I was sitting on the beach the other day …watching all the activity going on around, remembering how much fun my kids had and for that matter the beach days I had as a kid when visiting my grandmother in Florida, and it occurred to me what I seeing was fun and pretty cool science experiments going on everywhere I looked!
The best thing was the kids, and parents, were just having fun, but were using their understanding of science and how a good experiment works, and were not even aware that is what they were doing?
- Where you set up and put your stuff totally depends on the tides and understanding how far it came up yesterday, the weather patterns of today.
- When you jump waves, or use your boogie board, it is one massive experiment to learn to judge the best time to jump or ride the wave in. As the day goes on, from your “experiment” you get better at it!
- Building a sand castle, or a wall, or anything in the sand is a lesson in architecture principles and the art of a good foundation. Nobody tells the kids to shore up the bottom, they figure it out. Have you ever listened to the chatter amongst kids as they work together on one of those things? Try this, lets do that.. such cool science experiments they don’t even know they are doing!
- All it takes is one storm to see what erosion can do, the beach near me has dunes half the size of two years ago due to huge storms. The signs about the importance of beach grass to the dunes is living example of science!
- Even without the storm just standing in one place in the water shows you eroision as your feet sink deeper and the sand move around you.s
- We learn about the difference between onshore and ocean breezes and why we prefer the ocean breeze… yes it is cooler, but it also keeps the black biting flies away!
- Once July comes the sea nettles show up which is a whole new topic to learn about, but in the meantime you can find all sorts of little creatures and the shells of creatures and gain some more insight.
- Hydration becomes the topic of converstaion and you feel your body needing water and how fast it loses it in the heat. I don;t know about you but youy experiment with bringing frozen watr bottle, water coolers filled with ice, should you use sugar drinks or not all become science experiments.
- Reflection of light becomes a topic to learn about for a couple of things, that famous sunburn on the back of your legs from the water, how hot the sand gets, wearing light colors and which umbrellas keeps the sun out the best.
- Finally, if you are lucky you will get to watch some dolphins swim up and down the shoreline, and that is just plain cool.
There are some cool science experiments that you could use at home this summer just as a fun activity. Science really is going on all around you, and kids really are interested!