is the overriding concern when taking
primary school children down to a rocky shore, or a rock and sand shore,
for an exploration. It is easy to have an accident on slippery rocks, and
barnacles can raise a nasty graze.
child should have at least a knowledge of the common animals found between
the tides, e.g. winkles, limpets,
cockles, hermit crabs,
starfish, crabs, sea
urchins etc. (it should be remembered that the common names in Scotland
are sometimes different). The article "What
is it?" may help the parent and teacher.
expedition can also be used to explain the working of the tides,
types of shore, how
far is the horizon? etc.
idea that you will find in books is to encourage the children to collect
a few dead seashells washed up on the strandline. The idea not in
the books is to arrange the dry shells on the school (or home) flatbed
scanner. If you collect two of each shell (or both halves of a bivalve),
both sides can come out on the final image. We would be interested in seeing
the final scan, with full details of the shore from where the shells were
collected (including the grid reference if possible).
send it to the above EMail address.
to identify the shells from a popular guide.
are also interested in photographs showing the topography of each shore
(if you go down the day before, or after, you can take a photograph at
high tide as well).
on the shore may be too much for all but the brightest pupil to take in,
but the bands of different seaweeds, limpets on rocks etc, can also make
a good photograph even with a basic snapshot camera. Shingle plants are
also easy to photograph.
Bay, Devon (Photograph by Bryan Vallance, Plymouth)
guide for Parents