Indiana Science HS-ICP3-1

ScienceGrades 9–12Energy

The Standard

Quantitatively analyze various scenarios to describe how the change of energy in one component in a system responds to the change in energy of the other components and flow of energy into and out of the system are known.

Indiana Academic Standards for Science (2023) · Energy

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Track energy entering and leaving a defined system. Use the known energy changes of its parts to calculate a missing change in joules.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student marks energy entering as positive and energy leaving as negative. Given 500 J in, 40 J out, and 80 J gained by a cup, they calculate that the water gains 380 J.
Common Misconceptions: Students may add energy leaving the system instead of subtracting it. They may ignore energy gained by another part, such as the cup, or treat a temperature change as an energy amount.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A heater sends 700 J into a water-and-cup system. If 60 J leaves and the cup gains 90 J, how many joules does the water gain? Show your calculation.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Mix 100 g of warm water with 100 g of cool water in a foam cup, measure temperatures, and calculate each portion's energy change.
Ask students to explain why water gains 380 J when 500 J enters a system, 40 J leaves, and a cup gains 80 J.
Give teams cards marked 500 J in, 40 J out, and 80 J gained by cup, then have them calculate water's gain.
Show a phone-charging diagram with 600 J entering, 100 J warming the case, and 50 J leaving; calculate battery energy gained.

Free download