How Deep Is Your Snow?

Large snow events in most parts of New Zealand are uncommon. However, if you are in the South Island or the central North Island, this citizen science project could be a great one for your students to engage in during times when it is snowing.

Find out why we need to know more about these weather events and how you could gather data to help scientists at NIWA. You also might like to partner up with a school where snow events do not occur to share the learning. Students could create models out of materials to get a sense of the depth of snow the other class is monitoring. Participating in this project integrates ideas about weather and technology. By measuring and recording the depth and density of snow, you can contribute to a larger dataset that is being used to construct New Zealand’s own Building Code relating to snow loading on buildings. The potential for integration with numeracy and technology through this OCS project is huge.

URL: www.niwa.co.nz/environmental-information/our-services/environmental-monitoring/how-deep-is-the-snow-at-your-place

Reach: National

Nature of science focus: Online citizen science (OCS) projects can be used to develop any of the Nature of Science (NoS) substrands. Identify aspects of NoS that your students need to further develop or understand more fully and then frame your unit to be very clear about these things when you do them.

Science capability focus: Gather and interpret data

Science focus: weather, climate change, properties of matter

Some suggested science concepts:

• Scientists make measurements when observing and collecting data.
• New Zealand’s island topography makes its weather systems unique.
• Water can exist as a liquid, solid or gas.
• The density of snow affects its mass.
• The design of a structure such as a building affects its ability to carry a load.

Many concepts could be learned – focusing on a few can often be more powerful. Develop your learning outcomes and success criteria from these concepts as well as the Nature of Science strand and the science capabilities.

Some examples of learning outcomes:

Students can:

• take accurate measurements of snow depth and calculate snow density
• explain why multiple measurements make the data more valid
• demonstrate the connection between snow density and load on an object
• describe how New Zealand’s weather patterns are unique.

About How Deep Is Your Snow?

Admittedly, this project is difficult to plan for since we can’t be sure of when it will snow, but knowing about and being prepared to use this OCS project will add some interesting and authentic teaching for your students.

Did you know that our snow is unique? Being a small island country with a mountainous backbone, our snow has different density characteristics to snow of other countries. Yet our building standards rely on Australian and American data rather than our own in order to calculate snow loadings for roofs. This project, led by NIWA, with funding from the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), seeks to gather a database of information about snow depths and density in order to establish guidelines based on New Zealand data.

This OCS project lends itself well to integrating with maths (measurement, multiplicative thinking) and technology (designing and developing materials outcomes).

Taking part in this project involves making two types of measurement should it snow at your school or local area. The first is a simple depth measurement that can be made by pushing a metre ruler straight down into the snow. The second is slightly more complex, but full instructions are given on how to calculate the density of snow.

This project app was launched in 2019, so watch the NIWA website for further updates. The NIWA Citizen Science app is available on both the Apple App and Google Play stores and is free and easy to download. Use it for inputting data on snow depth measurements. Funding is being sought to extend this for density measurements also, so keep an eye out for updates to the app. The more data gathered, the more there is to share and compare with other places in New Zealand and with the existing data we use from overseas. The Christchurch-based NIWA research team are very happy to be contacted about this project.