What Do You Do With Three Feet of Snow Outside?
SJPDS first graders brought some of the record amounts of snowfall inside for some very cool science experiments. Checking the out door temperature first (36 degrees Fahrenheit- do we need our coats?), the children from Mrs. Durkee’s class raced outside, scooped up bowls of snow, and returned in 2 minutes! We used our four of our five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling to observe snow. We decided against using our sense of taste when we saw tiny black spots in the snow.
The young scientists recorded what they observed by writing their descriptive words in their journals and then sharing their observations with each other in a web on the SMART board. Snow is white, cold, wet, fuzzy, sparkly, clean, soft, quiet, lumpy, and has very little smell. They also saw some bits of leaves, a few pieces of ice, and those mysterious little black spots. We then used our thermometers to measure the temperature of the snow and most students found that snow was 00 C and between 300 and 320 F. We had a low of – 100 C and a high of 330 F.
Then the real fun began. Challenged to change the snow, students used cups, spoons, fingers, breath, hot water, and cold water to create ice, slush, and water. As the snow went from solid to liquid, we recorded our sensory observations and the temperature of each change. We were amazed to find very little difference in the temperatures. Even after melting the snow with hot water (90-1000 F), the resulting water was again about 33-350 F. We saw the color change from white to clear, the snow packed into ice cubes the shape of the cup, and the volume of the snow reduced to a smaller volume of water. Some very wet tables and cold fingers were the happy ending to our investigations, not to mention some great opportunities to practice observational skills, descriptive language, measuring skills, learning to read two scales to measure temperature, and thinking creatively about how to change solids to liquids, and later in the day when the last bit of snow evaporated, liquids to gases. Next class we will look at what was left behind in the bowls after evaporation.
I was pleased to see the eagerness and excitement for the investigation of snow after days of being able to play outside at home. The return to school after our unexpected and extended weather break was a great teachable moment for me and for the first graders.
Posted by: Stephen Harrison on February 17th, 2010