Diagnostic · Work, conservation, heat
Energy Diagnostic
Maps the substance view of energy and its consequences — conservation conditions, transfer versus transformation, heat versus temperature — and shows which band to teach first.
IB DP · AP · A-Level · GCSE / IGCSE
1
Forms
24
Questions
25–30
Minutes
11
Bands
Run in classrooms at 7 schools · 7 countries · 3 continents
The wrong ideas are not ours. Physics education research has documented them since 1979 — Viennot · Trowbridge & McDermott · Hestenes · Maloney. Every diagnostic is built on them.
What it maps
Eleven misconception bands across the energy surface.
E1
Substance vs Bookkeeping
Energy as a property of a state vs energy as stuff that flows or gets used up. The root misconception that anchors most others.
E2
Conservation Conditions
When mechanical-energy conservation holds, when path-independence applies, when dissipation enters the picture.
E3
Transfer vs Transformation
Energy moving between systems vs energy changing form within a system — the distinction the substance view collapses.
E4
State vs Process
Energy as a scalar quantity assigned to a state, not a vector or a process. Disambiguation from momentum and from heat.
E5
PE Belongs to Interactions
Gravitational and elastic PE as properties of pair interactions, not single objects. Reference choice and negative-PE handling.
E6
Work–KE Theorem
F·d CM versus work at the contact point. Pseudowork vs real work. Forces that do no work.
E7
Hooke's Law & Spring PE
Length vs displacement, spring-constant meaning, drop-block-on-spring as a tool-choice probe.
E8
Qualitative Transformations
Following the energy chain through compound systems. Internal energy versus thermal energy versus heat.
E9
PE Diagram Reading
Stable vs unstable equilibrium, graph-shift invariance, turning points, forbidden trajectories on multi-hill landscapes.
E10
Heat vs Temperature
Heat-as-noun recognition, phase change at constant temperature, the linguistic discipline most textbooks fail to enforce.
X1
The Friction Paradox
Constant-velocity block on a rough surface: ΔK = 0 yet thermal energy rises. Cross-band closing item that ties energy back to Newton's laws.
A question from it
Energy hides the deepest conceptual gaps in mechanics.
Energy as a substance the spring “contains”
Ask students what energy means for a stretched spring connected to a block. Many will say it is something the spring contains and will transfer.
Where does gravitational PE belong?
A ball is held at height h above the ground. Where does the gravitational PE belong — to the ball, to the Earth, or to neither alone? Most students say to the ball.
The astronaut floor-jump
An astronaut in a space station pushes off the floor and gains kinetic energy. Where does the energy come from?
“Heat” as a noun the kettle stores
Students — and most textbooks — speak of heat as if it were a substance that flows, gets stored in objects, and can be possessed.
How it runs
Shared link. No student logins.
24 questions, about 25–30 minutes, no calculator required, single sitting.
The report arrives within 48 hours of your class finishing.
Request
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Founding-department programme opens January 2027
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Grounded in Arons, Knight, Moore and Chabay & Sherwood