Mississippi Science PHY.3.7
The Standard
- PHY.3
- Students will develop an understanding of concepts related to work and energy.
Enrichment: Use mathematical and computational analysis to analyze problems involving specific heat and heat capacity.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Work and Energy
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use mass, heat transferred, and temperature change to calculate specific heat or an object's heat capacity. They use those values to predict how much a sample will warm or cool.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a mass, a heat transfer, and starting and ending temperatures, a student can calculate specific heat with correct units. They can also calculate heat capacity and explain why it changes when the sample's mass changes.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat specific heat and heat capacity as the same number, even though heat capacity depends on mass. They may use the final temperature instead of the temperature change, or use grams with a value given per kilogram.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A 0.50 kg metal block absorbs 900 J and warms from 20°C to 30°C. Find its specific heat and heat capacity, with units.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Weigh 100 g and 200 g of warm water in separate cups, measure each temperature drop, and calculate heat lost using water's specific heat.
Ask: If two different masses of water each absorb 4,000 J, which warms more? Explain with a calculation.
Hand out mass, heat, and temperature-change cards; pairs use a spreadsheet to calculate specific heat and check their units.
Read a 1,500 W kettle label, then predict the ideal time to heat 0.5 kg of water from 20°C to 80°C.
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Printable PHY.3.7 Worksheet
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