well as local authorities and standards bodies for failing to detect the issue, doubts were expressed as to whether the suppliers, at least, had the resources or insurance cover to provide any significant compensation. Actions against developers for using or failing to test blocks were scarcer.

Cassidy Brothers, one of the companies that produced the blocks, was issued with an enforcement notice in October 2021 in relation to land in Cranford, County Donegal. The company was ordered to shut a concrete batching plant and storage yard. In November 2021, they were issued with an unauthorised development letter by Donegal County Council, as they did not have planning permission to develop blocks at their site in Gransha, Buncrana.

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Irish defective block crisis - Wikipedia

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The Irish defective block crisis affects several counties within the Republic of Ireland. To date the counties most severely impacted have been County Donegal and County Mayo, with other counties having fewer affected buildings.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 2 - Source 3

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7. Links to resources: Lesson Plan 2 - Source 3

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Mica crisis schemes for houses affected by pyrite or mica. Reliable source as it is a Government website.

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Mica and pyrite are minerals found in the ground and in rocks that are excavated from quarries and used in building blocks. These minerals cause defects in building blocks, which lead to cracks and other problems in buildings and homes constructed with the defective blocks.

Mica was mainly found in quarries in the north west of Ireland and some properties in this area are affected by it. Pyrite caused similar problems in buildings in the east of Ireland.

There are schemes to help homeowners repair or rebuild homes that have been affected by mica and pyrite.

The Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme provides financial support to people, so they can fix properties that have been damaged because defective concrete blocks were used to build them. Defective concrete blocks are blocks that have excessive amounts of mica or pyrite.

The enhanced scheme began on 22 June 2023, and it replaced the original scheme. It is available in Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo. ( Sligo was added to the scheme on 23 October 2024.)

The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 and the related regulations provide the legislative basis for the new enhanced scheme.

How much will I get?

On 23 October 2024, the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme was increased. It covers 100% of remediation work up to a maximum of €462,000 (previously €420,000).

The grant you get depends on the damage to your home and its size.

The grant has 5 remediation options (ways to solve the issue).

The options range from a full demolition and rebuild of your property, to a demolition and rebuild of the outer leafs of the affected walls in the property.

The option you qualify for depends on the level of damage to your property. The Housing Agency will assess and test your property to see which option is most suitable.

If you don't get the full rebuild option and then need a full rebuild in the next 40 years, the scheme guarantees that you can get another grant.

The regulations (pdf) explain how the grant amounts are calculated for each remediation option.

What is covered by the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme?

The Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme covers:

Professional fees

A building condition assessment report

Approved remediation works

Alternative accommodation costs

Removal and storage costs

Essential immediate repair work

The cost of disconnecting and reconnecting services and utilities like electricity and internet

Value Added Tax (VAT)

Do I qualify for the scheme?

To qualify for the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme, your property must:

Be damaged because defective concrete blocks were used to build it. Defective concrete blocks are blocks with excessive amounts of mica or pyrite in them.

Be in Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Mayo or Sligo

Be your main residence, or a rented property that was registered with the Residential Tenancies Board before 2 November 2021

Have been built before 31 January 2020

Not be an unauthorised structure

The scheme may be extended to other counties in the future.

You can only get the grant for one rental property.

How do I apply for the enhanced scheme?

Get a report confirming the damage

If you think your property has been damaged because defective concrete blocks were used to build it, you should get a competent building professional to assess the damage.

A competent building professional is a building surveyor, engineer or architect who is listed on the statutory register for their professional body and has done any required training.

They will assess your property and complete a building condition assessment report. A template of the building condition assessment report is available in Schedule 1 of the regulations (pdf).

The report will recommend that you apply to your local authority for the scheme if the damage to your property:

Is consistent with damage caused by defective concrete blocks

Meets the damage threshold for the scheme (pdf)

A building condition assessment report costs approximately €500 to €750. You pay for the report. But, if your application is successful, the grant will cover this cost.

2. Apply to your local authority

If your building professional recommends it, you should apply to the local authority for the scheme. You will need to send your building condition assessment report to your local authority when you apply. Your local authority will have information about how to apply on their website. They may use an application form or an online portal.

How are applications decided?

The local authority will send your application and report to the Housing Agency. The Housing Agency will review the documents and check that your property meets the damage threshold for the scheme. If your property meets the damage threshold, the Housing Agency will tell your local authority and they will inform you.

Then, the Housing Agency will get a competent engineer to assess and test your property. The Housing Agency will use this information to decide what remediation option applies to your property and the grant amount you will get. The local authority will contact you to give you this information.

Can I appeal a decision?

If you are not happy with a decision made when applying for the scheme, you can an appeal it. You can appeal:

How your local authority validates your application

The Housing Agency's decision about whether your home meets the damage threshold for the scheme

The remediation option that is chosen for your home

The grant amount that is approved for your home

If the local authority refuses to make the grant payment that has been approved

How to make an appeal

To appeal, complete the Notice of Appeal Form (pdf) and send it with any supporting documents to:

Appeals Panel
c/o the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme Unit
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Custom House
Dublin 1
D01 W6X0

Your appeal will be reviewed by an independent appeals panel, which is made up of building and legal professionals. It is free to make an appeal.

What if I applied for the original scheme?

