Snow Science

If you've got antsy kids at home and another week of vacation time to fill, here are a few more ideas to keep them busy, having fun and learning!


Activity #1 - How Much Water is in Snow?

If you're finding yourself with an abundance of snow.... perhaps you'll want to perform some investigations. 

The amount of water snow contains can very greatly, depending upon the snow. 

Gather a set amount of snow... I collected approximately 500 ml of snow.

Allow the snow to melt - if you'll be allowing it to sit for an extended time, you may wish to cover it to minimize the amount lost to evaporation. 

My 500 ml of snow yielded slightly less than 50 ml of water.  This was a very dry, powdery snow. 

If you live in a place that gets snow throughout the winter, you might want to repeat this activity with each snowfall and see how they vary in water content.


Activity #2 - Learn About Snowflake Bentley

Wilson Bentley was the first man to photograph individual snowflakes, in 1885.  He's the person who determined that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.  A fascinating man, indeed.

Start your research at the Official Website of Wilson A. Bentley.  You'll find a brief biography there, and some wonderful, printable images of his photographs. I printed
 out the collection and laminated them for my students to look at and admire.

For a more thorough biography, and one to share with your students, check out Snowflake Bentley.  It's a picture book intended for children.  The biography is written as a story, with a lot of factual information in the margins - you can decide how much to share based on your students.


For your own knowledge, you may want to read The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley.  I haven't read the whole book, but have read an excerpt.  You can probably get it through your library system.

Two other books that look interesting are Snowflakes in Photographs and Snow Crystals. I'm not familiar with either book, but they are both collections of Bentley's images.  Again, it might be worth looking for these at the library before investing.

Activity #3 - Make Sparkly Snowflakes

This is a fun, artsy-craftsy project in which students can learn about solubility, super-saturated solutions and crystal shapes.

Make a super-saturated solution of Borax and water:
--Fill a jar with hot water (boiling is best).
--Add Borax, a little at a time, until no more will dissolve (you'll know you're there because instead of dissolving the Borax will settle to the bottom)

Use pipe cleaners and thread to make a snowflake.

Attach a piece of thread to the snowflake.

Place the snowflake in the Borax solution and leave for several hours or overnight.

In the morning, you'll have a beautiful, sparkling snowflake, covered with large crystals.

If you'd rather not make snowflake shapes, you can shape the pipe cleaner into stars or other shapes.  You could also just place a straight pipe cleaner into the solution.

The pipe cleaner works well because all the fuzz on it gives the crystals nice places to attach, and thus works much better than just a string.  (Which may explain why all my attempts at making rock candy as a kid were met with utter failure (and a sticky mess)).


Safety Note: The Borax and the finished snowflake should come nowhere near the mouth.


Activity #4 - Learn About the Coldest Places on Earth!

Check out the National Snow & Ice Data Center, where you can learn more about some of the coldest places on Earth!  There are lots of neat pictures in the photo galleries

Tsunami!: Tsunami Demonstration

Tsunami! is the story of

If you're feeling ambitious, you can make a very cool tsunami demonstrator following the directions found here. 

If you're not up for such a task, you can make simpler models using 2 liter soda bottles.  While this simpler model probably doesn't have the same impact as the fancier versions, it does have the added bonus of allowing students to take part in its construction and manipulation.

Fill the 2 liter bottle with about 2 inches of gravel.  (I used sand because I had it on hand, but gravel works MUCH better).

Then pour about 250 ml of water (about 1 cup) into the bottle.  Cap it tightly.

Gently lower the bottle to its side, so the gravel forms a slope at the end of the bottle (you'll see that the sand doesn't work so well at this point, in the picture below).  The gravel slope represents the sea floor and then the beach.  The water represents the ocean.

Use the palm of your hand to smack the bottle cap (i.e. the end of the bottle opposite the gravel slope), to generate a wave.

