BURREN LEARNING ECO-BEO

Eco-Beo 2009– Investing in Burren Communities 
The Burrenbeo Trust are delighted to announce the graduation of 100 new Burren experts, future guardians of the Burren! These young experts have successfully completed an intensive 20-week course on the heritage of the Burren and are now well able to interpret, communicate and help protect the heritage of their special home place.

Burrenbeo have been working since January 2009 with over 100 young Burren residents in the communities of Ballyvaughan, Doolin, Lisdoonvarna and Tierneevin.
The ‘Eco Beo’ course is a heritage education programme which opens up the Burren’s
vast and varied heritage to primary school students, giving them and their parents and
teachers a unique insight into the Burren's world famous karst landscape.

The theme of the Eco-Beo education programme is 'My Burren Heritage'. The main aim of the programme is to increase awareness and appreciation of the heritage of the Burren among the children who live in this special place, and thus to create a sense of pride, ownership and responsibility for the heritage of the Burren among the future
custodians of the landscape. The course offers each child a hands-on, fun learning experience and each child will graduate from the course with a huge bank of knowledge about the region.

Throughout the twenty week course, participants learned about various aspects of the
 Burren - its animals, plants, monuments, landscape and culture - through a series of
colourful classroom presentations. This will be complimented by weekly quizzes, e-newsletters and assignments. Professional course tutors, all of whom are experts in their individual areas, delivered each module. Students were taken on Burren field trips, where they had the opportunity to put their newfound knowledge to the test.

Burrenbeo Trust would like to thank all involved in this course including Burren Connect, Aillwee Caves, Burren Centre Kilfenora and the Cliffs of Moher Centre. The course was brought free of charge to the schools and students involved.

Eco-Beo 2008: 220 New Burren Experts Graduate from the ‘My Burren Heritage’ Programme
The future of the Burren lies in capable hands following the recent graduation of 220 new Burren experts from eight Primary schools across the Burren. Aged between 8 and 13 years of age, each one of these informed and enthusiastic graduates has completed an intensive 20 week course on all things Burren, a course which gives them to knowledge and skills to look after their special home place. Following the course, each graduate student received their experts cert.

Specific modules studied by the children included the flora, fauna, culture, conservation, agriculture, history, geology and prehistory of the Burren. Modules were delivered by local experts in the heritage field utilising colourful slides and powerpoint presentations. Module work was supplemented by the delivery of fortnightly E-newsletters containing revision work and assignments. Weekly quizzes and project work were undertaken by all participants and a full-day field trip allowed the new experts to put their knowledge to the test.

The objective of the course was to instil among the children of the Burren, the future custodians of the landscape, a sense of informed pride, ownership and responsibility for their heritage, as well as producing a fresh and fascinating insight into the region. It puts the people of the Burren back in the driving seat in terms of taking ownership of their landscape and heritage, and allows them to be part of interpreting this unique and complex place and in determining its future. Right. Burren Experts from St Joseph’s NS Kinvara relate their new-found knowledge to the RTE Newsteam in the shadow of Dunguaire Castle. To view this clip on the RTE archive, please visit http://www.rte.ie/tv/theden/news2day/news2day_20080617_av.html?2388514,null,228

Burrenbeo want this course to be the best heritage education programme of its kind ever rolled out in Ireland, as befits a place as special as the Burren. Furthermore, we would like to see this course becoming an integral part of the primary school curriculum for all primary school children in the Burren as it complements the existing curriculum but enhances its delivery by grounding it in the local landscape and heritage.

Go Raibh Maith Agaibh…
The Eco-Beo course was co-coordinated and delivered by Burrenbeo as part of its non-profit work in the Burren. Burrenbeo wish to sincerely thank all the schools and teachers involved in the course.  Burrenbeo would like to acknowledge the support of the Burren Connect Project for Eco-Beo 2008. Prizes for outstanding achievement were awarded courtesy of Aillwee Caves, The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience and The Burren Centre in Kilfenora. We would also like to thank ENFO  Dublin for additional prizes.

Burrenbeo would like to sincerely thank course tutors Zena Hoctor, Gordon D’Arcy and John Murphy for their brilliant work throughout course.. Burrenbeo is a non-profit organization and we would like to thank members of the Burren Business Network for their support in this work – local businesses who support their local community and who deserve your support please see business listings on www.burrenbeo.com If you are interested in this course, or if you want to give us any feedback from the course, please let us know on info@burrenbeo.com. For more info on the Eco-Beo course, please visit www.burrenbeo.com/learning-ecobeo-links.aspx    

The primary schools that participated in the 2008 programme are Kinvara N.S., Kilnaboy N.S., New Quay N.S., Corofin N.S., Kilfenora N.S., Doorus N.S., Kilshanny N.S., Boston N.S. and Tubber N.S. The Burren Connect Project is presently seeking additional funding to extend the course to other Burren schools in 2008 and 2009.

Below please find some resources from the Course. These include copies of the newsletters and also some useful pictoral checksheets on various themes. Just click on the link to download and print.