A Modeling Activity: Analyzing Snowflakes Using Geometry

The Snowflakes Task is a mathematical modeling task that explores the geometry of snowflakes. During this task, students categorize and analyze five purposefully selected snowflakes using geometric concepts such as symmetry and angles and use their knowledge of geometric attributes to create a mathematical model that could be used to analyze other snowflakes. By the end of the task, students will become familiar with different snowflakes shapes, further their understanding of geometric concepts, and describe the relationship between snowflakes and geometric attributes. The authors implemented the Snowflakes Task in two different settings: once with prospective teachers in a virtual setting and once with middle school students in person. In this paper, the authors share the task sequence, a summary of implementations, including adaptations made to support our implementation settings (virtual or in person), and student thinking revealed during data analysis