Biodiversity Beachcombers

Biodiversity Beachcombers focuses on the beach and the things that live there. It also looks at the physical nature of the beach and the impact that the difficult conditions can have on life there.

This is a series of 'linked' activities that can be used in sequence or chosen from a lucky dip at the seaside.

Before the activity

Discuss with the children what they understand by biodiversity, ask them to help to complete a list poem based on biodiversity . They need to think of a name of a living thing for each letter of the word BIODIVERSITY and something about each thing they think of. Get them thinking about different animals, plants, mini-beasts, even people! Take a look at the notes below to get some ideas about biodiversity.

Biodiversity is a word, introduced in 1985, that covers all living things and their habitats. It includes mammals, birds, insects, trees, flowering herbs, grasses, mosses and lichens as well as the communities and habitats (ecosystems) in which they live. It includes not just the total number of species, but also the genetic variation within species, and the variability of the natural living systems in which they live.

What does biodiversity include?

Biodiversity is all living things, from the tiny garden ant to the giant redwood tree. You will find biodiversity everywhere, in window boxes and in wild woods, roadsides and rain forests, snow fields and the sea shore. We are part of biodiversity and depend on it for our quality of life.

'Biodiversity is the living bank that everyone should invest in.'

Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report

Why is biodiversity valuable?

'Biological diversity is the key to the maintenance of the world as we know it. This is the assembly of life that took a billion years to evolve. It created the world that creates us. It holds the world steady.'
Professor Edward Wilson

All quotes are from the publication Biodiversity For All: A Toolkit - Published by the Scottish Biodiversity Group.

Biodiversity on the beach

Begin with a walk to the water's edge. Try and go barefoot, but wear wellies if it is too cold! Stand in a line and let the water wash over your feet, play around in and out of the water. Take a little time to watch and experience the seaside.

Look out to sea. Who lives in the sea? What about above the sea?

Do you think it is difficult living on the edge of the sea? What challenges are there? Think about storms, tides, pollution. Where does your food come from, and could you be eaten by something else?

Look back on to the land. Who lives there? What challenges do they have to meet? Think about the difference between the sea and the shore. They are quite different and they are separated by a clear boundary at the water's edge. But some forms of life can still cross over. This means that boundaries are constantly changing and the different communities on each side are always affecting each other. This is an important aspect of biodiversity.

Gather into groups of three or four and have one child in each simply gather some words - how does it feel, what can they see, what can they hear, what can they smell! Write some of them down so you can use them later in the classroom to help with your BIODIVERSITY poem. You can also use them for descriptive passages and to create word collages.

Biodiversity across and within the species

Look for four different natural objects along the strandline. Take a good look. Lift up some seaweed and look for sandhoppers, try and catch one and have a look at it in your bugbox.

Gather everyone together to share the finds in a collage or graph on the sand. The different objects show diversity across species, which is an important aspect of Biodiversity.

Choose one of the most common shells and look for more the same. Look at it carefully, compare it with your neighbour. Are they really the same? If not, then how are they different?

Collect these shells, put them in a bag and then see if they can identify 'your' shell. The smaller differences between things that initially look the same, show diversity within species. This is another important aspect of Biodiversity.

Make a sand dune

If it is a very windy day take a moment to watch how the sand travels across the surface of the beach. Try 'trapping' the sand by building a tiny sand wall. You can build a mini sand dune this way. But for a more stable sand dune you need something to trap the sand and hold it. Marram grass can do this with its spreading roots and tough stems. Try and find something on the beach that can act like marram grass and trap the sand. This demonstrates 'accretion'. If you break a section of your mini dune, especially if you take the sand trap away, then you will see 'erosion' of the dune.

Ask the class to find evidence of accretion and erosion across the beach and in the dunes. How could they measure this over time?

Speck of sand game

Spread out across four zones: foreshore, strandline, backshore, dunes.

Explain the rules:

You are a sand grain. This is your big opportunity to make it as a permanent sand grain living in the sand dunes and protected by the vegetation there.

Someone shouts one of four commancds:
'onshore', an onshore wind blows you three giant-steps towards the dunes. When you shout 'offshore', an offshore wind blows you three giant-steps towards the sea.
'rain' then crouch down still - wet sand doesn't move!

'storm' everyone on the foreshore runs back to the sea edge of, the backshore returns to the foreshore and anyone in the dune area who is at the end of a link also has to return to the foreshore.

Once you get into the dunes link up with the chain of people who are already there. You are safe in the dunes, protected by the vegetation.

Additional instruction: If you shout out 'motorbikes in the dunes' anyone in the dune area has to return to the strandline.

Sand Castles

Build sand castles in three different areas the dry sand, the shoreline and the wet sand. Which sandcastle is best? Which sandcastle slips and collapses? Can you make a tunnel? Which sand makes the best tunnel? Will the animals living in the sand experience the same problems? Where do you think they would choose to build their house? How might they have adapted the way they burrow?

Suggested follow-up:

Use the shoreline activity sheet to reinforce understanding of the different sections of the shore, encourage the children to add any other details to their beach picture.

Make a beach table

Make a beach table at school. Collect a bucket of sand and spread it on a table, place the objects collected from the beach along the strandline on the sand, creating a natural effect.

Take a small sample of the beach sand, and set it up for everyone to see under a microscope. If you have a chance, obtain a sample of shell sand (from the West coast or garden centre) for comparison.

Use reference books to identify the natural things that you found on the strandline. You could find shells, seaweed, egg cases, cuttlefish, crabs, feathers and much more. Wash anything that might get smelly.

Make drawings of the different animals and create a display.

Design a seaside t-shirt

From natural items collected at the beach and any seaside pictures available ask the children to complete the following exercise:

• Stage 1: In pencil, draw the items - looking at line and pattern (on the shells). Share the items around the class so that everyone has 3 or 4 drawings. Mount all the drawings on one sheet.
• Stage 2: With 3 or 4 colours of felt pen (designs can be stronger with fewer colours), copy a drawing. Make the shapes simpler and repat patterns you like. Play with the images to explore different ideas.
• Stage 3: Cut out a card picture frame. Use it to select the bit of the drawing you want to use as your design.
• Stage 4: Scale up the selected area and make it into a design you can print on a t-shirt.
• Stage 5: Mount all the drawings onto large sheets of paper.
  Describe what you did with notes, why did some colours or pattersn work better?

Transferring your design onto a t-shirt: scan the image into the computer and print onto special transfer paper that you can iron onto t-shirt fabric.

Downloads

These downloadable materials are in pdf format. Get Adobe Reader if you have difficulty viewing these documents.