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Project Summary

Difficulty	1  –  3
Time required	Very Short (a day or less)
Prerequisites	None
Material Availability	Readily available
Cost	Low ($20 - $50)
Safety	No issues

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Objective

The objective is to build a model beach and see how waves affect the shoreline of the beach.

Introduction

There is nothing better than spending a sunny day at the beach. There's always a lot to do. Build a sand castle, investigate tide pools, and just relax. But have you ever wondered how the beach you are standing on came to be or if it will ever change? A beach is a geological formation made up of loose rock particles, such as sand, gravel, and shell fragments, along the shoreline of a body of water.

There are a few key parts that make up a beach. The beach berm is the part that is mostly above water. This is the active shoreline. The top of the berm is known as the crest and the part that slopes toward the water is called the face. At the bottom of the face, there may be a trough, and farther into the water there maybe one or more sandbars. At a point where the waves can't reach, the wind takes over. The wind blows the sand into features beyond the crest. These features are known as dunes.

Figure 1. Diagram of a typical beach.

Beaches are formed by the water's waves moving rock particles onshore, offshore, and along the shore. Rock particles can come from erosion of rock formations in the water, coral reefs, and erosion of headlands.

Figure 2. This is Tunnels Beach on the island of Kauai, part of Hawaii. Notice how the beach slopes down toward the water.

In this science fair project, you will make a model to investigate how water makes a beach and how headlands affect beach formation. Have fun and remember to bring your sunscreen and icy soda to your handmade beach!

Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research

• Tide pool
• Geological formation
• Beach berm
• Crest
• Trough
• Sandbar
• Dune
• Erosion
• Headlands

Questions

• What are the different parts of a beach?
• What is erosion and how does it contribute to making a beach?
• What are dunes? What are some well-known dunes?

Bibliography

• Wikipedia Contributors. (2008, September 18). Beach. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 18, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beach&oldid=239317562

For help creating graphs, try this website:

• National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). Create a Graph. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/CreateAGraph/default.aspx

Materials and Equipment

• Paint roller pan
• Sand, 50-lb bag; clean beach sand can be purchased at your local hardware store.
• Dry measuring cup
• Water
• Pencil
• Timer
• Digital camera
• Adult volunteer to help take pictures
• Ruler with millimeter markings
• Aquarium gravel (6 cups)
• Lab notebook

Experimental Procedure

1. Cover the bottom of the paint roller pan with 5 cups of sand.
2. Build up a small beach with most, but not all, of the sand at the shallow end of the pan.
3. Slowly pour 5-6 cups of water into the deep end of the pan. Let the water and sand settle for 5 minutes.
4. Take a picture of the beach so that you have a record of how it looked. Note where the shoreline is. The shoreline is where the beach and the water meet.

Figure 3. This is an example of the model beach in the paint roller pan.

5. Lay the pencil horizontally so it is floating in the deep end of the pan, along the beach.
6. Set the timer for 2 minutes. Start the timer and then quickly bob the pencil up and down in the water with your fingertips to create waves. At the end of 2 minutes, take a picture of the beach. How does it look compared to the first picture? Write down your observations in a data table, like the one below, in your lab notebook. After you are finished with the experiment, you can print out and put your pictures in your lab notebook, too. Be sure to keep track of which pictures you take match each step in the experiment.




Time	Observations	Picture
0 minutes
2 minutes
4 minutes
6 minutes
8 minutes
10 minutes




7. Repeat step 6 four more times for a total of 10 minutes of waves. Record the observations and take a picture to put in your lab notebook after every 2-minute set of waves. How does your beach change with time?
8. Empty out, clean, and dry your paint roller pan.
9. Repeat steps 1–7 two more times. Remember to record all of your observations in your lab notebook and to take pictures.
10. Use the gravel to model headlands. Empty, clean, and dry the paint roller pan. Repeat steps 1–3. Now make a mound out of 2 cups of aquarium gravel in the middle of the shoreline and again, lay the pencil horizontally, along the beach, in the deep end of the pan. The headlands should be partly in the water and partly on the beach. Take a picture of the beach so that you have a record of how it looked. Measure the shoreline to the edge of the roller pan with the ruler and record this number in your lab notebook.

Figure 4. This is an example of a model beach with headlands.

11. Set the timer for 2 minutes. Start the timer and then, with the pencil horizontal to the beach again, quickly bob the pencil up and down with your fingertips. At the end of the 2 minutes, take a picture of the beach. How does it look compared to the first picture that you took of the headlands? How do the headlands affect where the water goes? Does the water swirl more at the sides? Did the distance between the shoreline and the edge of the roller pan change? Print out the pictures for your lab notebook, to go along with all observations that you make. Record all of your data in another data table, similar to the one above.
12. Repeat step 11 five more times, until 12 minutes have gone by. Remember to take pictures and record the observations that you make for every picture in your lab notebook.
13. Repeat steps 10–12 two more times. How did the beach with the headlands change with time? How did the changes compare to the beach with no headlands?

Variations

• Either increase or decrease the speed of bobbing the pencil up and down. Does this affect how the beach changes over time?
• Use a thicker pencil or dowel to make waves and see how this affects the shoreline.
• Use a ruler to measure how the shoreline changes as a result of wave action. Measure the shoreline to the edge of the roller pan with the ruler. Measure from the edge of the roller pan to the shoreline every 2 minutes. Did the distance change because of the waves, compared to the where the original shoreline was?
• Plot your data. Make two plots, one corresponding to the beach without the headlands, and one for the beach with the headlands. Label the x-axis Time and the y-axis Distance to the Shore. If you need help making plots or would like to make them online, go to the following website: Create a Graph. Print out the pictures of how your beach changed and the observations you made. Place all of the data on a display board so that you can show everyone how beaches are made.
• Pour a large volume of water all at once into the deep end to simulate a storm surge or tsunami. What happens to the beach?
• If you're interested in a science fair project about erosion, try Riprap: It's Not Hip Hop But Erosion Stop

• For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Ocean Sciences Project Ideas.

Credits

Michelle Maranowski, PhD, Science Buddies

This science fair project is based on one found in the following science project book:

• VanCleave, Janet. Oceans For Every Kid. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1996. 92-93.

Last edit date: 2008-11-20 10:43:00

Career Focus

If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in Ocean Sciences.

Thousands of structures, like bridge supports, ocean oil rigs, and marine research equipment lie underwater and it is the job of commercial divers to maintain those structures. Using scuba gear, commercial divers do a wide variety of underwater tasks, including installing equipment and structures, conducting tests or experiments, rigging explosives, and photographing structures or marine life. Learn more about this career: Diver.