Observe the wave formation and the way it crashes upon the gravel.  Also note the way the water sloshes around on the gravel following its initial crash - the danger of a tsunami extends beyond the initial landfall. 

Atmosphere: Play Doh model

Begin with 5 (or 4, if you take your photographs without going back and looking at your own directions... sheesh) equal sized balls of Play Doh.  Color is unimportant in this model. 

Place one ball on a piece of wax paper, this is the troposphere. 

Place a heavy book on top of the Play Doh.

Place another ball of Play Doh on top of the book, this is the stratosphere.

Place another heavy book on top of the Play Doh. 

Continue alternating balls of Play Doh and heavy books until you've accounted for the 5 layers of the atmosphere. 

Then unstack the books.  You'll find that as you move closer to the Earth (the bottom of the stack), the layers become thinner.

Tornado: Make Your Own Tornado Tube

I'm sure many of you have seen the little tube/connectors you can use to connect two 2-liter soda bottles to make a tornado tube.  Like this:


I've wondered at various times, whether one could create the tornado tube without that little plastic connector, which I don't happen to possess, and while quite inexpensive, have never gone ahead and purchased.

I was pleased to find instructions for creating my own tornado tube in Janice VanCleave's 202 Oozing, Bubbling, Dripping, and Bouncing Experiments.

The materials you'll need:
--a flat metal washer - one that's the same size as the mouth of the bottles
--duct tape
--two 2-liter soda bottles

Fill one of the bottles half-way with water (feel free to add a little food coloring and/or glitter, if the mood strikes you).

Dry the mouth of the bottle well.  Place the washer over the mouth of the bottle.

Place the second bottle upside down, on top of the washer.

Tape the bottles together with the duct tape - don't skimp, make sure things are secure!

Turn the bottles upside down.  With one hand on the top bottle and the other on the bottom, move the top bottle in a small circle.

Set the bottles down and watch the tornado vortex form.

I was pleased with how well the tornado formed.  However, despite my best taping effort, some water leaked out every time we used it.  If it's something you're going to do repeatedly, it's probably worth a couple bucks for the special coupler.  If it's likely a one-time thing, this definitely works and is less "stuff" to have around the house.

Weather: How Much Air is Pushing on You?

The air all around you is filled with molecules, all of which exert pressure on you. 

Picture this...
You're standing upright.  Rising straight up from your head, into the furthest reaches of the atmosphere, is a column.  This column is filled with air molecules.  While the effect of each individual molecule is miniscule, their combined effect is a force with which to be reckoned.  How much atmospheric weight do you think your head has to support?  Go ahead, take a guess...

First we need to find out how large your head is.  For the purposes of this activity, we're going use inches so we can get an answer in pounds.  It's rather un-scientific of us, but it will provide us (in the U.S.) with the greatest understanding.

Back to your head.... find the circumference of your head, using either a fabric measuring tape or a length of string that you then lay against a meter stick.  I come up with 22 inches.

Now you'll need to do some math to find the radius.  Circumference is equal to 2 x pi x radius.  So, to get the radius, you'll need to divide the circumference by pi and then divide that number by 2.  For me, it's 3.5 inches.

Now you'll use the radius to find the area of the top of your head.  Area is equal to pi x radius x radius.  For me it's 38.47 square inches. 

Atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 psi (that's pounds per square inch), and while I don't live exactly at sea level, that number will work well enough for our purposes.  So, the area of my head multiplied by atmospheric pressure gives me the weight of air pushing on my head.  In my case, it's 38.47 square inches x 14.7 psi = 565 pounds. 

Pretty unbelievable, isn't it?  But it's true.  We aren't aware of it because we're used to it, we've never known anything different.  And we aren't crushed by that force because there are fluids inside our body exerting pressure that keeps things balanced.  Those air molecules are pushing on all sides of your body, not just on top of your head, which also helps keep things balanced.

