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snow on the ground requires little prior scientific knowl-
edgeand hardly any mathematics. Studentscanmaster the
conceptsandproceduresinafewweeks.Ihavetried
numerous other writing andresearch topics in this course,
including human anatomy and physiology,hypothermia,
environmentalimpactstatements,anda varietyofcase
studies,but none has worked as well as snowpack study
as a vehicle forteachingtechnical writing.
Studentsfindsnowpackstudyrichanddemanding.
Throughfield work,study, and writingreports,they get
the feel forscientific investigation and scientific writing.
They not only gain specific knowledge about the physics
of snowstratigraphy and metamorphismbut learn to ob-
serve,record, and interpret data. They learn to write con-
cisely and precisely. Further, they learn to present infor-
mation in several forms for a variety of readers who are not
acquaintedwiththeirproject.Theyalsolearntowork
cooperatively,torevieweachother'sreports,toaccept
criticism fromtheirpeers,and to rewrite their reports on
the basis of feedback. Perhaps most importantly,students
learn how to approacha newareaof knowledgeandquickly
master its concepts.Unlikemany technicalwriting projects,
snowpackstudy hasstudentsdo originalresearchandwrite
uptheresultsoftheirowninvestigation.Student
assessmentsofthecourse indicate thatthey valueall of
these aspects of snowpack study.
SNOWAS AN OBJECT OF INTEREST
Much of the interest of snowpack study derives from the
special natureof snow itself. In studying a snowpack, stu-
dentscan observethecyclethat beginswithnewsnow
and,aftermanyintermediarystages,ends inmeltwater.
Thismeansthattheycanobserveseveralprocessesof
change overthe course of one winter. Othercrystal meta-
morphic processes, such as those that occur in rocks, take
hundreds of thousands of years. Although students do not
see the processes of metamorphism directly, they come to
understand how the changesin the snowpack createstruc-
tures that vary daily.Forpromoting the study ofscience
andscience writing,thisbenefitofsnowpackstudy can
hardly be overestimated.
THEGENERAL PLAN OF SNOWPACK STUDY
Despiteitstechnicalsimplicityatthislevel,snowpack
studyisnotmereplayorcasual observation,butdisci-
plined scientific investigation.Students get out ontothe
snow, dig a snow pit, observe a snowpack under guidance,
and report their observations.
After this introduction to field methods and report writ-
ing, students studysnow science. The FieldGuideto Snow-
pack Study(Chisholm, 1996) introduces snowpack study,
explains allof the technicalinformation, andgives detailed
specificationsforeach report.Thisinformation,supple-
mentedwithlecturematerialderivedfromthesources
listedinthe Selected Bibliography,helps studentslearn
thefundamentalsofsnowphysics,identifyparticles,
classifythemintostandardcategories,andhypothesize
persistence andchange inthesnowpack.Afterlearning
about snow science, the students return to re-examine the
snowpacktoobservetheeffects oftheforces ofchange.
They re-examine their hypotheses to determine how close
theirpredictions came to actual conditions. At the end of
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each phase of the study, they report their findings.Thus,
students collect, interpret, andreport their own data from
originalobservation.Thisprimaryresearch engages stu-
dents in a process that leads to competent technical writ-
ing.
ACTIVITIES OF SNOWPACK STUDY
Snowpack study islaid outin asequence of ten lessons
describedin detailintheTeacher'sGuide toSnowpack
Study(Chisholm,1996).Thelessonsare segmented and
articulated so that each phase of the unit builds upon the
workdoneinthe previousphases andlaystheground-
work forthe following ones.The lessons are arranged in
six phases,as follows:
PHASE 1.OBSERVING AND REPORTING
Arousing and focusing interest
I prepare students forsnowpack studyby explaining the
aims of the unit, thenhaving them write about their earlier
experienceswith snow. Colored transparenciesof students
using equipment, making observations, andcollectingdata
on field tripsarouseandchanneltheir interest in snowpack
study. Then students recollect recent weather history and
hypothesize present conditions in the snowpack. After an
hour or so of instruction and demonstration of techniques
for conducting field tests and another hour of preliminary
fieldtests,we gooutdoorstoobserveand testthesnow
and conductthe tests.
Field Trip 1:guided observation of a snowpack
Duringan initial hour of orientation to field work, students
gain first-hand experiencewith snow. They dig a pit in the
snow, expose and measure the layers of the snowpack, test
the layers for hardnessand wetness, observe particle type,
width, and color, and record their observations on a Snow
PitDataSheet. Havinglearnedthe procedures,students
then conduct Field Trip 1 to collect good data. These first
twofieldexperiencesare eye-openers;itisexcitingfor
students todiscoverthatthe snowpack isactually made
up of layers of snow that differ inobservable physical char-
acteristics.
Report1:Initial observations of a snowpack
Throughoutthesequenceof tenlessons, studentsareguided
by a series of research questions.During Field Trip 1, stu-
dents focus on answering Research Question 1:
What are the physical characteristics of the snowpack
observed during Field Trip 1?
Students write up their initial field observations in Re-
port 1,where they present information in tabular,visual,
and narrative form.The specifications forthe first report
require studentsto face and resolve all of the writing prob-
lems early in the unit:what information toinclude,how
tosayit,and how toformatit.They learn towrite only
relevant information in the concise and highly-structured
form required for technicalcommunication. Draftsof these
reportsundergorepeated review bybothotherstudents
and by me and repeated revision by the writers.
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