Save a snowball now

Name your own price on June 21

Carnegie Science Center is offering a unique opportunity to capture a bit of the winter’s snowfall now, preserve it for a few months, then bring it in—and celebrate the Summer Solstice with a special “Name Your Own Price” Day.

All visitors who make a snowball this winter, save it in their freezer, and bring it in on the first day of summer, Friday, June 21, will be able to choose what they pay for general admission

 In addition to naming their own price, every person who brings a snowball to the Science Center will be able to launch it into the Ohio River (weather permitting).

 In past years, hundreds of snowballs survived the winter and spring in freezers throughout the region and made their way to the Science Center—in coolers, freezer bags, frosty coffee cans, and plastic storage containers.

 The Science Center invites visitors of all ages to start stockpiling snowballs now and remember these snowy facts:

• Snow forms from tiny crystals in clouds.
• Snow is not frozen rain; that’s called sleet.
• Most snowflakes melt before reaching the ground.
• No two snowflakes are identical.
• Each snowflake is made up of two to 200 separate crystals, on average.
• Although it appears white, snow actually is transparent. Snow crystals act as prisms and break up the Sun’s light into the entire color spectrum. The human eye can’t handle that kind of sensory overload, so it is processed as white. If a region’s soil contains more iron, giving it a reddish tinge, snow may appear pink—wind will blow dirt and dust into the atmosphere and clouds, where the snow crystals form initially.

About Carnegie Science Center

Carnegie Science Center brings the world of science alive for visitors of all ages. One of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the Science Center features hands-on exhibits, three live demonstration theaters, a four-story Omnimax theater, Highmark SportsWorks®, an interactive full-dome digital planetarium, a Cold War-era submarine moored on Pittsburgh’s Ohio River, the world’s largest and most comprehensive robotics exhibition, and a world-renowned model railroad display. Carnegie Science Center is located at One Allegheny Avenue on Pittsburgh’s North Shore next to Heinz Field. Visit CarnegieScienceCenter.org, or call 412.237.3400 for more information.

About Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1895, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is a collection of four distinctive museums dedicated to exploration through art and science: Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, and The Andy Warhol Museum. Annually, the museums reach more than 1.4 million people through exhibitions, educational programs, outreach activities, and special events.