If you're interested, atmospheric pressure in Denver, with an approximate altitude of 1 mile, is 12.2 psi.  You might want to have your students determine how much the atmospheric weight changes as they go from sea level to 1 mile.

Weather: Molecules in the Atmosphere

This activity helps students visualize that the molecules in the atmosphere become thinner as one moves to higher and higher layers of the atmosphere.  It also reinforces the fact that nitrogen is the most common gas in the atmosphere, followed by oxygen.

Each student will need four paper plates, 3 colors of construction paper, scissors, glue and a marker.  You'll also need a hole punch and string.

Each paper plate represents one layer of the atmosphere.  Label the plates - troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.

Choose one color of paper to represent nitrogen, another color to represent oxygen and the third color to represent other gases.

Cut out the appropriate number of pieces of paper of each color - see numbers below.  The size of the pieces will be determined by the size of plate you decide to use.

Glue the appropriate pieces of paper to each plate.

Use a hole punch to make a hole at the top and bottom of each plate.  String the plates together in the correct order, with an additional string at the top from which to hang the mobile.

Molecules needed for each layer:

Troposphere
19 nitrogen
5 oxygen
1 other gases

Stratosphere
11 nitrogen
3 oxygen
1 other gases

Mesposphere
6 nitrogen
1 oxygen
0 other gases

Thermosphere
2 nitrogen
0 oxygen
0 other gases

For a total of:
38 nitrogen
9 oxygen
2 other gases

Weather: How Much Water is in Snow?

If you're finding yourself with an abundance of snow.... ahem.... perhaps you'll want to perform some investigations. 

The amount of water snow contains can very greatly, depending upon the snow. 

Gather a set amount of snow... I collected approximately 500 ml of snow.

Allow the snow to melt - if you'll be allowing it to sit for an extended time, you may wish to cover it to minimize the amount lost to evaporation. 

My 500 ml of snow yielded slightly less than 50 ml of water.  This was a very dry, powdery snow. 


If you live in a place that gets snow throughout the winter, you might want to repeat this activity with each snowfall and see how they vary in water content.

You may also want to measure the pH of the snow water.

Catch a Raindrop

Mix 2 parts of flour with 1 part of salt. 

Fill a shallow pan with about half an inch of the mixture. 

On a rainy day, hold the pan outside for a few seconds.  (Or you could let water drip from your hand into the pan, but going out in the rain is more fun).

Let it sit, undisturbed for a few hours (or until the next day).

Use a fork to carefully remove the wet spots.  Set them on a plate to dry.

After they're dry, examine their shape and size.  Why do they look like balls and not like a "raindrop" shape?

You may want to try this on a variety of days - a day when it's barely raining, a day when you have a steady shower, and if you dare, a day when you have a downpour.  What similarities and differences do you observe between the raindrops collected on each of these days?

Older students could measure each of the drops they collected and then analyze the data; graph it, determine the mean, median, and/or mode. 

Snowflake Bentley

These are some great resources to pair with Sparkly Snowflakes. 

If you study weather and snow, or are just looking to do something seasonal, check out some of these resources.

Wilson Bentley was the first man to photograph individual snowflakes, in 1885.  He's the person who determined that no two snowflakes are exactly the same.  A fascinating man, indeed.

Start your research at the Official Website of Wilson A. Bentley.  You'll find a brief biography there, and some wonderful, printable images of his photographs. I printed out the collection and laminated them for my students to look at and admire. 

For a more thorough biography, and one to share with your students, check out Snowflake Bentley.  It's a picture book intended for children.  The biography is written as a story, with a lot of factual information in the margins - you can decide how much to share based on your students.


For your own knowledge, you may want to read The Snowflake Man: A Biography of Wilson A. Bentley.  I haven't read the whole book, but have read an excerpt.  You can probably get it through your library system. 

Two other books that look interesting are Snowflakes in Photographs and Snow Crystals. I'm not familiar with either book, but they are both collections of Bentley's images.  Again, it might be worth looking for these at the library before investing.