SnowSchool Spans the States

By Alka Tripathy-Lang

July 28, 2021

Imagine young students bundling up in winter clothing, strapping on snowshoes, and trekking to a site with thick snowpack where a volunteer instructor cuts out a refrigerator-sized block of snow. If the block stays coherent, the instructor asks the kids to jump on it until it fails, making them tumble into a flurry of snow. Together, the teacher and students measure the density and dimensions of the snow block to calculate its weight, which can be nearly as heavy as a car. By experiencing this mini avalanche, the students might begin to fathom what a real one might feel like.

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