Phineas and Ferb Science: Build A Beach

We were all very excited to start our Phineas and Ferb Science class again after quite a long break!  Today we watched episode 2 1/2- Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror.  In this episode the boys build a real beach right in their backyard.  So after watching the episode we had a lesson on beaches, how they are formed and the parts of a beach using a lesson we found on the Science Buddies website.  The kids split in to teams and defined these words (here on the blog):

tide pool- a pool of water remaining after the tide has retreated

geological formation-  a geological features of the earth

beach berm- a nearly horizontal plateau on the beach face

crest- The top, as of a hill or a wave

trough- A long narrow depression, as between waves or ridges

sandbar- A ridge of sand formed in a river or along a shore by the action of the waves ad currents

dune- A mound or ridge of sand or other loose sediment formed by wind

erosion-  The process by which the surface of the earth is worn away by the action of water, glaciers, winds, waves.

headlands-  A high point of land or rock projecting into the sea.

Then they continued to work with their partners to answer these questions (here on the blog):

What are the different parts of a beach?  beach berm, crest, face, trough

What is erosion and how does it contribute to making a beach?
Erosion is the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth's surface by natural process like wind or water flow and then transported and deposited in other locations. How it makes a beach is by knocking rocks, shells, and other materials together, creating sand. 

What are dunes and what are some well-known dunes?  Dunes are mounds of sand or dirt or gravel formed by wind.  Some famous dunes are Kill Devil Hills and White Sands National Park.

The last task for today was for the kids to come up with a plan for how to build a small-scale model of a beach and draw up their plans with labels.  Here's what they came up with:

Next time we will be using the Science Buddies lesson to build a working beach model that we can use to investigate how different types of waves effect the beaches.