Sand Dunes Nina and the Neurons: Earth Explorers

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

-# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

-Yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Oh, yay. Oh, hello.

I've just boiled egg and I knew how long to boil it for

because I used this egg timer.

You turn it over, and when all the grains of sand have

run from the top to the bottom, your egg is ready.

It's very clever. And now I have the perfect egg.

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask?

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

-Hi.

-We've got a question for you.

-How are sand dunes made?

That's a great question. How are sand dunes made?

We sometimes see sand dunes at the beach, and they're fun to climb up,

but how are they made?

Come down to my workshop and we'll investigate.

-ALL: See you soon, Nina. Bye.

-Bye.

Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one

and I know just who to ask. OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is, how are sand dunes made?

Which Neuron do you think would be most useful in finding the answer?

-ALL:

-Me, me, me, me.

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

-Will it be beautiful Belle?

-I send messages to brain from ear.

If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy and you can't tell,

-my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet,

I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat.

It's Felix.

ALL: Go Felix, go Felix, go Felix, go Felix, go Felix, go Felix!

Marvellous.

A little touch can mean so much, Nina.

Today's question is how are sand dunes made?

Because sand feels lovely on our feet,

Felix, our touch Neuron, will be helping us today.

Stand by, Neurons, I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the explorers arrive.

Joanna likes ponies, May likes pretending to be a princess

and Jamila loves being pushed on a swing,

but they all want to know, how are sand dunes made?

I like playing with sand.

Sometimes it's flat, sometimes it's bumpy.

What are sand dunes?

So today, for one day only, Joanna, May and Jamila become

the explorers.

-Hi, guys.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop and thank you for your great question.

How are sand dunes made? Let's start by using our senses.

Woo, woo, a senses experiment. We're ready, Nina.

To find out more about sand dunes, first,

let's take a look at some sand.

Let's have a look at it. Let's have a feel.

-What does it feel like?

-Gritty.

-Yes, it does feel gritty.

I wonder what it looks like under the Nina-cam.

It looks like tiny rocks.

It does and that's because sand is actually tiny bits of rock.

Now, let's have a look at these pictures of some sand dunes.

Someone must have needed a giant bucket and spade to make that.

-How are they made?

-Let's try and make our own sand dunes to find out.

-So here we have some sand and is it bumpy or flat?

-Flat.

Yes, at the moment, it's flat. There are no sand dunes.

So we need something to move the sand and blow it into a sand dune.

-So, what would normally blow sand outside?

-Wind.

-Yes, wind.

But we're inside, so we don't have any wind

but we do have these hairdryers.

Time to turn them on.

The sand is really being blown about by our pretend wind.

Time to turn it off.

Let's have a look at the sand. What can you see?

Tiny sand dunes.

Yes, our pretend wind has blown the sand and moved it.

But some of the sand has got stuck around tiny stones

and made bumpy dunes. Real sand dunes are made in the same way.

A gigantic sand dune bigger than a building starts off

as a little bump around tiny stones just like this.

How big can a sand dune get, Nina?

Well, let's go somewhere really sandy to find out.

On the road again. I really enjoy our trips with Nina.

Nina said we're going somewhere really sandy.

Oh, oh, maybe we're going to play in a giant sandpit.

Or taking a trip to the desert. There's nothing but sand there.

Well, you can stop guessing, everyone. We're here.

In order to answer your question - how are sand dunes made? -

we've come to somewhere really sandy. The beach.

ALL: Yay.

So far, we know that sand dunes are big mounds of sand that have been

blown by the wind and we also know that they can get very, very big.

But just how big? Have a look at this one.

-It's really big.

-Shall we run up it?

-ALL:

-Yes.

Remember, sand dunes are fun

but make sure you've always got an adult with you when you play on them.

If there's a path on a sand dune, you should stay on it

because it helps protect the sand dune.

Oh! This really is a big sand dune.

Now, can you put your hands onto the sand for me?

