Science Assessment ~ Ideas ~ The maximum height that the sun reaches in the sky at any place varies over the course of the year, and how it varies depends on how far the place is from the tropical region.

Key Idea: The seasonal changes in air temperature are caused by changes in the intensity of energy from sunlight and changes in the number of hours that energy from sunlight is transferred, both of which are brought about by earth's annual movement around the sun.

Sub-Ideas
Items & Student Performance
Misconceptions
NGSS

Students are expected to know that:

Each day, some amount of energy is transferred to a place on earth by sunlight, and some amount of energy is transferred (radiated) away from that place.
The earth’s movement around the sun over a year causes the intensity of sunlight at a place, how long the sun is shining on that place, and, therefore, the amount of energy that is transferred to that place to gradually increase and decrease over the course of a year.
The amount of energy that is transferred away from a place on the earth into space over a day depends on the temperature of the place on that day and on the amount of cloud cover and elevation of the place.
If the amount of energy that is transferred to a place on a given day is greater than the amount of energy that is transferred away from the place, the total amount of energy at that place increases, and the air temperature increases. If the amount of energy that is transferred to a place on a given day is less than the amount of energy that is transferred away from the place, the total amount of energy at that place decreases, and the air temperature decreases.
During the summer, as the amount of energy transferred to a place begins to decrease, the air temperature at that place will continue to increase as long as the amount of energy transferred to that place is greater than the amount of energy being transferred away from it. Similarly, during the winter, as the amount of energy transferred to a place begins to increase, the air temperature at that place will continue to decrease as long as the amount of energy transferred to the place is smaller than the amount of energy being transferred away from the place. The combination of these two effects causes the annual rise and fall of air temperature at any place to be about a month behind the annual rise and fall in the amount of energy received from the sun at that place.

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)
Item ID Number	Knowledge Being Assessed	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12	Select This Item for My Item Bank
CL129002	The air temperature at a town usually increases during July and begins to decrease in early August because the amount of energy transferred to the town from the sun becomes less than the amount of energy transferred from the town into space in early August.	34%	35%
CL130002	A change in the amount of energy transferred from the sun to a town can explain the decrease in air temperature in the town in August if the amount of energy transferred to the town from the sun becomes smaller than the amount of energy being transferred away from the town.	30%	29%

Frequency of selecting a misconception
Misconception ID Number	Student Misconception	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12
CLM094	When the average temperature at a place changes over the course of the year, it is due only to changes in the amount of energy transferred from the sun to the earth, not to changes in the amount of energy transferred from earth into space (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.).	33%	35%

Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.

No NGSS statements are associated with this idea in the selected project.