Atmosphere Quiz

Atmospheric Heating

Examples of Good Answers to Questions:

Listed below are examples of quality answer for the written portion of the
“Atmospheric Heating” quiz. These answer are not necessarily ‘perfect’ answers,
but the represent the quality and level of answer which should be obtainable by
6th grade students on this test.

Question:
Use the diagram to show how the inside of a green house becomes warmer than
outside.

Note: An image was included with this question, and students also included their own additions to their diagram.
Student’s diagrams were also considered when evaluating the question, and thus the written answer can not necessarily
be directly correlated to the actual score received on the question.

Example 1:
1.) the short wave solar energy is absorbed by the greenhouse’s roof. 2.) the
greenhouses roof absorbs, then reradiates the thermal energy as the long-wave
energy. 3.) the longwave energy hits the greenhouses floor and is reflected. 4.)
the reflected energy hits the roof and is reflected.

Example 2:
Radiation from the sun enters the greenhouse through the glass walls. When the
radiation reflects off of the inside surfaces of the greenhouse, it loses some energy
and it is not able to escape back to the outside. So it is trapped.

Example 3:
The sun ray (Radiation) enters the green house and the plants absorb some of it, so
it loses energy, there, not having enough energy to escape. This is the theory of
global warming on a much smaller scale.

Example 4:
Electromagnetic rays from the sun pass through the glass then hit the ground and
create heat. Some rays bounce off with a lower frequency and can’t get through
the glass again.

Example 5:
As radiation from the sun enters the greenhouse, the radiation hits the sunspace
and then bounces off. The glass rooftop then reflects the radiation back, resulting
in the in the inside of the greenhouse becoming warmer than outside.

Example 6:
This picture depicts something similar to how to Earth is heated. As the sun emits
radiation some of it gets lost on the journey to Earth but some comes. So the Earth
is like a giant greenhouse keeping us warm and safe. So as you can see the sun’s
radiation gets absorbed by the greenhouse, but whi it tries to get out it can’t thus
this is called “Greenhouse Gas” which means radiation that’s trapped in.

Question:
A student sets up the situation shown below: A lamp shining upon a surface that
is half white and half black. On each half, the student places a beaker of 100ml of
water, and a thermometer. Explain what you would expect to observe from this
situation.

Note: The idea behind this question was so simple, that Mr. Wilcox also evaluated how thoroughly a student
communicated their idea. An answer such as “It would be hotter on the black.” Was not sufficient to warrant full credit.

Example 1:
I would expect that the cup of water on the black surface to become hotter than on
the white surface. This is because dark colors absorb more radiation, while lighter
colors tend to reflect more radiation. Because the darker colors absorb more
radiation, the black surface will heat up faster, and then conduct more heat into
the beaker.

Example 2:
I would expect the beaker with water on top of the black paper to be a lot warmer
than the other since the color black absorbs energy better than white.

Example 3:
I would expect to observe the temperature of the water on the black half of the
surface to be getting hotter much faster and quicker than the white side of the
surface because black/dull areas reflect less radiation than shiny/white areas do.

Example 4:
I would expect that because of radiation the black area is getting warmer and the
temperature is rising after about 5-10 minutes the water on the black would
change slowly to rise on a higher temperature than the other.

Example 5:
You would expect the cup in the black side to heat up faster because darker colors,
like black, absorb more radiation than lighter colors, like white, so if this
experiment is accurate, the cup in the black side should heat up faster.

Question:
The image below represents the five major ways that energy from the sun
interacts with or is transferred through the Earth’s atmosphere. Use the spaces
below to describe what is happening at each location.

Note: Proper terminology on this question was important to receive full credit for the answers.

Example 1
A: The sun’s energy was absorbed by the earth’s ground
B: The sun’s energy was reflected by the earth’s ground
C: The sun’s energy was absorbed by the clouds
D: The sun’s energy was reflected by the clouds.
E: The sun’s energy caused convection currents.

Example 2:
A: The earth’s surface is absorbing the sun’s radiation/energy.
B: The earth’s surface is reflecting the sun’s radiation/energy.
C: The clouds and other atmospheric gasses are absorbing the sun’s
radiation/energy
D: The clouds and other atmospheric gasses are reflecting the sun’s
radiation/energy.
E: Convection currents are taking place as warm air rises and cold air sinks.

Example 3:
A: The sun’s radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s surface, which makes the Earth’s
surface warmer.
B: The sun’s radiation is reflected by the Earth’s surface so now the heat is in the
atmosphere.
C: The suns radiation is absorbed by the clouds, air, and atmosphere.
D: The sun’s radiation is reflected by the Earth’s atmosphere and travels
everywhere else in space.
E: The heat is circulating in the atmosphere. As the density decreases it rises; as it
increases, it sinks.