Ms. Baker, the wonderful science teacher we had the opportunity to work with in elementary school, was a stickler for accurate snowflakes. She spent a lot of time teaching us about the formation of snowflakes at various layers of the atmosphere and the importance of recognizing the six sides on every flake. We spent time with black chunks of velvet cloth catching snowflakes and looking at them under a microscope she carried outdoors. We also spent time coloring, cutting and drawing accurate representations of snowflakes.
To this day, if I see an inaccurate representation of a snowflake, I think of Ms. Baker and how disappointed she would be in that image-maker.
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| Snowflake tracing - image traced from six-sided, hand-cut paper snowflake. |
It is amazing how many business establishments AND schools allow inaccurate flakes to hang throughout their properties. It's as if they do not realize that four-sided and eight-sided flakes do not abide by the rules of Mother Nature.
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| Snowflake #1 - Hand carved relief block based on sketch #1 of six-sided snowflake. |
Inaccurate and incorrectly formed flakes may serve as a reminder that, as adults, it is our responsibility to use anatomically correct representations of snowflakes to decorate for the season. This lesson is part of the bigger message that in nature there are rules that are followed. Without the rules of nature, chaos may follow.
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| Snowflake #1 - Notice that this block has been inked and is ready to print proof #1. |
We have seen this play out in massive oil tanker spills, Chernoble, and the Tokyo reactor break-down. What is driving the El Nino/La Nina weather, the drought in California, and the low saline levels and high levels of crop-based chemicals pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from Lake Ochochobee??????
Is it possible to be better steward of our environment by starting with something as simple as accurate "flake" representation? Good question!!!
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