Parents Guide for Unit 46
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Below are notes on the main points of each assignment.
We change topics now to look at concepts of energy, rather than the biological topics we've been pursuing for the last four or five units. Energy is a difficult concept to pin down for many students, since we don't every see it or measure it directly, but only infer it from its effects on material objects. The concept of heat as a "fluid" that travels from one object to another is similar to the concept of charge that we'll see in our upcoming study of electricity, and in both cases of energy and electrical fields, we still use the idea of "flux" or flow of energy to describe the overall behavior of thermodynamics and electrical charges, so these concepts are important.
The primary focus here is on the concept of efficiency, that is, the conversion of energy from one form (heat) to another form (mechanical energy that can move objects such as the piston of an engine), without losing energy in the process. The pursuit of the efficient engine ultimately leads to discoveries in the field of thermodynamics.
Please discuss with your student the study questions at the end of the web lecture.
Our science lecture focuses on definitions of energy as potential and kinetic energy, and as work. We look at the types of energy movement through radiation, convection, and conduction, and the relationship of temperature to the average kinetic energy of individual molecules in a substance. Some of these concepts are familiar, but others are not, so students need to identify the new concepts and make sure that they understand the differences between the common everyday expression of a term, and its precise "scientific" meaning.
The mastery exercise questions and chat essay identify key players in the definitions of heat (notice the reappearance of Lavoisier in a different role!), and precise definitions of heat, energy, and temperature. Make sure that the student reads and attempts to answer the exercise before chat, so that he can identify questions that need to be discussed in chat.
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