When: All year, depending on docent availability
Where: Half Moon Bay State Beach (95 Kelly Ave, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019)Who: K-12. Younger children may accompany, but should stay besides their parents.
Cost: Free, but $1/child donation suggested.
Through God's providence, our group's third field trip with the Half Moon Bay State Park rangers took place on one of the hottest days of summer (You can read about our first and second trip, as well as see the full range of programs). When we arrived at 10am, there was still fog as in the picture above, but within half an hour it had burned up.
We started with safety protocols (no collecting on state beaches, don't turn your back on the waves because of rip currents) before walking down to the sand. We were asked to ponder the challenges of living in a beach biome, e.g. sparse vegetation, drastic changes 4 times/day due to low and high tides. The rangers then set up 4 hoops and we were given 5 minutes to scavenge for items, and classify them by putting them into the corresponding hoops.
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| Before the hunt: Hoops labeled Animal, Plant, Mineral and Man-Made |
5 minutes later, we were back with our 'treasures' such as kelp, sea shells, and even a sock. We placed them into the hoops and stepped back to survey the results.
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| After the hunt: Man-made wins (sadly). Animal hoop not pictured, but it only contained a few shell fragments. |
More than anything, this activity underscored our responsibility to be good stewards of the earth. The beach had not looked very 'junky', but the man-made objects were more than all the other hoops combined.
The rangers used the specimens in our hoops to talk about interesting adaptations, e.g. sea plants like kelp get nutrients from the water since there is no soil, and they have structures called holdfasts instead of roots.
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| The 'bumps' are holdfasts - unlike roots, these don't take in nutrients; also, they may keep growing after the kelp has died(!) |
Our next question to ponder was: What is sand made of? Our group quickly guessed small bits of rock, but it was not so obvious that sand also contains plant and animal remains. Still, that's not all - we are now learning about the prevalence of micro-plastics, and there are even maps documenting which beaches have the most micro-plastics.
The rangers then demonstrated a test for micro-plastics, using a large (10ftx5ft) screen.
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| Start with a shovelful of sand onto the screen |
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| Tilt the screen from left to right - the static attracts microplastic bits |
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| Crowding to see the bits left. HMB State Beach is relatively clean. |
Having searched for 'foreign' objects, we turned our attention to the animals and plants living on the beach. Like last time, we were given 'naturalist necklaces' and walked along the area where we might find them. This is a natural time to introduce terms like 'beach berm' and 'beach wrack'.
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After the walk, the ranger introduced specimens of different invertebrates, e.g. boring clams, mussels and groups of students then drew and tried to classify boxes of mixed invetebrate specimens.
The final activity was an exemplary model of a STEAM lesson - students created two beach models using sand and small plastic plants and animals, then adding just enough water to one's tide line. From the engrossed silence, we could tell they would have been happy to spend the entire field trip just building and rebuilding their models.
Both models were then connected using a tube, and water from the higher beach was siphoned to the other. This was a visual of how a beach may be experiencing high tide, while at the same time another experiences low tide.
The parents in our group really appreciated this activity - students got splendidly messy but clean-up was simple: pouring out the sand a few feet away onto the beach, and washing the trays. Even better, we could tell how vividly the lessons stayed in their mind because days later, they are still talking about it. The rangers recommended Donald Silver's "One Small Square (Seashore) as follow up.
Learning may seem natural for children, especially outdoors where they can see science in action. Yet, we homeschoolers know that leading a lesson where the learning flows 'naturally' takes lots of work. Each time we take these field trips, we are thankful for the rangers and volunteers who pour in their time and creativity creating them, then leading them with grace and enthusiasm. Thank you for all you do for our students!
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