Engaging Children in STEAM - Sand Castles!

My daughter compacting the sand in the bucket to make her sand castle

My daughter, like many other kids, loves to build sand castles in her sandpit or at the beach. She loves building sand castles and then knocking them down. 

This is another perfect opportunity to expose your children to STEAM learning dispositions!

 

Building sandcastles is not only super fun and creative, it is also inadvertently teaching kids about important engineering concepts like moisture content and compaction.

My daughter made her own little sand structure!

My daughter is only 2 so does need some help making the sand castles but as I am making them I explain what I'm doing and why and occasionally she does manage to make one all by herself!

While your children are building their sandcastles talk to them about the moisture content and compaction saying they are being like a road builder.

Talk to your kids about how if the sand is too dry or too wet the sandcastle will fall over. You need to have just the right amount of water in your sand to make a strong sandcastle.

Check out this video by Science Max that shows how to make a super strong sandcastle!