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In high school, students develop a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of heat and heat transfer as they investigate thermal equilibrium, laws of thermodynamics, and related topics.

Lessons and Activities

Going to Extremes: Frozen Alive (ORC #2391)
Students explore freezing-point depression within the context of organisms that survive in extremely cold environments.

Rate of Cooling Experiment (ORC #3207)
In this task, students measure the insulation properties of different fabrics by immersing cans of water covered with fabric "socks" in an ice bath and measuring temperature changes.

Simple Thermodynamics of Transportation, ORC #2310
Students explore energy transformations and are introduced to the laws of thermodynamics in this series of three lessons. In each lesson, students watch a video (available and viewable online) about a different mode of transportation and examine the energy transformations that occur in each.


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Released Assessment Items

Use these released test items in creative ways in the classroom. Consider using them as conversation starters, the foundation for inquiries, or group work activities in which students evaluate the sample responses.

ODE Assessment Item, Grade 10: Scientific Inquiry, Thermal Energy (ORC #9059)
This released test item asks students to use data collected in an experiment to explain why a student's conclusion is incorrect and what effect additional ice will have on the temperature of his drink.

ODE Assessment Item, Grade 10: Physical Science, Energy (ORC #9058)
This released test item asks students to select the correct description of energy based on the given information for the first five minutes of a water temperature experiment.

Hyperphysics: Heat and Thermodynamics (ORC #3700)
This portion of the HyperPhysics website provides information about topics related to heat and thermodynamics. Topics include internal energy, temperature, heat transfer, laws of thermodynamics, and related topics.

Connections to Ohio's Revised Science Standards

Physical Science Topics
Transfer and Transformation of Energy
Thermal Energy