-Can you feel the sand being blown and moving around your hands?

-Yes.

Just like our experiment in the workshop, the wind is blowing

the sand from the beach and making this big sand dune.

-Why is the sand dune so big, Nina?

-That's a great question.

Well, let's do an experiment to find out right after

we run back down again.

We know this is a safe sand dune, so it is OK to run down it.

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

So we're going to try and make the biggest sand dune we can.

-So, what do we need to make a sand dune?

-Sand and wind.

-That's right.

And we've got plenty of sand, we just need some more wind.

Oh, I know, we can pretend our hands are the wind moving the sand.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Well, the sand dunes aren't getting very big.

-The sand keeps falling down the sides.

-All fall down!

Well done, everyone,

but our sand dune didn't get quite as big as that sand dune, did it?

-No.

-No, and that's because the sand on our dune kept falling down.

Have a look at this.

When the wind blows sand onto a real dune, it gets bigger.

The back of the dune gets more sloped than the front of the dune

and eventually, the sand at the back falls down.

Have a look at the sand dunes on the tablet.

-What do you notice?

-They move.

Yes, they get bigger and bigger and more and more sloped

and eventually, the back of the dune falls down.

There must be something stopping the sand on that big dune

from falling down.

What do you notice at the top of the sand dune?

-ALL: Grass.

-That's right.

There's grass growing at the top of the sand dune.

So maybe that makes that sand dune a bit different.

Let's go back to the workshop for one final experiment to find out.

We all have two trays in front of us

and they both have sand in them, but one has cress growing in it,

a bit like the grass growing on the sand dune we saw.

We can see there's grass growing on the top

and there's grass at the back.

We're going to tip up our trays so they look like the bigger slope

at the back of a sand dune.

What do you think will happen to the tray with the sand in it?

-It'll fall down.

-Well, let's see.

Tipping it up higher and higher, well done, you were right.

The sand has moved and it's fallen down.

So pop your trays back down, girls.

Now, let's tip up the tray with the cress growing in the sand. OK?

On to the cress.

Higher.

-Wow!

-Well, that's amazing.

It stayed in exactly the same place.

The sand hasn't moved at all, and that's because the cress plants

are keeping it still, so it doesn't fall down.

All plants have roots like these, so they can grow. And plant roots

become really tangled and they stop the sand from moving.

That's why the big sand dune that we saw hadn't moved at all.

Wow, plants are really strong. They can hold a giant sand dune up.

Well, their roots can, Bud.

Sometimes people plant things in sand dunes

to stop them moving so they stay on the beach. Lots of animals

and creatures live on sand dunes, so it's important that we protect them.

# Nina and the Neurons. #

So, your question was, how are sand dunes made?

And I think we've answered it.

Sand dunes are big mounds of sand that have been blown by the wind.

The more the wind blows, the higher the sand dunes get.

As the dune grows,

the sand at the back falls down and the sand dune moves along.

But plants growing on sand dunes can stop them from moving.

Which means the sand dunes stay where they are

and we can enjoy them. Hooray!

So, I hope that's answered your question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye.

You're welcome, bye.

If you want to know more about the science that's all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun.

# Every day the sun comes up it brightens up the sky

# A brand-new day to understand

-# A chance to ask ourselves why

-Why?

-# There's a world of possibilities outside our front door

-Front door

# So every day take a look around and explore

-# Explore,

-explore,

-explore

-explore

-# Exploring in the garden

-Grass

-exploring in the park

-Rivers

-# Exploring in the daytime

-Mountains

-And even when it's dark

-Planets

# Look at the Earth look at the sky Look at the world before us

-# Explore,

-explore,

-explore,

-explore

# We're always on the lookout

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh o-oh

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh o-oh

# We're Earth explorers. #

Exploring is about looking at the world around us,

asking why and finding out the answer.

Whether it's deep underground, at the end of your playground

or way above the clouds, keep exploring our exciting world.

See you again soon. Bye.

ALL: Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd