Original Project
Weather and Climate II: Seasonal Differences
The earth’s spherical shape causes differences in the intensity of sunlight and thus the amount of energy from…
Item CL082002: For two places equally close to the place where the sun is directly overhead, the sun will be the same height in the sky at those two places at the same moment in time.
Place 1 and Place 2 shown below are equally close to the place where the sun is directly overhead at the moment in time shown below.
Would the sun be higher in the sky at Place 1 or Place 2?
- Place 1
- Place 2
- The sun would be equally high in the sky at both places.
- It depends on the time of year whether the sun would be higher at one place or the other.
- Distribution of Responses
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 508 | 2190 | 23% |
| Grades | |||
| 6–8 | 253 | 1128 | 22% |
| 9–12 | 253 | 1055 | 24% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 244 | 1045 | 23% |
| Female | 252 | 1077 | 23% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 447 | 1913 | 23% |
| Other | 43 | 187 | 23% |
- 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.