Original Project
Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition
Item WE018003: Moving water continuously wears down earth's solid rock layer whenever water is moving over the rock, even if you cannot see it happening.
How long does it take for moving water to wear down earth’s solid rock layer?
- Whenever water is moving over solid rock, a little bit of the rock is worn down even if you can’t see it.
- Moving water can wear down solid rock, but it takes about ten years or more to cause any change, no matter how small.
- Moving water can wear down solid rock, but it takes millions of years or more to cause any change, no matter how small.
- Moving water cannot wear down solid rock.
- Distribution of Responses
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 657 | 1385 | 47% |
| Grades | |||
| 6–8 | 391 | 869 | 45% |
| 9–12 | 264 | 511 | 52% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 327 | 686 | 48% |
| Female | 319 | 671 | 48% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 582 | 1227 | 47% |
| Other | 61 | 125 | 49% |
- NRC Framework
- Grade 8 ESS2.C Water’s movements…cause weathering and erosion, which change the land’s surface features.
- Notes
- NGSS acknowledges that Earth's systems "operate over fractions of a second to billions of years," (Framework, p. 181), but it does not specifically say how long it takes for the erosion of rock to occur. See also NGSS Performance Expectation MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.