Simple Science Experiment: Water Content in Snow

Hello! As parents of a 4 year old and 2 year old twins, one of our goals is to nurture our children’s natural curiosity by encouraging them to ask questions, seek answers, and love learning. This doesn’t have to be hard! Let’s take a look at an example of a science experiment you can do any (snowy) day of the year!

Introduction to Water Content in Snow Experiment:

My grandpa is a huge weather nerd. He loves measuring snow, checking temperatures, comparing this year’s weather to previous years… it’s awesome! My husband and I on the other hand… our main source of weather information is the apps on our phone. This year they have been notoriously, even absurdly wrong. So frequently we have the conversation about how the weather we are experiencing is VERY different from the predictions we had seen.

Part of including your kids in science is including them in your conversation.

Part of including your kids in science is including them in your conversation, and as Noah and I discussed the way this latest “surprise” snow felt, our oldest son Janon wanted to get involved. We were discussing the weight and texture of the snow. Noah noticed that the small light flakes made for heavy shovel loads. He said is was like shoveling flour.

We asked the question, how much moisture will this actually melt into?

The question sparked our interest, we shared our curiosity with our son, and a plan was born!

Materials

Clear measuring cup

Snow

Steps

1. Acquire materials.

2. Dress warmly and head outside. (Or stick your arm out the door like we did and get a large scoop off of the porch.)

3. Fill the measuring cup to a specific and clearly defined line. (Or scrape snow out of the cup to reach the desired line.)

4. Bring the measuring cup back inside.

5. Show your children how much snow you collected, clearly show them the line the snow starts at.

6. Leave the snow in a visible but not easily accessible location.

7. Glance at the snow and watch it’s progress as it melts.

8. Share exciting updates with the children.

9. Leave the snow until it is completely melted.

10. Share the final liquid total with the family.

Children’s response:

4 year old- Our 4 year old was definitely intrigued with watching the snow melt, especially when it first came inside. He was interested in the results, but more excited by the set up of the experiment.

2 year olds- Both of them were interested in the idea of snow being brought into the house, but didn’t really seem to understand the goal of the experiment, and therefore did not express much interest in the results.

Questions to ask:

• How much water do you think this snow will melt into?

• Why does snow take up more space than water?

• Why is the outside of the cup wet when the snow did not leak?

• Do you think all snow will melt into the same amount of water?

What we learned:

We started with 2 cups of snow, and when the melt had brought the lump down to below the one cup line, we could only see maybe a tablespoon of liquid water in the bottom of the measuring cup. We hadn't stopped to think about how the snow would shrink down into ice on its way to becoming water.

However, as the dense chunk finally began to melt, the water content increased quickly, eventually arriving at around 1/4 cup liquid water.

The change in density surprised us, but the final liquid water seemed to be about what we expected.

Conclusion:

We learned that while snow does melt into less water than the original amount of snow, the amount of liquid precipitation is still significant and important. We also learned that ice becomes more dense than snow before melting into liquid water. We also got to answer questions about condensation and precipitation.

Overall, this experiment was easy, and opened up a number of interesting conversations! We hope your family enjoys as much as we did.