Confetti Snow Maps

Instructions & Materials

Instructions

Preparation Needed:
Cut enough confetti out of construction paper for each individual to have a handful. If you like, and for older audiences, assign each color of confetti a different amount of snow, or decide that all colors will represent the same amount. For example, blue and green may be light snowfall, 1 piece = 1 inch of snow; orange and red may be heavy snowfall, 1 piece = 2 inches of snow.

Activity:

1. Place the cups to form a grid on the floor (4x4, 5x3, 3x3, etc., depending on the number of participants). Use a sheet beneath the cups to minimize mess from confetti. Cups should be an inch or two apart. You may choose to cover a map of your county or state with cups instead of the grid, modifying subsequent directions to fit your experiment.
   
   
2. Youth should draw on their graph paper a grid that matches the arrangement of the cups on the floor, noting the name or number of each cup and labeling them (if using a map, print out maps for each youth and have them mark where the cups are on the map). Assign each youth a cup(s) that will be their responsibility. Label cups accordingly, though be sure not to label the bottom of the cup.
   
   
3. Grab a handful of confetti (or have the youth each grab a handful) and toss it randomly over the grid arrangement of cups. 

4. Have groups count the number of confetti pieces that fell in their cup (i.e., Cup 1 had 4 red pieces, 2 blue pieces, etc.) If different colored confetti is assigned a numeric value, be sure they record the number of each color. If not, color doesn’t matter. Make sure the youth record the numbers as they correspond to each labeled cup.
   
   
5. Youth share information or record on one large paper/chalkboard how much snow confetti fell in each labeled cup.
   
   
6. Total up the amount of snow that fell in their cups (4 blue and 2 red pieces = 8 inches of snow in Cup 2). Have the youth record the total amount of snow that fell in each cup on their grid sheet of paper in the corresponding cup. 

7. Youth should then make contour maps of snowfall by outlining all of the colored areas. This step works much better with older groups, so younger children may wish to do this in a directed group with the leader’s help. 

8. Making a contour map: (See pictures below corresponding to step 8 a-d)
   
   8a) Circle the cup with the highest amount of snowfall. If more than one cup has the same highest amount, make a circle that encompasses all of them, but none of the other snowfall amounts
   
   8b) Find the cup(s) with the next highest amount of snowfall. Make a circle that encompasses them and the smaller circle with the higher amounts of snowfall. Be sure to avoid the lower amounts of snowfall.
   
   8c) Find the next highest amount of snowfall.
   
   8d) Repeat steps b and c until all snowfall amounts have been graphed in a contour map.

Discussion

This activity allows youth to see how variable snowfall and other forms of precipitation can be. These precipitation patterns do exist in real life and affect where people live, where animals live, and how snowfall that builds up in one area can replenish rivers and lakes in many other areas. These patterns can seem very random over an area, with one side of town getting hail or snowfall, and the other side of town having nearly no snow or hail. Further, their participation in CoCoRaHS (if applicable) is helping scientists to better understand this local variability. 

Have the youth name different regions in the US that experience different amounts of snowfall and other precipitation. Talk about how precipitation affects where people live. Some examples are below: 

• Snow falls on a mountaintop year-round, but few people live in mountainous areas; yet the snow melts into the valleys below, where people have settled 
• Snow falls in the northern U.S. states. That snowmelt trickles down lakes and streams and feeds more arid regions in the south, like New Mexico and Arizona.