Worksheet

Inside the Snow Shelter: Light and Sound in Winter Camp

Grade 8 waves practice: light and sound readings at a winter field school model how snow, fabric and ice reflect, absorb or transmit waves.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-PS4-2

Play online Play as a game

PrintLetter-size worksheet Answer keyPrintable answers

Assign to classAssign to your classes, or get a join code

What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use light and sound readings to model how materials reflect, absorb or transmit waves.
Students argue from evidence that a snow wall treats light and sound differently from a thin tent wall.

How to use

Read the trip notes together and make sure students know what each meter reading compares; then let them work through both tables and discuss the last question.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-PS4-2

Model how light and sound waves are reflected, absorbed or transmitted through different materials.

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

Inside the Snow Shelter: Light and Sound in Winter Camp

Model how snow, fabric and ice reflect, absorb and transmit waves.

Light on the snow

Read the trip notes and Table 1, then answer the questions.

Trip Notes: A Night in a Snow Shelter

1Each February, the Bramble Lake Winter Field School takes a group of eighth graders on a two-day snow camp. On the first morning, guide Ms. Henrietta Vu showed Saskia Delmonte, Ifeoluwa Strand and their group how to build a quinzhee, a snow shelter. They piled snow into a large mound, let it settle for two hours, then dug out a room inside while Ms. Vu checked the wall thickness with sticks pushed in from outside. Most of the wall ended up about 30 cm thick, with one thin spot about 10 cm thick. Ms. Vu also poked a small air hole through the roof and made sure no one worked inside the shelter alone.

2Ms. Vu told everyone to wear sunglasses on sunny days, because the snow can send a lot of light into the eyes. At noon, Saskia used a light meter to test this. With the meter pointing straight up in the open, it measured the sunlight reaching the ground. With the meter held 30 cm above a surface and pointing down, it measured the light that came back up off that surface. Inside the shelter and the tent, she pointed the meter at the wall (Table 1). The gray snow by the parking area was dusty, and by late afternoon it had softened and partly melted, while the fresh snow nearby looked almost unchanged.

3Ifeoluwa ran a sun test on two fleece squares of the same size and thickness, one black and one white. He laid each on the snow in full sun with a thermometer under it. Both thermometers read −6 °C at the start. After 20 minutes, the one under the black fleece read 8 °C and the one under the white fleece read −2 °C.

4In the afternoon, the group tested sound. A small speaker played the same steady tone at the same setting for every reading, and a sound meter 2 m away measured the sound level in decibels (dB), with or without a wall between them (Table 2). Out on the frozen lake, Saskia clapped toward an icy rock cliff across a small cove and heard a sharp echo. When she clapped toward a tall bank of fresh, fluffy snow, she heard no echo.

5That night, the group slept warm in the shelter while the air outside dropped well below freezing.

Table 1: Light Meter Readings at Noon
Where the meter was	Reading (lux)
In the open, pointing up at the sky	50,000
Pointing down at fresh snow	42,000
Pointing down at old, gray snow	25,000
Pointing down at the dark green tent	4,000
Inside the tent, at its nylon wall	7,500
Inside the shelter, at the 10 cm spot	6,000
Inside the shelter, at a 30 cm wall	100

Use Table 1. Compare the light coming back up off the fresh snow with the sunlight reaching the ground.

The fresh snow reflected about % of the sunlight that reached it.

Use Table 1 and paragraph 2. Why did the meter read less above the old, gray snow than above the fresh snow?

A. The gray snow was colder than the fresh snow, so it gave the meter less light.
B. The gray snow was packed harder, so it sent more light up than the fresh snow.
C. The meter pointed up at the sky over the gray snow, so it read a lower number.
D. The dust in the gray snow absorbed more sunlight, so less was reflected up.

Use Table 1. Compare the two readings inside the shelter.

The reading at the 10 cm spot was times the reading at the 30 cm wall.

Which model best describes what happened to most of the sunlight that hit the outside of the shelter's 30 cm wall?

A. Most of it was reflected back out by the snow, and a tiny part made it through to the inside.
B. Most of it passed through the snow wall, which is why there was light inside the shelter.
C. Most of it bounced around inside the wall and came out brighter on the inside of the shelter.
D. Most of it was absorbed by the snow, which is why the snow on the shelter melted quickly.

Use paragraph 3 and Table 1. Which conclusion does the fleece test support best?

A. Both fleece squares warmed by about the same amount, so their color made little difference.
B. The black fleece absorbed more of the sunlight, and the absorbed light warmed it.
C. The white fleece warmed less because it was a thicker square than the black fleece.
D. The black fleece reflected more sunlight down onto its thermometer, which warmed it.

Sound in the snow

Use paragraph 4 and Table 2 to answer the questions.

Table 2: Sound Meter 2 m From the Speaker
Setup	Sound level (dB)
Open air, above fresh powder	68
Open air, above icy lake crust	71
Inside the tent, nylon wall between	66
In the shelter, 30 cm snow wall between	44

Use Table 2. Compare the reading inside the shelter with the open-air reading above fresh powder.

The snow wall lowered the sound level by dB.

In the open air, why was the reading higher above the icy crust than above the fresh powder?

A. The hard crust reflected more sound up to the meter, and the fluffy powder absorbed more.
B. The speaker was turned up for the crust reading, so more sound reached the meter.
C. The crust made a sound of its own as the tone shook it, which was added to the reading.
D. The powder let more sound pass down into it and back up, which raised the reading.

Compare the tent and shelter readings in Table 2 with the open-air reading above fresh powder. Which model fits both walls best?

A. The nylon reflected most of the sound, which is why the tent reading was higher than outside.
B. Both walls let about the same amount of sound through, since both meters were 2 m away.
C. The thin nylon transmitted most of the sound; the thick snow wall took in or reflected far more.
D. The snow wall transmitted more sound than the nylon, but the air inside the shelter soaked it up.

Sort each observation from the trip by the wave behavior it shows most.

Fresh snow sends most of the sunlight back up toward the meter.The black fleece takes in sunlight and warms up.Some sunlight passes through the thin spot of the snow wall.Most of the speaker's tone passes through the tent's nylon wall.A bank of fluffy snow takes in a clap, so no echo comes back.A clap bounces back as a sharp echo from the icy cliff.

Reflection	Absorption	Transmission

10.

Ifeoluwa says, "Snow is light and fluffy, so a snow wall lets light and sound through about as well as a tent wall does." Do you agree? Write a claim, give evidence from both tables, and explain your reasoning using the words reflect, absorb and transmit.