20+ Ideas for Beach Weather and Water Unit Study

Is it just my kids, or do your kids absolutely love water? It doesn’t even have to be a big body of water! After a rain, they’ll head straight for the puddles, right? One summer when my kids were little, they spent hours near a little creek by a cabin in the mountains. All of these are great learning experiences, but if you have the opportunity to visit the ocean, explore the beach weather, and do a water unit study, it’s a terrific resource for all kinds of homeschool studies and integrative educational activities.

Seriously, kids can learn about biology and marine ecosystems, environmental science, beach weather coastal erosion, water quality, and conservation. You can even weave in art, literature, interdisciplinary projects, and cultural studies. Doing a beach weather and water homeschool unit study can be educational and lots of fun, as you integrate science, art, and yes, even math into your “field study” at the beach.

Folly Beach in South Carolina is a terrific location to study beach weather and water. In this post, we’ll offer ideas on how to weave different study topics into this unit study at any beach, as well as some activities and educational ideas specifically at Folly Beach. (Make sure to check out the other post in this two-part series, How to Use Sand at the Beach as a Homeschool Study.)

How to Study Beach Weather and Water in Your Homeschool

These suggestions will not only educate your homeschool class on the science behind saltwater environments but also help them integrate activities, experiments, fieldwork, and community engagement as they learn a touch of local history.

We firmly believe that studying should stoke our kids’ curiosity and help them love learning, and what better way to do that than by helping to make learning about saltwater at the beach and the dynamics of beach weather a holistic and interactive educational experience?

Science and Physics

Explore Density and Buoyancy:

• Bring a variety of different objects to the water at the beach (make sure your kids practice water safety) and test out whether they float or sink. Try testing rocks and stones of different sizes, pieces of wood, a plastic bottle versus a glass bottle, and other things your kids think of. Discuss why some objects float and others sink.
• For older students, introduce concepts like density, buoyancy, and Archimedes’ Principle, which is a law of physics that the upward buoyant force exerted on a body immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid that the body displaces.
• Have students use materials they find at the beach (or bring a boat-making kit to the beach) to try making a floating device of some kind.

Study Wave Dynamics:

• Do some study from books or online about how waves form. Look at their patterns and what kinds of conditions affect their size and formation. (For example, how the wind and air fronts affect the size of waves or the effect of the moon’s phases over tides).
• Have your older students measure wave frequency. Use your phone’s stopwatch and have them count how many wave crests (the highest points of the wave) pass in a set amount of time, such as a minute.
• Your kids can also learn about wave amplitude and the energy transfer in waves.

Learn about the Water Cycle:

• Use your time at Folly Beach to explain to your kids the process of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
• Point out how the sun heats the water, leading to evaporation. Look at the weather conditions at the beach and consider how frequently it rains (or doesn’t, as the case may be).
• You can ask your younger kids what they think ocean and beach animals, such as sea turtles or sand crabs, do when it rains.

Examine Beach Weather:

• Chart the beach weather conditions during your visit. Expand this by keeping track of the weather conditions at a particular beach for a period of 30 days. You could also look at the beach weather, highs and lows, for seven days each of the four seasons.
• Explore: How different is beach weather from mountain weather or weather on the plains during the four seasons? Have your children research to find out why the weather isn’t usually as extreme (in high and low temperatures) on beaches as it is in other locations.
• Watch videos that show the severe effects of storms, hurricanes, or tsunamis on a beach line. You can also talk about how some areas are more prone to these kinds of beach weather conditions than other locations, and study why this might be the case.
• Study what weather conditions can be dangerous and concerning on the beach and near the oceans. Talk about ways to prepare for these possibilities, as well as ways to help those affected by extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes and tsunamis.
• These weather printables might be a help as you study beach weather together.

Do Some Water Testing:

• Conduct simple experiments to test the salinity of the water at different points along the beach. Use this to discuss how salinity affects marine life and why certain species are found in specific zones.
• Look at plankton or other microscopic life forms from the beach water, understanding their role in the food chain.

Biology and Ecology

Explore Marine Life:

• Gather up signs of “life” in water at the beach. For example, look for sea creatures, shells, or seaweed—all signaling some form of life. Discuss the ecosystem, food chains, and how different species interact.
• Your kids might even try to create a small tide pool study area to observe and document the life they find there.
• Keep track of the beach weather and determine what kinds of marine animals and birds can be seen in various weather conditions.

Learn about Beach Erosion and Formation:

• Have your kids study and examine how the beach changes over time due to the movement of the water and the waves.
• Discuss erosion, sediment deposition, and how beaches are formed, as well as the concept of longshore drift.

Study Saltwater Ecosystems:

• Start with the basics of what constitutes saltwater, its differences from freshwater, and why it’s crucial for marine life.
• Have your kids learn about salinity, its effects on organisms, and the unique properties of saltwater versus freshwater.
• Ask your younger kids questions like, “If the rain that falls is freshwater, why does the ocean stay salty?” Explore and research to find the answer.

Geography and Geology

Look at Geological Features:

• Explore the beach’s geology. Look for rock types, discuss how they got there, and what they tell us about Earth’s history.
• Have your younger kids collect different types of sand or pebbles, categorize them by size, color, or type of rock (i.e. metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary).
• Consider the weathering of certain rocks, rock formations, or sand dunes. How does beach weather over time affect the local landscape?

