MS-PS3-4 lessons
Plan an investigation into how energy transfer, the type of matter and its mass relate to changes in particle motion, measured as temperature.
The Next Generation Science Standards code MS-PS3-4 asks students to: “Plan an investigation into how energy transfer, the type of matter and its mass relate to changes in particle motion, measured as temperature.” These Fieldbook lessons teach it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Hot and Cold: Particles on the Move Grade 6 · partly supports this standard
- Why does food colouring spread faster in hot water? 45–60 min
Two cups, two drops, one race. Students drop food colouring into warm and ice-cold water at the same moment, then explain what the moving colour tells us about particles they can't see.
- Can you keep an ice cube frozen the longest? 60 min, plus a 40-minute wait (teach something else while the ice sits)
A design challenge with insulation, a budget and a class leaderboard. Teams build an ice cube keeper, measure how much melted, and explain why the best designs slow down heat moving in.
Hot Stuff: Heat, Temperature and Cooling Grade 9 · partly supports this standard
- Does hotter always mean more heat? 60–70 min
Teams mix hot, warm and cold water in lidded foam cups, predict each final temperature from the masses, and check the prediction with a thermometer. They find that a small amount of very hot water can warm less than a large amount of warm water, and settle the difference between temperature and thermal energy with Q = mcΔT.
- Why is the sand too hot to stand on when the sea is still cool? 65–75 min
Teams warm 200 g of dry sand or steel washers in a hot-tap-water bath, drop them into 100 g of cold water, and use an energy balance to calculate each material's specific heat capacity, with an uncertainty. They compare their values with water's 4.18 J/g·°C and explain why land heats faster than sea.
NGSS is used as written in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, so the code MS-PS3-4 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
More NGSS standards for middle school
All standards we teach · Curriculum alignment by state and province
Three full lessons, free
Make a free account and download any three Fieldbook lessons as printable PDFs. No card needed.