Year 9 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 7
Challenge Worksheet
Learning Goals
Explain it to a Year 7 student
A Year 7 student keeps writing "heat" and "temperature" as if they mean the same thing. Your job is to explain the difference clearly using the sentence starters below. You can use the swimming pool vs coffee example, or any other real-life example that makes sense to a 13-year-old.
"The basic idea of temperature is…" (Hint: what does it measure about particles? What units?)
"The basic idea of heat is different, heat is actually…" (Hint: is it a property of an object, or something that moves?)
"Here is a real-world example that shows they are not the same: imagine a swimming pool at 20°C and a mug of coffee at 80°C…" (Complete this example to show which has more thermal energy and why.)
"The reason people confuse heat and temperature is…" (Why does this mistake make sense from everyday experience? What is misleading about everyday language?)
1. A tiny spark from a campfire has a temperature of around 1,200°C. The Pacific Ocean off Sydney has a summer surface temperature of around 22°C. Which object has more thermal energy? Justify your answer with reference to particle number, mass, and average kinetic energy.
2. An everyday thermometer measures temperature, not heat. Evaluate this statement: explain what a thermometer actually measures at the particle level, and why it cannot tell you the total thermal energy of a substance without additional information.
Wrap Up
In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?