Snowflake crystals and pollution projects give kids the chance to see how pollution impacts everything in an environment. Students can design their projects around any aspect of snowflakes that interests them. Students can also examine how pollution impacts the water supply through snowflake contamination.
The first project that a student can develop around snowflakes and pollution will look at how various pollutants impact the design of the snowflakes. Students will need to select specific types of pollutants to add to their water vapor and freeze. The student can then make observations about how the pollutant impacts the design of a snowflake.
However, before the test experiment is completed, students will need to conduct a control test. The control test will use pure water when generating water vapor. They will then lower the temperature and allow the snowflakes to develop. The students will then make observations about the appearance of the snowflakes from their color and clarity to their shape and size. This information can then be used to compare against the results from the test experiments. Students will need to note differences and offer an explanation.
The second project is for students that are interested in chemistry science fair projects. It will focus on how pollution in the air changes the chemistry of snowflakes. This is a more advanced project that is more suitable for middle school and high school students then it is for elementary aged students.
In this experiment a student will first need to collect snow samples from various locations in their neighborhood and surrounding areas. They will then melt down each snow sample and analyze it for chemical compounds. Pure snow will include only hydrogen and oxygen. Polluted snow will include other chemicals. The student will need to determine what areas have the most air pollution based on the chemical analysis of their snow samples.
The final project is going to examine how pollution concentrations in snowflakes changes in relationship to temperature. The hypothesis for this experiment is going to be that as temperatures get colder the concentration of pollutants in snowflakes is going to increase. To test this hypothesis students are going to need to collect fresh snow when the temperature outside is between 30 and 34 degrees, when the temperature is between 25 and 29 degrees and when the temperature is between 20 and 24 degrees.
This project is going to take extra time to complete because students will need to wait to collect data until weather conditions cooperate. This means that the student is going to need to prepare their science fair project in advance of the winter snow season. The best way to approach this project is to collect data every time conditions meet the test requirements during the snow seasons or during a predetermined time period, such as a month. This will give the student more data to work with, which will improve the quality of their results.
To develop a snowflake science fair project students need to think about everything that has an impact on snowflakes, or about the things that snowflakes impact. Students can example the water cycle, weather patterns, the chemistry of snowflakes or the physics of snowflakes. Students can even try to develop biology projects or medical projects that try to link snowflake development with some organic process. Obviously these projects are going to be a little more creative an innovative than the standard projects that look at how snowflakes develop.
