Ironwood Carnegie Library hosts winter nature program

By TOM STANKARD

tstankard@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood - With winter-like weather finally upon us, naturalist Licia Johnson, of the North Lakeland Discovery Center, taught area children about snowflakes at Ironwood Carnegie Library Monday afternoon.

To begin her winter nature program, Johnson asked the children gathered around her what snowflakes are and how the flakes are formed.

"Snowflakes are formed when rain falls and it gets cold enough for it to be ice," said Jayla Finco, 5, of Ironwood.

"Real good" snowflakes, Johnson said look the same all the way around, making them symmetrical.

Johnson said snowflakes start from something in the sky - clouds. She said clouds are made of water vapor, air and "little tiny pieces of dust."

How a snowflake forms, Johnson said is as it gets colder, the water vapor freezes around the piece of dust. As the water vapor freezes, it freezes on six sides, creating a hexagon around the piece of dust. While in the cloud, Johnson said the snowflakes rise and more ice grows off of it. As it rises in the cloud, Johnson said the snowflakes get heavy and then fall to the earth.

Snowflakes come in "all different shapes and sizes," Johnson said. She said the snowflake's "look" depends on how much water is in air and the temperature.

"The warmer the temperature, we get different flakes than when it's really cold," Johnson said.

Holding pictures of snowflakes, Johnson said there are seven shapes of snowflakes. Johnson handed children and few adults a card to read aloud. When they were done reading, she told the children to point to a picture of a snowflake that matched the same one.

Plates are flat and fell out of the could before arms could develop quickly. Columns are snowflakes shaped like pencils formed high in the cloud in very cold temperatures and are very tiny. Capped Column are column snowflakes with plates on their end.

"This is two snowflakes in one," Johnson said. "One snowflake is column, which forms when it's really warm. Then the temperature changed and it started growing plates on the two ends."

Needle snowflakes are a type of column that's formed when there's warm, wet snowfall.

"They look like little hairs all over your jacket," Johnson said.

Stellar snowflakes have six arms reaching out from the center. Fern-like stellar snow flakes are the largest of all the snowflakes, are formed in cold weather, but with lots of moisture. It grows fast, creating all the fern-like branching. Irregular snowflakes have no symmetry. Johnson said they look like all types of snowflakes "stuck together."

"This is the most common type of snowflake," she said. "It results in crowding, colliding and crystal defects."

When Johnson finished her lesson on snowflakes, the children made their own using paper, cotton swabs, cotton balls, stickers and fake crystals. After that, Johnson and the kids made their own, man-made snow.