Sand Dollars

Summary
Students will understand the different species of sand dollars, its habitat and the vocabulary surrounding them.

Objectives
• Students will be able to identify a sand dollar.

• Students will learn vocabulary associated with sand dollars and their environment.

• Students will understand the basic life function of the sand dollar.

Suggested Grades
6th Grade
7th Grade
8th Grade

Excerpt
When walking on a sandy beach you may find bleached white, flattened disks called sand dollars probably so named because they look like big coins and feel like pressed sand. You are fortunate when you find one that is intact because sea gulls often peck at their middle looking for small amounts of food. Sea gulls find them, just like we do, when sand dollars are washed up on the beach or in shallow water at low tide. The skeletal remains of sand dollars are called tests, not shells. You may find tests of tiny sand dollars or larger ones up to 3-4? in diameter. Sand dollars are found on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and throughout the world in sandy or muddy seafloor bottoms. They live in shallow inter tidal waters and also in deeper parts of the ocean up to 130 feet.

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