Activity 1

In class today, we had three bowls and each one contained a different item. One had dirt, another had water, and the last had snow. The point of this activity was to see how different conditions affected each of the items. After putting a thermometer-like instrument into the bowls we shone a lamp on each of the bowls to see how the temperature changed after 10 minutes. The snow's temperture did not change but the temperature of the water and dirt rose. The water's temperature rose much quicker than the dirt's temperature. Then we let the bowls cool off for 10 minutes. The water's temperature fell quickly, the dirt's temperature fell much slower, and the snow's temperature did not change. From this activity it shows that snow does not absorb heat but it does reflect light.

http://nsidc.org/snow/
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/waterproperties.html