Investigating beach sand

For this investigation you will need to collect a very small amount of beach sand from your closest beach. Place some beach sand in very shallow trays. The students will be making a ‘sticky tape’ slide and then observe their slide under a microscope or magnifiers. There are ten slides in this resource which will guide the students into understand the components of beach sand and how it contains carbonate and no carbonate materials. The highlight is using drops of vinegar into a sample of beach sand and making observations to see if there is a reaction.