South Shore's Outing to Edmonds Beach Marine Sanctuary

<< Trip Reports click to return to the list of our trips.

Team:

South Shore K-8

Date:

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Trip Types:

Beach Walk, Educational

Plan:

There will be a -1.7 tide on Saturday, the 18th, which creates ideal circumstances for taking students on a trip to explore marine life in the inner-tidal zone.

9:30 AM meet at SSES, have everyone introduce themselves, review permission slips, explain our planned trip, hand out clothing as may be needed.

10:00 board the vans, and drive up to Edmonds.

10:30 arrive at Edmonds Olympic Beach Visitor Station. Offer the kids a snack.

10:45 enjoy a preliminary walk along the tidelands, let the kids explore, until the ranger/naturalist arrives.

1:30 introduce kids to Edmonds beach rangers, who will teach the kids about the marine animals and plants in the inter-tidal zone along the marine sanctuary.

1:00 (approx) enjoy a picnic lunch at Olympic Beach park (or nearby Yost Park in Edmonds as a back up, if picnic space unavailable Olympic Beach)

3:15 (approx) get back in the van and return to SSES

3:45 (approx, depending on traffic) arrive back at SSES. Talk about the trip, what we saw and what we learned.

4:00 parents pick up kids at the school

Report:

The low tide on Saturday, May 18th, was minus 1.7 at 11:30 AM, which was an ideal time, and adequate to expose a good portion of the tide lands. The weather forecast was for clouds and light rain, but fortuitously the sun emerged around 9AM, so we enjoyed blue skies and mild temperatures the entire time we were on the beach... We had ideal conditions for taking students out to explore marine life in the inner-tidal zone.

9:15 AM - ICO leaders and agency leader arrived at SSES, awaiting the students
9:30+ AM - by 9:45, 11 students had arrived; the 12th student was a no-show, and didn't respond to phone calls. We had a brief snack, while discussing our outing and explaining why we have minus tides (in fact, one of the kids who went on this trip last year remembered why we have minus tides). We then loaded up the van.
10:50 AM - we arrived at the parking lot for Olympic Beach in Edmonds. The tide was still on it's way out. Our ranger naturalist (Karen) from the Edmonds Park dept was already there, waiting for us.
11:00 AM - the kids gathered around Karen, she talked about the marine sanctuary, and explained how to properly pick up tide pool critters. We then headed out to the tide pools, Karen pointed out a breadth of plant and animal life forms for the kids, explaining their life cycles, the micro-habit they occupy in the tidal zone, how they protect themselves,and how they fit into the food chain. Some of these kids also went on last year's tide pool trip, and they wasted no time in venturing out, exploring under rocks, and picking up critters. For other kids, this was a new experience, they were a bit cautious at first, but soon were just as eager to explore ...the kids had plenty of questions, as well as a full range of reactions: everything from "oh cool" to "oh yuk." Karen was very helpful in answering their questions.
12:00 PM - our guided tour with Karen lasted only one hour, but the kids wanted to stay on the beach for another hour and a half, to continue exploring.
1:30 PM - we finally got the kids to come up off the beach for lunch. Some of the kids running down to the beach, between bites of their sandwiches.
2:20 PM - low tide was at 11:30, so by nnow the water had already come in quite a ways. We cleaned up everything from our lunch, then drove over to Yost Park in Edmonds (~1 miles from the marine sanctuary). Some kids played on the swing set and slide, while we took other kids on a very short hike along the nature trail in the park.
3:20 PM - we loaded everyone in the van, and headed back to the school.
3:55 PM - arrived back at SSES, the students collected things and departed.

Overall, the kids had a great time... Several said they would've preferred to stay ALL day, several also wanted to know when was our next trip.

Suggestions:

As has been the case with all the Edmonds ranger-naturalists for these trips, Karen was excellent with the kids.

Because low tide was 11:30, we opted to start the trip a little later than usual, on the chance more kids would show up, after having the chance to also sleep in on Saturday morning ...and we need get slightly better participation than in past years.