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Hey Squeaks! Welcome back from your big vacation to California!
Did you have fun?
That’s awesome!
What was your favorite part?
You really loved exploring the beach, huh?
Well that would explain why you’re still wearing that snorkel and towel…
I’d love to hear more about your trip!
Did you take any pictures?
Maybe you could share them with us so we can see what you got to experience!
Oh wow, that’s a beautiful picture of the beach!
Tell me about what it felt like when you first got there!
Oh, wow! It sounds like you used a lot of your senses all at once!
So you heard the ocean waves crashing on the beach
and you smelled the sea air?
Isn’t it amazing how loud the waves are?
You can even hear them before you see them, sometimes!
All of that water is so powerful.
And there’s nothing quite like the smell of the ocean!
What else did you do?
Oh, you felt the sand under your wheels as you were rolling along the beach?
And it felt really soft, eh?
You know, the sand you saw at the beach comes from a lot of different places…
and did you know that some of it comes from
rocks being broken down into tiny pieces.
You’re right, Squeaks.
“Soft” isn’t the first word I think of when I think about rocks, either!
But a lot of sand is made of rock!
Those crashing waves you heard when you first got to the beach
break down rocks on the shore into smaller and smaller pieces.
The waves make those pieces of rock smoother, too,
and since the sand doesn’t have sharp edges, it feels soft!
In fact, if you scoop up a handful of sand and look closely,
you’ll notice there are still some slightly bigger rock pieces in there!
And what else do you see in that handful of sand?
That’s right! There are bits of shells in there too!
Those come from creatures that live in the ocean, like clams and snails.
The water helps break those shells into smaller and smaller pieces, too!
Ah, Squeaks says he’s been to other beaches that don’t have soft sand.
And you’re right, there are a lot of different kinds of beaches!
Some beaches don’t have sand at all!
Instead, they might have big rocks to climb on,
or they might just be made of pebbles.
But the beach you went to had soft sand… oh!
Did you build a sand castle on the beach?
That’s great! Sand castles are my favorite thing to build at the beach!
What a great castle, Squeaks.
You did a really nice job with all that soft sand!
Ah, but the ocean waves eventually knocked it down?
That’s happened to me at the ocean before too.
Sometimes, a wave is so big that the water makes its way further up
onto the sand than you think it will, and knocks down all of your hard work!
But then you get to build a new castle, so that’s pretty fun, right?
Well, besides it knocking down your castle, what did you think of
the ocean water once you got to swim in it?
It’s a little bit different than water you might find in a lake or in the bathtub, right?
You’re right! The ocean can be very cold!
Not only is it cold, the water is very salty too!
That’s why you can’t drink ocean water.
It’s too salty for our bodies.
Hey, did you know that salt comes from rocks, Squeaks?
Our planet is made up of lots of different kinds of rocks and minerals.
Salt, like the kind you put on your food, is a mineral too,
and we find it in lots of places, all over the world.
Rainwater breaks off tiny pieces of the rocks and minerals,
which wash into our rivers and streams.
All rivers run into the ocean, so those tiny bits of rocks and minerals
eventually make their way to the ocean, including salt that we can taste!
And there are a lot of rivers on our planet!
Because there are so many rivers dumping salty materials into the ocean
all at once and since the ocean has been around a really,
really long time, the ocean gets saltier the older it gets!
Great question, Squeaks!
River water doesn’t taste salty because rivers are always moving,
and rivers and lakes are always being refilled with fresh,
unsalty water every time it rains or snows, which means less salt in the water.
But when the river meets the ocean,
it drops off all the salt it’s carrying, and that’s where the salt stays!
But there’s more than just salt in ocean water!
That’s right, there are animals living in that water!
So many different animals!
Marine mammals like dolphins and whales, lots of fish,
crabs, clams, the list goes on and on.
There’s so much ocean on our planet and it’s home to a lot of life!
But there are also lots of teeny, tiny animals and plants in the ocean.
So small that you can’t see them with just your eyes,
you need help from a microscope!
Squeaks! We have a friend who I know could tell us
more about the tiny creatures in the ocean!
Yes! Let’s call up our friend Grady the Tardigrade!
Well howdy, pardners!
How’re y’all doin’ today?
Hi, Grady! We’re doing great! Squeaks just got back from the beach,
and we were hoping you could tell us more about
the tiny plants and animals that live in the ocean.
Well golly! I’d be happy to!
These here varmints are known as plankton!
Plankton are very small living things that live in the water.
As you can see, there’s a lot of them.
In fact, if you scooped up a handful of ocean water,
there would be millions of these ‘lil fellers in there!
There might be more plankton in that water
than there are humans living in a big city!
But you can’t see most of them with just your eyeballs.
You’d need a microscope for that!
A microscope is a special science tool that uses lenses you can look through
to help you see things that are really small; things like me and my plankton pals!
And even though these critters are small,
they’re mighty important to our whole planet!
Some of these plankton are plants, also called phytoplankton,
which help make the oxygen that we all need to breathe,
just like the plants on land.
And some of these critters are animals, and they’re also known as zooplankton.
They eat the phytoplankton, and are also food for bigger ocean creatures.
And some of these critters are animals.
They eat the other plankton, and are also food for bigger ocean creatures.
Did you know that the blue whale, the largest animal on Earth,
mostly eats tiny plankton called krill?
They gulp down 16 tons of krill every day.
16 tons is as heavy as four elephants!
It’s amazing that there’s so much happening in the ocean that we can’t see!
Yessiree, the world sure is cool like that!
Well, pardners, I need to get back to wrangling this here herd of zooplankton!
It was great talkin’ with y’all!
Have a great day now, ya hear?
Bye, Grady! Thanks for chatting with us!
Wow Squeaks, did you have any idea all that was
happening in the same water where you were playing?
We really learned a lot about the beach today
and how you can use all of your senses to experience it!
The next time you’re somewhere new, you can use your senses
to explore that new place and help you understand it too!
For example, what new sounds do you hear?
What new scents do you smell and what’s making those scents?
What new types of plants and animals do you see?
What do these new plants or animals sound like?
And is there anything you can safely taste in the environment?
All those things and more are part of what makes a place special and unique!
Thanks for joining us here at The Fort!
If you want to keep learning and having fun with me, Squeaks,
and all our friends, be sure to hit the subscribe button.
And we’ll see you next time here at the fort!
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