If you applied for the original remediation scheme, your application transfers to the enhanced scheme. You will benefit from the increased grant amounts available under the enhanced scheme.

You may have to provide additional information to the local authority. The FAQ on the enhanced scheme has a section on transitional arrangements that describes how this works.

Where can I get more information about the scheme?

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has published information about the scheme on gov.ie including a detailed FAQ.

The local authorities administering the scheme will also have information on their websites about how the enhanced scheme works and can advise you about the process.

The Defective Concrete Products Levy is a 5% levy on concrete blocks, pouring concrete and other concrete products. It was introduced to help pay for the Enhanced Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme.

The levy has applied since 1 September 2023. It is paid by the person or company who first supplies or sells the concrete product. The levy does not apply if the concrete product is sold on again. If you are liable for the levy, you must:

Register with Revenue as a chargeable person

Keep records of all first supplies of concrete products

Submit a return and pay any levy for each accounting period

If you have questions about the levy, contact Revenue using MyEnquiries on ROS or MyAccount. Revenue has more information about the levy, including examples of when it applies and how to pay.

The Pyrite Remediation Scheme remediates properties significantly damaged by pyrite. The Scheme is managed by the Pyrite Resolution Board who manage the application and appeals process.

If your home has been affected by pyrite, this scheme will cover 100% of the costs involved in repairing your property.

The Housing Agency has published detailed information and FAQs about the scheme (pdf) where you can find information about properties that qualify for the scheme and how to apply.

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Schemes for houses affected by pyrite or mica

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Many houses in Ireland have been affected by defective building materials. Find out about the redress schemes available to repair and rebuild these homes.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 2

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 2

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Newspaper article on Mica Crisis in Donegal. Newspaper articles are unreliable as they are open to bias and subjectivity. They are also not subject to the peer-review process.

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Defective concrete blocks in homes in Co Donegal are failing because of pyrrhotite and not mica, according to a study published in leading international journal Cement and Concrete Research.

There could be 2,000 legal actions, with a total value of €550 million, concerning mica-affected concrete blocks before the end of the year, it has been claimed in High Court proceedings. Some 1,100 cases have already been issued.

They are suing over damage from concrete blocks and similar products containing mica that were used to build their home between 2005 and 2008. Mica is naturally occurring in rocks but, when used as an aggregate, makes concrete weaker over time.

However, a study conducted by researchers at Empa, Switzerland, Ulster University, UK, and the TA Group suggests that defective concrete blocks in Donegal are failing because of pyrrhotite and not mica.

[ First of more than 1,000 mica actions admitted to fast-track court ]

The peer-reviewed article entitled The Mica Crisis in Donegal, Ireland - A Case of Internal Sulfate Attack "confirms that the geological mineral mica is not the primary cause of failure of defective concrete blocks in Donegal homes".

It instead suggests it "is the mineral pyrrhotite present in the aggregate found in defective blocks".

The mica diagnosis was proposed by a government report published in 2017 and incorporated into the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) testing and remediation standard.

Ulster University's Prof Paul Dunlop, one of the authors of the research, said: "This new scientific evidence is important for the for Government officials and policy makers who are dealing with the defective concrete block crisis to ensure science based solutions are at the heart of government solutions for affected homeowners.

"Its publication is also timely for the NSAI who have been calling for rigorous, independently peer reviewed scientific data for their ongoing review.

"In addition, it provides scientific information for the National Building Control and Market Surveillance Office who are tasked with market surveillance about the obvious risks for concrete failure when aggregates containing pyrrhotite are used and reinforces the need for robust surveillance of the extraction industry and concrete manufacturers."

The researchers say they have uncovered "robust scientific evidence" and accurately accounts for the phenomenon of concrete failure manifested in Donegal homes build from defective concrete blocks.

"The paper uses rigorous scientific methodologies to investigate and describe this failure mechanism for the first time in detail and outlines why mica cannot be the cause of concrete block failure in Donegal homes," they add.

The Department of Housing has been contacted for comment.

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Defective concrete blocks in Donegal 'not caused by mica', study claims

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Research published in leading international journal suggests issue has been caused by pyrrhotite

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 1

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - Source 1

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Scientific article on the Mica Crisis in Donegal. It is a reliable article.

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7. Links to resources: Kahoot lesson plan 1

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7. Links to resources: Kahoot lesson plan 1

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Kahoot quiz used to assess student understanding. Students must get at least 6/13 correct.

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Play this kahoot titled Mixture vs. Solution

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CW4: Students should be able to classify substances as elements, compounds, mixtures, metals, non-metals, solids, liquids, gases and solutions.

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Reasons we know that the Earth is round.

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - An example of a reliable source

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7. Links to resources: Lesson plan 2 - An example of a reliable source

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Example of a reliable resource from NASA on why the Earth is round.

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Earth is our home planet. Scientists believe Earth and its moon formed around the same time as the rest of the solar system. They think that was about 4.5 billion years ago.

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7. Links to resources: Video resource lesson plan 1

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7. Links to resources: Video resource lesson plan 1

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Video resource examining what mixtures are and several techniques used to separate mixtures. Engages students and easy to understand.

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What are Mixtures and Solutions? | #steamspirations #steamspiration

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2. Collaborative Planning Document Unpacking

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2. Collaborative Planning Document Unpacking