LAB CLASS IN L'ESTARTIT: WORKING WITH THE SAND

THE SAND

Making a heap of sand throwing it from a height of 40 cm.

Measuring the height and the diametre of the heap of sand.

Water in Castle Beach (Platja de Castell), Palamós

Here you can see the pictures we took on 18th January at Castle Beach (Platja de Castell) in Palamós

Coordenates: Latitude 41º51'45.32"  Longitude 3º9'25.81"

              in front of the sea

 right side

 left side

    behind us

In the pictures you can see the beach "Castle Beach". It is almost virgin, with a considerable extension, surrounded by fields and forests, without any high buildings, only some old fisherman's houses. People in Palamós fought for years to ensure that this does not change.

Here are some more pictures of different materials that we found in the sand, such as plastics, seaweed, coins,...

Today in the classroom we have analyzed the sand we took from the beach of Poetto Cagliari's beach.

With the aid of a millimeter paper we were able of measuring the average diameter of each sand grain and we could observe them through an enlarger illuminated by the lamp of a smart phone.

Matteo observes the sand 

Francesco observes the sand


Then we added some drops of hydrochloric acid, the bubbles deriving from CO2 was clear, this meant that after the 2002 restoration of the beach, some chalky sand was added.

Finally we weighed the whole  sand and we measured the diameter of the resulting pyramid.

Marine species (Activity 4)

Hello! While you are finishing off activity nº3 the Sand, we are moving on to the next activity.


Activity nº 4: Marine species
Objective: create an infographic of the 10 most important species caught by the fishermen of your closest port using the ICT Piktochart >>

You will have to create an account, sign in, choose the option infographic, scroll down, choose the first template (Create your own infographic) and start editing.


Information included in the infographic:

An infographic is made by blocks, on the first block put the Title and Authors.

In the following blocks you will describe the marine species with the following information:
- Photo or some kind of illustration that allows its identification
-Common name in the local language
-Common name in English (only if local language is not English)
-Scientific name
-Percentage that represents the annual turn over
-Percentage of tonnes captured annually
-Any other information of YOUR INTEREST!

Once you have finished you can publish it and post the link provided by Piktochart on this blog to share it!

Source of data:

• Survey at the port
• Internet

(Teachers will supply you with the information about the survey, webpages and tutorial of Piktochart)

Label of the post: species

Deadline to complete the form: 7th March
Suggestion: We recommend working in teams, where every group is in charge to look up different kinds of information.

Please remember only one infographic per class!

All the best!

The S'Agulla Team

Comments from Sharky (The Water)

Hello!!!
Thank you for keeping me up-to-date with your surveys, the photos are FANTASTIC! And I'm also looking forward to see the rest!!!

Ok, you have sent some data regarding the water, so let's have a look... (data updated 14th March 2016. To see better the data click on the table and download it.)

Ups! I'm afraid that coordinates for some beaches are not quite clear. Liceo Scientifico Alberti you need to add if the latitude is north (N) or South (S) and the longitude East (E) or West (W), Institut Palamós 2B your coordinates are in the middle of the sea and Institut Palamós 2D I'm afraid that there's the longitude missing and that the tidal range is measured in meters (not ºC!)... 

You can send the data you want to correct to Carol, the coordinator of the Oceans Project. at carol@sagulla.org. She will be very happy to update the information for you!

I see that you are all in the Mediterranean Sea but depending on the location the years of maximum and minimum SST oscillation are different and....

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!! Is the Mediterranean Sea like a lake???? You hardly have tides! But is it really???????

Ok, some of you have commented on currents and winds. So let me show you how much the water moves around in the Mediterranean:

You will find more information about how this video was produced HERE>>

But if you want to know the names of these currents have a look at this figure

Reference: Talley at al. (2011) Descriptive Physical Oceanography. An Introduction. Ed. Elsevier. Chapter S8. More>>

Can you tell me the main surface current that passes by your sampling area? 
You can answer by leaving a comment on this post! (Just press where it says 'No comments' and leave a comment)

Regards,

Sharky

PS: And don't forget to post the photos of your beach if you haven't done it yet!!!

The Water in l'Estartit

On our way from Torroella to l'Estartit, through the old path

L'Estartit beach, left-hand side

L'estartit right-hand side

Les Illes Medes in front

A microplastic on the beach sand

Some macro plastics on the beach

A close image of the tide gauge located in the Port

Mr Pascual, an expert in Meteorology showing us the tide gauge installed in the Port. He has been gathering data from l'Estartit during more than 25 years, it is all published in www.meteolestartit.cat

An image of the port, with a Cormorant on the water

This is the Secchi Disk we made, even though we were not able to use without a boat.

Some example of the fish caught by some fisherman that day

Nova Marbella Beach, Barcelona

This pic is of Marbella's beach coast. ( Class B)

At the front of the beach, there is a football pitch, Agapito Fernández, but in this photo it's not well appreciated.

At the left, there are some skyscrapers, and at the end, a big solar panel.

At the right, we can see some schoolmates of Front Marítim and Boo Restaurant. At the end, there is a big sledge.

In the sand, we see some microplastics like this piece of blue plastic, and some macroplastics, like a Fanta bottle and a comb.

We can't see any fish or any water animal. We see a pigeon. We see a seagull too, but we can't take a pic of it.

 This is MarBella's Beach (Class A)

Marbella's beach is in Barcelona, in the

promenade, in the part of San Martí district, in the neighborhood of Poblenou.