Identical Snowflakes? Scientist Ruins Winter For Everyone.
From Deep Look
3 min3rd4th5th6thScience
Summary
You've heard no two snowflakes are alike -- but a scientist grows snowflakes in a lab to test that idea. Deep Look looks closely at how these delicate ice crystals form their six-sided shapes.
Viewer safety
All ages
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
Snowflakes form when water vapor freezes onto a speck in a cloud, building six-sided crystals. Temperature and moisture shape each flake as it falls, so their patterns vary -- a scientist even grows matching flakes in the lab to study how they form.
- What shape do snowflake crystals usually have?
- What decides how a snowflake's pattern turns out?
- How could a scientist test whether two snowflakes can match?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: crystal, ice, pattern, water vapor.
Try it: Fold and cut a paper snowflake with six points. Write one thing that decides how a real snowflake's pattern forms.