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The idea of building sand castles evokes images of lazy summer days at the beach, listening to waves crash, enjoying salty breezes, and just unplugging for a while to let our inner child explore the wonderful natural toys beneath our feet. The idea of exploring caves might evoke feelings and images of claustrophobia or pioneers and Native Americans surviving with the land and its resources. In the classroom, sand castles and caves can help student-scientists engage "the science behind climate science" in a deep, rich fashion and without the political undertones in the headlines. Specifically, "drip" sandcastles are wonderful models to demonstrate the way water, soil, and air/gases interact over time to create speleothems, structures that form in "soft-stone" caves through the deposition of minerals from water, like stalactites and stalagmites. From a very simple perspective, weather is what is happening outside now ("minutes and months"), whereas climate describes long-term trends. This experiential lesson presented in this article models the formation of stalactites and stalagmites, which are types of speleothems. Scientists use speleothems as a climate proxy in reconstructing climatic conditions over geologic time and have hypothesized that the more rainfall there is over a given period, the more quickly the formations develop. The lesson is the final in a series intended to help fifth-grade students develop a foundation for scale relating to geologic time (temporal magnitude)--a concept they will explore more richly in middle school when they study the history of the Earth. The lesson does not offer a conclusion on climate change but instead contributes to a foundation and framework of climate science literacy, so as students grow, they are able to ask questions that will help them analyze issues affecting the world and propose informed solutions to current or future environmental challenges.

Designing opportunities for students to discover core science concepts can be challenging, however, with a good understanding of their interests, proper planning, and the use of technology and the outdoors, students can become engaged in a way that can leave a legacy for future students. Last fall, this author designed a nine-session unit for a group of fourth and fifth graders that incorporated ecology, sustainability, problem-solving, exploration, and gaming into student-created "seQRet Treasure Hunts" through the school's outdoor learning nature preserve. In the finished product, both treasure hunters and the student-designers gained self-directed understanding of the science curriculum and became more aware of the world beneath their feet, all in an enriching learning opportunity that was designed based on a survey of individual student interests.