Have you ever heard that every snowflake is unique? When a snowflake forms, ice crystallizes and grows into different shapes. On a single snowflake, there are thousands of tiny little details that make them different from one another. Just like snowflakes, every single person is one-of-a-kind! Today, we are going to make our own snowflakes!

Materials:

Pipe cleaners, borax, jar or cup, spoon, pencil, string/floss, scissors

Time Estimated:

20-30 minutes + 24 hours waiting time

Directions:

Start making your snowflake base shape by folding one pipe cleaner in half. Then, take a second pipe cleaner and cut it in half with scissors.
Take one of the cut pieces and wrap it around the folded pipe cleaner, tying a knot. Now you should have four “arms” on your snowflake.
Use the other cut piece and wrap it around the folded pipe cleaner, just like you did in the last step. Now your snowflake should have two more arms. Using scissors, you can trim down the arms so they are all a similar length. Add more detail with pipe cleaners if you would like to, but make sure your snowflake is small enough to fit into your jar or cup!
Take some string or dental floss and tie a knot around one of the arms of the snowflake. This will allow you to hang your snowflake into the jar later on!
With parental guidance, bring water to a boil and pour it into your jar until almost full.
Take your borax and slowly add it into the jar with a spoon, stirring until the solution becomes cloudy and the borax is dissolved.
Using the string on your snowflake, place the snowflake into the water so that it is completely immersed. You can take a pencil or pen and place it on top of the jar with the string wrapped around it, so that the string doesn’t fall into the jar.
Leave your jar out for at least 24 hours, and then check to see how the crystals formed!

Think Like a Scientist!

How did these crystals form?
Where do crystals form in nature?
How does ice crystallize in snowflakes? How do snowflakes get their different shapes?

How Does It Work?

So, how did this work? When we mixed the borax in with the water, we created a supersaturated solution because, as you might have observed, the water became cloudy and no more borax could be dissolved in it. Using hot water, we were able to mix in more borax than we would have been able to if we used cold water. Why? When the water is hot, the water molecules are able to move around faster and spread out more than cold water molecules. Because they are spread out more, more borax is able to be dissolved into the hot water. When this mixture cools down, the water molecules stop bouncing around and slow down, making less room for the borax in the water. As a result, the borax molecules fall out of the water and separate, creating the crystal structures we see on our snowflake.

Crystals come together in a specific pattern based off of the molecules that are forming them. In our snowflake, we were able to see these repeated crystal structures directly on our pipe cleaners. This is similar to the crystallization that happens with snowflakes in real life! However, in real snowflakes, these crystals are much smaller. If you ever get a chance to see snow under a microscope, you’ll be able to see all of these tiny patterns that are crystals!

Empowering Activity:

Just like snowflakes, every one of you is unique! Today we are going to do an activity to dig deeper into who we are and what makes us unique. Take a couple of minutes and write down at least five words that you think help define who you are.

What sorts of words did you write down? Did you write down things that you like to do, such as your favorite movies or music? Did you write down things that you do such as sports or art? Or, did you write down things that you value such as family or honesty? What about character traits, such as “I am kind” or “I’m a thoughtful friend”?

Many times, we might define ourselves by the things that we do, rather than the character traits that make us who we are. Remember, we can choose who we want to be and how we want to define ourselves. Keeping this in mind, write down five things that you think are character traits, and reflect on what these traits reveal about you.

Star Scientist:

A part of science that is often overlooked is the importance of citizen science! This is data that is collected and submitted by everyday citizens just like you, who have chosen to pursue other paths or are not yet scientists.
Two amazing women scientists, Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby, decided to live in the high-Arctic area of Norway for months during 2020 in order to collect data for climate research to better understand the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Just like how these incredible women are participating in an extreme form of citizen science, you can too! Look out for our video later this spring focusing more on citizen science and how you can get involved.

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