Original Project
Weather and Climate II: Seasonal Differences
Item CL030002: In the northern hemisphere, the maximum height the sun reaches in the sky is greater in March than in January.
A student who lives in the United States observes the sun moving across the sky during January, and she sees that the highest the sun gets during the day is just above the top of a building across the street from her house.
If she observes the sun from the same place in March, what would she see?
- The sun would also reach the top of the building in March.
- The sun would reach higher than the top of the building in March.
- The sun would not reach as high as the top of the building in March.
- Whether or not the sun would reach the top of the building in March would depend on where in the United States she lives.
- Distribution of Responses
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 1021 | 2306 | 44% |
| Grades | |||
| 6–8 | 531 | 1226 | 43% |
| 9–12 | 484 | 1068 | 45% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 504 | 1138 | 44% |
| Female | 480 | 1084 | 44% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 879 | 1906 | 46% |
| Other | 103 | 268 | 38% |
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
- ESS1.A Patterns of the apparent motion of the sun, the moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, predicted, and explained with models.
ESS1.B The orbits of Earth around the sun and of the moon around Earth, together with the rotation of Earth about an axis between its North and South poles, cause observable patterns. These include day and night; daily changes in the length and direction of shadows; and different positions of the sun, moon, and stars at different times of the day, month, and year.