Mark Boone.. age 11, of Grenada, Miss., for his question

 What makes snow whiten

A snowflake is made from trillions of tiny fragments of ice and trillions of tiny pockets of air. The air and ice work together to bend bank the rays of light so that the snowflake looks white, Somewhat the same thing happens when you beat up a clear, glassy egg white. Little pockets of air become mixed with the eggy material* Instead of being clear, the meringue mixture is white.

When snow melts, the fragments of ice become clear water. The pockets of air which were trapped between the ice crystals go off into the atmosphere. The fluffy white snow turns into a watery puddle.