Seashore Resource

1. Tips for field trips

The beach and estuary are great places to take your class on a field trip.

Below are some tips to help make the most of your class adventure.

Before the field trip visit the shore yourself

• Is it easy to get to?
• Are there any problems or hazards like drains children could fall into?
• Check out the common species - crabs, shellfish, barnacles and so on. This will help you provide relevant material for the class.

Check the tide times!

• You must time your visit around the low tide.

Be prepared

• It can be both very hot and very exposed at the beach. Everyone will need a sun hat and sunblock, sandals if the rocks are sharp and a sweat shirt if the wind gets up.

Take some icecream containers

• Filled with seawater they are very useful to put specimens in. Then the children can observe animals like sea urchins, which will put out their tube feet if left undisturbed for a time.
• Remember to put the creatures back at the end of your visit.

Remember the Seashore Code

• Respect the natural environment and the plants and animals that live in it.
• Look first - hold gently.
• Look under the rocks - but turn them back the way you found them.
• Don’t leave animals in containers for too long or in the sun.
• NEVER take living animals back to the classroom. They will die.
• DO have fun, watch the waves and take your rubbish home!

(Go to Marine Reserves - Rules page to learn about the Care Code and Laws within a marine reserve.)

Make the most of the field trip

There is a great variety of different seashores, sandy, muddy or rocky, sheltered or exposed to the waves, and on every shore, conditions vary from the high tide to the low tide mark. So every seashore provides different homes for different species. You may be able to show your pupils animals like barnacles, which are cemented on to the rocks and can resist the crashing waves, pipis and cockles which avoid the waves by burrowing in the sand, or sea anemones, which withdraw their tentacles to avoid drying out when the tide uncovers them. Imagine if we humans tried to live between the tides! How do plants and animals adapt to living on the seashore?