4-PS3-2
The standard
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
Next Generation Science Standards
What this standard means
Students need to notice and describe ways energy moves from one place to another. They should use observations as evidence, not just say what they already know. They might observe a bulb lighting in a circuit, sunlight warming paper, a drum making rice move, or warm water heating a spoon.
Mastery looks like linking the source, the transfer method, and the effect. For example, light from a flashlight makes a solar toy move. Students often get stuck naming the object instead of the transfer, or they confuse energy with matter moving.
Ways to teach it
- Place rice on plastic wrap stretched over a bowl, tap a nearby drum, and have students record what the rice does.
- Ask students to write: How do you know energy moved when a flashlight shines on your hand?
- Show four picture cards, lamp, buzzer, hot plate, battery circuit, and have students name the energy transfer in each.
- Have students list three home devices and identify whether sound, light, heat, or electric current transfers energy.
Plan a lesson for 4-PS3-2
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- 4-PS3-1
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
- 1-PS4-1
Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
- MS-PS3-5
Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
- HS-PS2-5
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and that a changing magnetic field can produce an el...