Key Idea: Small changes to the surface of the earth caused by wind and water can add up to large changes over long periods of time (i.e., over thousands to millions of years).
Students are expected to know that:
- Wind and water continuously wears away, moves, and drops rock material, even if it is by such small amounts that the changes cannot be seen without the help of instruments.
- Changes to the earth’s surface by wind and water that occur over relatively short time periods can add up to very large changes over long time periods. Because mountains and valleys are so large, and because even changes that occur over a year are relatively small compared to the size of the mountain or valley, it often takes many millions of years for wind and water to cause large changes to their shape and size.
- As a result of the continuous action of wind and water, all places on earth look different today from how they looked in the past and from how they will look in the future.
| Item ID Number |
Knowledge Being Assessed | Grades 6–8 |
Grades 9–12 |
Select This Item for My Item Bank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The continuous movement of wind and water changes the size of mountains over many millions of years | 58% |
64% |
|
Misconception |
Student Misconception |
Grades |
Grades |
|---|---|---|---|
Wind and water cannot wear away the solid rock of a mountain (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.). | 12% |
11% | |
12% |
11% | ||
Landforms can change in size, but not by the motion of wind and water (AAAS Project 2061, n.d.). | 11% |
9% |
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.
Code |
Statement |
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