Original Project
Weather and Climate I: Basic Elements
The pattern of the rise and fall of air temperature over a day and over a year at any given place on the surface…
Item WC105001: Sunlight transfers different amounts of energy to a lake depending on the position of the sun in the sky.
The photographs below show the sun at two different positions in the sky above a lake: One shows the sun high in the sky and one shows the sun lower in the sky. In both situations, nothing blocks the sunlight from reaching the lake.
Sun high in the sky Sun low in the sky
Would sunlight transfer different amounts of energy to the lake when the sun is at different positions in the sky?
- Yes, because the position of the sun changes the angle at which sunlight hits the lake, which determines how much energy the sunlight transfers to the lake
- Yes, because the position of the sun changes the distance that sunlight must travel to reach the lake, which determines how much energy sunlight transfers to the lake
- No, because how much energy the sunlight transfers to the lake does not depend on where the sun is in the sky
- No, because sunlight cannot transfer energy to a lake
- Distribution of Responses
- Students Responding Correctly
| Group | Correct | Total | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 850 | 1597 | 53% |
| Grades | |||
| 6–8 | 494 | 958 | 52% |
| 9–12 | 354 | 636 | 56% |
| Gender | |||
| Male | 394 | 743 | 53% |
| Female | 444 | 828 | 54% |
| Primary Language | |||
| English | 758 | 1422 | 53% |
| Other | 68 | 130 | 52% |
- Disciplinary Core Ideas
- PS3.B Sunlight warms Earth's surface.
PS3.B Light also transfers energy from place to place.
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. - Notes
- NGSS does not actually address the relationship between the changing position of the sun in the sky throughout the day and the amount of energy that is transferred to Earth by the sun, but many of the necessary pieces of knowledge are included.