Release week Dec. 31, 2006: Snowflakes

Standards

• Science: Students will research how temperature and latitude affect snow.
• Science: Students will examine snow and ice crystals.
• Science: Students will make paper snowflakes and learn more snow-science facts.

Activities

• Use the News: Do you live in a climate that gets snow? How cold does it have to be to snow? Look in your newspaper to see what the weather forecast is. Is snow predicted? If not, how many degrees would your current temperature need to drop to allow snow? Check an online weather map to locate the most southern location currently forecasting snow. What latitude is it? Why does latitude affect temperature?

• Observe and sketch samples of snowflakes and ice crystals. If you have snow in your area, you can collect your own samples. If not, you can observe ice crystals taken from the sides of a freezer. Use glass slides or make your own by cutting transparencies into rectangles. The slides should be cooled in a freezer before collection begins so the snow/ice doesn’t melt on them too quickly. A good magnifying lens can be used to examine and sketch snowflakes. However, a low-power microscope will probably be needed to observe them in detail and see the smaller ice crystals.

• Make some paper snowflakes as decorations. Plain white paper (even a coffee filter) is realistic, but you may want to color yours for fun. Here is a Web site you can use to create interesting shapes, or make up your own patterns. There are patterns, stencils and snowflake-science facts. http://www.papersnowflakes.com/index.html.

World of Wonder meets many state educational standards. This guide helps teachers identify standards and related activities generally intended for grade 6, but teachers can modify activities to the appropriate grade level.