Local Culture and History

Learn about Local Fishing Heritage:

• Explore the history of fishing at Folly Beach, how it has shaped the community, and its economic importance.
• Discuss sustainable fishing practices and look into historical settings where overfishing may have hurt a community or caused a type of fish to become endangered.

Introduce Kids to Local Wildlife:

• Folly Beach has an educational Turtle Watch Program. Do some online research to learn about the findings of this program and what they’ve learned about sea turtles through their observation and study.
• Discuss the life cycle of sea turtles, their interaction with saltwater environments, and efforts to protect these amazing creatures.

Studying Math with Beach Weather and Water

Learn about Measures and Volume:

• Fill containers or cups of different sizes with water (i.e., an 8-ounce cup and a 1-liter bottle). Then have your kids estimate how much water might be in a single wave.

• Young children can use different items to scoop water into a bucket: a spoon, a shell, their hands, a cup, a beach shovel. Guess how many scoops it will take from the different tools to fill the bucket, then count how many it actually takes.
• Have older kids measure the length of the beach, the depth of the water at different points, or the size of sand dunes. They can use these measurements for real-world math problems including area, volume, or even determining the angles of dunes from the ocean or the pier.

Introduce Statistics:

• Count different types of shells or sea creatures. Use this data to teach about mean, median, mode, and data representation using graphs and charts you’ve printed out ahead of time.

Art and Literature

Do Some Sand Art:

• Use sand to create art, discussing texture, color, and form. This can lead into discussions about land art or environmental art.
• Use pretty shells and stones you find, along with some sand, to make a “beach in a jar.”

Don’t Forget Literature:

• Bring educational books about the sea, beach weather, marine life in the ocean, or sea travel and how ships work. Read your children stories that take place on beaches.
• Discuss themes, settings, and how water is often portrayed in literature. Explore how travelers at sea used to view storms and weather, and how they prepared for problems such as storms at sea.

Take Time for Writing:

• Have your students write a creative essay or response to what they’ve learned about water at the beach.
• They can choose to focus on the importance of saltwater environments, their study at Folly Beach, what they’ve learned about marine life, local culture, or some scientific aspect of ocean water.

Safety and Environmental Awareness

Weave in Safety Lessons:

Teaching your children about water safety is essential. Start by explaining the importance of understanding currents, as these can be powerful and dangerous, pulling even strong swimmers out into deeper water.

Teach them to recognize signs of rip currents and what to do if caught in one—such as swimming parallel to the shore until they escape the current’s pull.

You can also discuss the risks of encountering certain types of marine life, such as jellyfish and sharks. Educate children on how to identify jellyfish in the water and what to do if they get stung.

Interdisciplinary Projects

Create a Beach Journal:

• Have students keep a journal of their observations, experiments, and reflections. This can include drawings, scientific notes, and personal thoughts.

Do a Beach Cleanup Project:

• Discuss how human activity affects beaches (litter, oil spills, climate change). Engage in a beach cleanup as a practical lesson in taking care of the world and practicing good stewardship.
• You can even expand it into a math and science project by calculating the volume of trash collected, discussing the materials’ impact on the environment, and planning how to reduce beach pollution.

Do a “Field Study” at Folly Beach

Spend time at Folly Beach:

Observe the natural environment. Look at the tidal pools, the beach’s edge where saltwater meets land, and if possible, visit during different tides to see how the environment changes.

• Document the types of marine life found in these areas. Use simple tools like nets, buckets, or merely observation to identify crabs, mollusks, fish, and seaweed.
• Discuss how these organisms survive and thrive in the saltwater environment.

Visit the Folly Beach Pier:

Utilize the pier for deeper insights into marine life. Here, students can learn about:

• Fishing: Understand what types of fish are caught here, why these species thrive in this environment, and discuss the ecological balance.
• Marine Biology: Observe the behavior of fish, the role of predators, and how human activity such as fishing impacts marine ecosystems.
• Bonus: Go to a seafood restaurant and enjoy some local fresh-caught fish.

Go on a Coastal Expedition:

If available, participate in one of the local coastal expeditions available at Folly Beach. (You can also simulate a program if you’re not able to make it to this beach), focusing on:

• Eco-Education: There are a variety of boat and kayaking tours available, as well as a trip to the SC Aquarium or several local museums in which your children can have fun while learning about ocean safety, marine life, and environmental stewardship.
• Salt Marsh Ecology: Study how salt marshes filter water, trap sediments, and provide habitats for various species. Discuss the importance of these ecosystems in coastal protection.
• Conservation Efforts: Engage in or discuss activities like salt marsh restoration, understanding the impact of human intervention on these delicate ecosystems.

Community Engagement & Local Educational Programs:

If you do plan on a trip to Folly Beach, make sure you look into the local sites and activities that are available, as they will offer fun and hands-on learning experiences for your whole family! For example, Folly Beach has plenty of museums, parks, and more.

Make sure you do your research so you know what local festivals and events might be happening while you’re there. Folly Beach has great historical settings and sites, such as Charles Towne Landing, Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Fort Sumter and Provost Dungeon.

Closing

By choosing some of these activities as you study beach weather and water with your children, you not only make learning engaging but also cover multiple educational disciplines in a real-world setting. Remember to respect local laws, wildlife, and environmental regulations during your studies. And have fun!