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Video about Sand Dune Formation and the Rock Cycle

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Video about Sand Dune Formation and the Rock Cycle

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It looks like a snake but it's really a lizard?! Watch this video to learn why the legless lizard is actually classified as a lizard and learn how this reptile adapts to survive in the sandy coastal dune habitats at Oceano Dunes.

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Discovering The Dunes: Kindergarten - 2nd Grade Recorded PORTS Program

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Discovering the Dunes:  6-8th grade PORTS Program

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All of our online learning resources can be found in this presentation so teachers can easily share this simple one link with students!

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Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students (PORTS) Discovering the Dunes Oceano Dunes District Welcome! Park Info Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA) About Us: As an OHV or Off Highway Vehicle Park, Oceano Dunes SVRA provides a variety of recreation Where we

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Video Cover Page Full Length Program  (1)

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Discovering the Dunes: Full Length Recorded High School Program

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Snowy plovers have high breeding-site fidelity, which means they tend to return to the same location year after year to lay their eggs. We know birds return to the same sites by recording the unique combination of color bands that are placed on their legs as chicks. Here’s a banded plover that we see regularly at our park!

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Western Snowy Plover - Saving Species Together

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Join State Park Educator Sarah in learning how our sand dunes are formed, while exploring a sand dune recipe and fun song!

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Watch as this Western Snowy Plover chick hatches from its egg!

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California State Parks Western Snowy Plover

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Learn about the adaptations that allow the kangaroo rat to survive in the harsh dune environment.

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Learn a little bit more about the Western Snowy Plover, their habitat, their behavior, and what it means to be a "threatened species!"

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Meet the Western Snowy Plovers at Oceano Dunes SVRA

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Use our custom made quiz to test your students' knowledge in a fun, exciting way either before or after our program.

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Discovering the Pismo Sand Dunes Quiz - Quiz

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Free gamified quizzes on every subject that students play in class and at home. Pick an existing quiz or create your own for review, formative assessment, and more.

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Learn about this awesome endangered bird that makes its home right here in our parks!

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California Least Tern: Endangered Bird Species

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Use our custom made quiz to test your students' knowledge in a fun trivia game!

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Free gamified quizzes on every subject that students play in class and at home. Pick an existing quiz or create your own for review, formative assessment, and more.

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See first hand how a kangaroo rat can use their powerful hind-legs to survive a snake attack!

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'Ninja Rats’ Evade Rattlesnake Attacks | Nat Geo Wild

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Watch as this CA Least Tern parent feeds its chick a freshly caught fish!

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California Least Tern Feeds Chick at McGrath State Beach

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Download and Print this coloring sheet and use the Free Quiver App on your class devices to make your students' art creation come to life via Augmented Reality technology!

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We are world leading Augmented Reality specialists, providing engaging, interactive experiences that excite, educate and inspire. We create immersive coloring activities that stimulate your creativity and imagination.

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Rocks Erode to Create Coastal Sand Dunes

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Rocks Erode to Create Coastal Sand Dunes

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Check out this reach project from scientists working in the Oceano Dunes.  Scientists tracked many species of small mammals, including the Hermanns Kangaroo Rat!

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Harness the power of maps to tell stories that matter. ArcGIS StoryMaps has everything you need to create remarkable stories that give your maps meaning.

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Check out this website that features interactive 360 degree photos of the dune habitat!

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Oceano Dunes State Park is located near Pismo Beach, California along the Central Coast. Visit the dunes virtually using all devices.

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A free, printable coloring sheet featuring our very own Kangaroo Rat and Western Snowy Plover!

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Check out this video all about one of the sand dunes' most unique animals, the Oso Flaco Flightless Moth!

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Adventures At Oceano Dunes: Oso Flaco Flightless Moth

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Watch and learn about how the beautiful silver dune lupine helps the native plant community here in the Oceano Dunes. This plant has a genius adaptation called 'nitrogen fixation' that helps enrich the soil for other neighboring plants!

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Hear from State Park Environmental Scientist Ben about how he's working to restore dune habitat.

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Here is another real world example of an invasive species in California, ice plant!

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Amazing video footage from Western Snowy Plover and California Least Tern Nests in Ventura County!

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Shorebird Recovery Ventura Audubon Society

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Check out this page from NOAA Ocean! (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

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The giant bumphead parrotfish is an amazing fish that can live to be 40 years old, growing up to four feet long and 100 pounds. They use their large head bumps to literally bump heads during competitive displays, when large numbers of fish aggregate to spawn on a lunar cycle. The bumphead parrotfish excretes white sand, which it may produce at the rate of several hundred pounds a year!

The environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote, "In every curving beach, in every grain of sand, there is a story of the Earth."

Sand comes from many locations, sources, and environments. Sand forms when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over thousands and even millions of years. Rocks take time to decompose, especially quartz (silica) and feldspar.

Often starting thousands of miles from the ocean, rocks slowly travel down rivers and streams, constantly breaking down along the way. Once they make it to the ocean, they further erode from the constant action of waves and tides.

The tan color of most sand beaches is the result of iron oxide, which tints quartz a light brown, and feldspar, which is brown to tan in its original form. Black sand comes from eroded volcanic material such as lava, basalt rocks, and other dark-colored rocks and minerals, and is typically found on beaches near volcanic activity. Black-sand beaches are common in Hawaii, the Canary Islands, and the Aleutians.

The by-products of living things also play an important part in creating sandy beaches. Bermuda's preponderance of pleasantly pink beaches results from the perpetual decay of single-celled, shelled organisms called foraminifera.

Less common but no less inviting beaches, devoid of quartz as a source of sand, rely on an entirely different ecologic process. The famous white-sand beaches of Hawaii, for example, actually come from the poop of parrotfish. The fish bite and scrape algae off of rocks and dead corals with their parrot-like beaks, grind up the inedible calcium-carbonate reef material (made mostly of coral skeletons) in their guts, and then excrete it as sand. At the same time that it helps to maintain a diverse coral-reef ecosystem, parrotfish can produce hundreds of pounds of white sand each year!

So the next time you unfurl your beach towel down by the shore, ponder the sand beneath you, which, as Rachel Carson said, is telling you a story about the Earth. You may be about to comfortably nestle down in the remains of million-year-old rocks. Then again, you may soon come to rest upon an endless heap of parrotfish poop.

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Sand is measured according to specific parameters. If more than 50 percent of the material is larger in diameter than 75 microns (.03 inches) but smaller than .18 inches, it is said to be sand. If the average particle size is smaller, it is considered to be silt or clay, and if the average particle size is larger, it is garden-variety gravel.

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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The environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote, "In every curving beach, in every grain of sand, there is a story of the Earth." Sand comes from many locations, sources, and environments. Sand forms when rocks break down from weathering and eroding over thousands and even millions of years.

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How is shore form, erosion. Educational cartoon videos Raindrop

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Video about how park scientists grow native plant species!

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Video about how park scientists grow native plant species!

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Teach your students about how environmental scientists work hard to study and plant native species in the Oceano Dunes.