​Welcome to Inside the Outdoors at Crystal Cove!

NGSS PE Supported: 5-PS3-1, 5-LS2-1

How does energy and matter move through an ecosystem? In this 4.5-hour field trip at Crystal Cove State Park, fifth-grade students explore coastal bluffs, examine the sandy beach, investigates the tide pools, and open ocean ecosystems to investigate how organisms transfer energy and matter. Students take part in food web modeling, tide pool ecology investigations, and a beach cleanup to understand human impact. They also explore how pollution moves through the food chain and discuss conservation strategies to protect marine environments​. This program helps students acquire a greater understanding and appreciation of our coastal environment. ​

Activity Stations include:

• Blufftop Station #1 - Ocean Food Web and Biomagnification - Students participate in a food chain game and explore how plastic material moves through a food web to develop an understanding of biomagnification.
  
  
• Blufftop Station #2 - Coastal Sage Scrub Energy Pyramid - Students will visit different stations to create a model showing how energy flows through living things.
  
  
• Blufftop Station #3 - Tide Pool Ecology - Students visit stations to discover how tide pools are formed and how the different intertidal zones create unique habitats. Students then classify tide pool specimens into their specific intertidal zones based on the specimens’ adaptations and physical characteristics.
  
  
• Beach Station #1 - Beachcomber - Students aide in removing plastic and other trash from the beach at Crystal Cove State Park. They classify the plastic they collect by size (microplastic, mesoplastic, and mega plastic), infer where it might have come from, and then dispose of the pollution properly.
  
  
• ​Beach Station #2 - Tide Pool Exploration - Students set out to survey the tide pools to reflect on the carrying capacity of each trophic level within the food web. ​

View the Resources pages for pre/post information. ​