IS SNOW A SOLID?

We talked about this before, but it's still really tricky.  Each individual snow crystal has six points.  And each individual snow crystal holds it's form (unless you break it or heat it up).  So each individual snow crystal is a solid.  Now, if you take a whole bunch of snow and punch it down really hard in a graduated cylinder, is it still a solid?  Yes!  This is what it looks like (next to Julie on the stairs).

Now, if you have 1000 mL of snow packed into a graduated cylinder, will it become 1000 mL of water when it melts?  Or less?  We had mixed reviews on the subject: 4 thought it would stay at 1000 mL, 3 thought it would shrink to 900 mL, 1 thought it would shrink to 700 mL, 8 thought it would shrink to 500 mL.
Here's what happened throughout the day:

Sometime after lunch...

At the end of the day (390 mL)...

At the end of the day our predictions changed.  Here's what we think now: 1 thinks it will grow to 1000 mL, 1 thinks it will grow to 600 mL, 5 think it will grow to 500 mL, 1 thinks it will grow to 450 mL, and 8 think it will stay at 400 mL.

Stay tuned for the results tomorrow!

Speaking of graduated cylinders we started talking about 3D shapes today.  Can you identify the following shapes?  Can you find one of each around your house?