• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Energy stores and transfers). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which energy store is most important here: lava from a volcano? (chemical / kinetic (movement) / thermal (heat) / elastic potential (stretch or squash)) → thermal (heat)Prompt: Is it moving, raised up, stretched, hot, or able to release energy by reacting?
2. A ball is dropped. Which energy store decreases as it falls? (nuclear / elastic / kinetic / gravitational potential) → gravitational potentialPrompt: It is getting lower.
3. Which of these mainly has a kinetic (movement) energy store? (a rolling football / a drawn bow / a stretched trampoline / petrol (gasoline)) → a rolling footballPrompt: Think about what each object is doing.

• Wind up a toy or stretch an elastic band and ask where the energy goes.
• Share the objective: Conduction, convection and radiation. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which kind of energy transfer is this: a metal spoon in hot soup getting hot?
• Step 1: Conduction passes energy through a solid as particles vibrate and pass it on.
• Step 2: So the answer is: conduction
• Answer: conduction
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which kind of energy transfer is this: a pan handle warming up? (conduction / convection / radiation) → conductionPrompt: Is the energy moving through a solid, carried by a moving fluid, or travelling as waves?
2. Why are saucepans often made of metal with plastic handles? (Metal is a good conductor; plastic is a good insulator / Metal is an insulator / Plastic conducts heat better than metal / It is just for colour) → Metal is a good conductor; plastic is a good insulatorPrompt: Which part should get hot, and which should not?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Heat transfer: which statement is NOT true? (Convection cannot happen in solids. / Radiation needs particles to travel. / Metals are good thermal conductors. / Air trapped in materials makes good insulation.) → Radiation needs particles to travel.Prompt: Which way does energy flow: hot to cold, or cold to hot?
2. How does the Sun's energy reach Earth? (through cables / by conduction through space / by convection currents in space / by radiation, through empty space) → by radiation, through empty spacePrompt: Space is almost empty, with almost no particles.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-7.