Winter teaching ideas

Using the Outdoors: Winter weather ideas

The weather in Minnesota presents students and teachers with a varied and plentiful amount of outdoor teaching ideas. Unlike many places south of here, we get a chance to experience a full range of the 4 seasons during the course of the school year. Taking advantage of these resources benefits both teachers and students. Now that we find ourselves heading into the doldrums of winter, let’s find a way to make the cold and snow educational for our students. Here are some ideas that can easily be implemented into a lesson on winter.

Winter weather idea 1:

Snow can be used to teach students about the concept of insulation. Since there is a lot of air between the flakes, snow does a wonderful job trapping in either cold or warm air, relatively speaking. This is most evident in that the air under the snow, close to the ground, can often times be warmer than the actual air temperature above the snow. You can demonstrate this with your students by placing a thermometer underneath the snow, next to the ground, and comparing its temperature to another thermometer that is above the snow, measuring just air temperature. I think this experiment would work best on a day when the air temperature is well below 32 degrees. If you want to try this, I suggest using a probe thermometer to measure the temp under the snow, and we have some great USB thermometers in the lab that you can use.

Winter weather idea 2:

Take your students outside and have them form snowballs, making sure they do not throw them at each other of course! Tell them not to compact the snow too much, just enough to make it stick together. Once they have formed snowballs, bring them inside (preferably in a bucket) and place them next to a block of ice. If the snowball and piece of ice are about the same size, that will make for better comparison. Let the snowball and ice chunk sit in the room, checking on it periodically. Have your students predict which one will melt faster and why they think so. Since the snowball is made of snowflakes, which have more surface area than the block of ice, it should melt faster. But even if it doesn’t, it makes for a great discussion of ideas with your class about why.

Winter weather idea 3:

To teach your students about how frost forms try this activity. Take a metal coffee can that has a lid. Fill it with a bunch of ice and ½ cup of salt and let your students stir. At this point, you can put the lid on and let it sit for a few minutes, but you’d be missing an opportunity to discuss the freezing point of water.

Many students will know that water freezes at 32 degrees F, or 0 degrees C. But how does salt affect the freezing point? Before putting the lid on the can, take the temperature of the salt and ice mixture once you have stirred it (again, the USB probe thermometers in the lab would work great). You should find that it will be below 32 degrees, yet there will still be liquid that has not turned to ice. This is a good point to discuss how salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, thus we use it to keep sidewalks and streets from getting icy.

Once you put the lid on the can and let it sit for a few minutes, frost will form on the outside of the can. Where did it come from? This is a great way to show students that the air is full of water vapor, even though we can’t see it. When the temperature dips below freezing, the water vapor condenses on the cold surface of the can.

Winter weather idea 4:

Let your students discover the unique beauty of snowflakes. We have all heard the expression that no two snowflakes are alike. Take your students outside, preferably on a snowy day, and let them catch snowflakes on black paper. Then let them use a hand lens to observe the snowflakes. While it would be hard to prove that no two flakes are alike, they will still get to see the many variations in snowflakes.

Winter weather idea 5:

Have an “Ice Cube Melting Race” with your students. Give each pair of students 2 ice cubes in plastic cups. Have several saltshakers ready for the class to use. When you start the time, have one student pour some salt onto one of the cubes and leave the other cube plain. Have the students observe what happens. The cube with the salt on it will melt faster than the plain cube. If you let the cubes sit for a while but check them periodically, you can check to see how long it took for each cube to melt.