Hello!
This is a cold day for many of us in the northern parts of the country. For those of you in warmer climes, maybe you are wishing for a little of the white stuff now falling down on others. So, for everyone:
Make a Snowflake: http://whyfiles.org/2013/make-a-snowflake-2/
Watch the curious growth of a snowflake crystal. This short interactive lets us explore how snowflakes crystal shapes depend on temperature. The short explanation of the science comes with some elevated vocabulary (“aggregate”, “disposition”, “parameters”) that deserves de-coding. This applet can be repeated many times, allowing for hypotheses, planning, predictions, and analysis of results. All this can be done while staying warm and dry!
Follow up this exercise with an image of a very different snowflake, thanks to the use of a scanning electron microscope. So, what is “rime”?Cool Science Images: http://whyfiles.org/2012/let-it-snow/
These resources are from The Why Files: the Science Behind the News.