Snowflake
Bentley
by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Illustrated
by Mary Azarian
Houghton-Mifflin, 1998
Activities ©1999 Nancy Polette
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| ABOUT THE BOOK Snow in Vermont is as common as dirt. Why would anyone want to photograph it? But from the time he was a small boy, Wilson Bentley thinks of the icy crystals as small miracles and he determines that one day his camera will capture for others their extraordinary beauty. Often misunderstood in his time, Wilson Bentley took pictures that even today reveal two important truths about snowflakes: First, that no two are alike and second, that each one is startlingly beautiful. Here is the story of a simple farmer who not only had a scientist's vision and perseverance, but a clear passion for the wonders of nature. |
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| Fact: from Duncan, Blanchard. The
Snowflake Man. (1970) Weatherwise, 23(6) 260-269 Wilson Bentley was born on a Vermont farm in 1865. He was taught by his mother who gave him a microscope which enabled him to begin a lifelong study of rain and snow..and especially of snowflakes which fascinated him the most. He observed nature with both the eye of the poet and the eye of the scientist. Here are his words: "from a careful study of the internal structure of each wonderfully delicate and exquisite snowflake much may be learned of the changes through which it has passed in its journey through cloudland. Was ever life history written in more dainty hieroglyphics!" |
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Activity: Answer these questions as
if you were a snowflake.
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| Fact: (from Weatherwise) As a teen Willie spent hundreds of hours in a cold room sketching the snow crystals he saw in the microscope. He persuaded his father to buy him a bellows camera with microscope attachment. But in attempting to photograph snowflakes, failure followed upon failure. Finally, through persistence and learning by trial and error he made his first photograph of a snowflake during a snowstorm on the 15th of January 1885. When he arranged a free slide show to share his discoveries with his neighbors only six people came. Most thought him "crazy or a fool or both." |
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| Activity: Here is a list of others who were labeled failures or fools at sometime in their lives: Thomas Edison dropped out of school in
the third grade.
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| 1. Question It takes six inches of wet snow or 30 inches of dry snow to equal one inch of rain. In 1957 Grand Junction, Colorado had a record MONTHLY snowfall of 33 inches. How much rain would that equal in one year? Answer_______________________ What Wilson Bentley discovered: Each snowflake has six branches and no one design is ever repeated.The direction of a storm produces a predominant type of snowflake. Air temperature determines the form of a snowflake.Changes within a snowflake are caused by the differing air temperatures it passes through.The largest raindrops are a quarter of an inch in diameter. Different sizes of raindrops occur in different types of storms.There is a connection between lightning and raindrop size. 2. Question: Wilson Bentley had no scientific instruments. How did he manage to measure the size of a raindrop?________________________________ 3. Raindrops are made up of molecules. Water is cohesive (sticks together) because the positive end of one molecule attracts the negative end of another. Cohesion causes water to form a convex skin-like covering called surface tension. Experiment: Fill a small glass nearly to the top with water. How many pennies can you drop in the glass before it overflows?_________Support or deny your guess by trying the experiment. |
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4. A Snowflake Report (done
as Karaoke by Chuck Roberts and Anita Perez, Gr.
6) The tune is "What Now My Love" .
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