I like your fun examples and sandcastle!
You can see osmosis with Umibudo (sea grapes.) The umibudo are packed in super-salty water, which makes them shrivel by osmosis. When you rehydrate them in fresh water, you can see them swell up as the water rushes in by osmosis. Osmosis before your eyes!
membrane = like a filter with holes of a fixed size. Only water molecules are small enough to pass. Salt molecules are too dense/large....can't pass through. That's how membrane filtration works.
@TomahawkH