Skill: atomise (blueprint 6b) → write-like-james @ ff85038

Energy (Topic 12) and Sound (Topic 11) — decisions before the rebuild (29 September 2026)

> Renumbered 29 September 2026 (James's ruling on question 1, applied by the structure pass — grade3/records/RENUMBER_11_12_AND_AIR_MOVE_2026-09-29.md). When this page was written, Energy was Topic 11 (G3T11) and Sound was Topic 12 (G3T12). James ruled Sound first, so the folders, codes and numbers were swapped; every number, code and file:line on this page has been updated to the NEW ones (Energy = Topic 12 / G3T12, Sound = Topic 11 / G3T11). James also ruled on question 2: move the two air lessons from Topic 20 into Sound as its L01 and L02 (not two lines) — done; Sound's old L01–L03 are now L03–L05. Questions 3–7 are the Energy agent's to apply.

You said the energy lessons at the start of Topic 12 were the place to ask first. This page asks. Seven one-line questions, then the proposed lesson list, then the detail. Nothing has been edited yet.

Decisions I need from you

1. Does Sound (Topic 11) move in front of Energy (Topic 12)?

Sound's three lessons never need the word energy: a thing vibrates, the vibration travels through the air, the far thing shakes less.

Taught first, the drum and the jumping rice become Energy's worked example of energy being carried, as recall plus one new idea.

The cost is a rename, not a rewrite: two build folders and their codes swap, two preview folders swap, two architecture rows swap; no video has gone to the pipeline for either topic, so no video id moves.

My recommendation: yes, Sound first. Choices: Sound first / keep Energy first.

2. Where do children learn that air is something, before Sound says the vibration travels through it?

The air atoms sit in the Matter strand: "Air is something you can feel" (MAT3-063) and "Air is made of tiny pieces too small to see" (MAT3-064) are the first two lessons of Topic 20, after all of Physics.

Sound's L02 already says "the drum shakes the air next to it; that air shakes the air next to it", so the child is told air is there, but never that air is stuff.

My recommendation: two stated lines inside Sound L02, no new atom — "Air is something real: you feel it when you fan your face. Air is made of tiny pieces, far too small to see." Topic 20 still teaches both properly and tests them.

Choices: two lines inside Sound / move the two air lessons ahead of Sound / leave Sound as it is.

3. Is the seven-lesson Energy topic below the one to build?

Three lessons are new, four keep their scenes and change their words; the closing lesson tells force and energy apart, as you asked.

Seven is one over the "three to six" size you set; the closing lesson is short, and the topic splits naturally into a "has" half (L01–L03) and a "carried" half (L04–L07) for the PP100 clusters.

My recommendation: build the seven. Choices: seven as listed / fold L06 ("Energy always comes from somewhere") into L04's lines and build six / split into two topics of three and four.

4. Do the three atoms go to the register reworded as proposed, plus one new atom?

ENE3-001 now reads "Decide whether energy is at work…"; ENE3-002 reads "State that energy is what makes things move or change"; ENE3-003 sorts by "what you can spot the energy doing".

All three carry the wording you struck. The rewrites below keep every standards code; "force and energy are different" has no atom anywhere in the 3–5 band, so one is proposed (ENE3-P03).

My recommendation: yes, all four changes; they go to the knowledge-graph repo after you rule. Choices: yes / edit the wording / no new atom.

5. Does Sound keep its three "carries energy" lines, or hand them to Energy?

Sound's L03 says "The drum's sound carries energy to the rice" three times, and its L01 quiz opens with "What is the energy doing here? The energy is making sound."

If Sound comes first, "energy" is not yet coined there; if Sound stays second, the lines are fine but the L01 item still needs the struck wording removed.

My recommendation: hand them to Energy — Sound L03 says only "the vibration travels through the air to the rice and shakes it"; Energy L04 opens on that same rice and adds "the drum's sound carried energy to the rice". Choices: hand over / keep in Sound and reword.

6. Do all 403 wording hits get rewritten the moment you rule, Topic 15 included?

The sweep found 403 lines across Topics 11, 12 and 15 with "energy at work", "energy makes", "the energy is giving", "mechanical energy" or the like; 344 in lesson and topic files, 59 in drawing labels.

Topic 12 holds 358 of them and most disappear with the rebuild; Topic 11 has 3; Topic 15 has 42, mostly "mechanical" → "kinetic" plus six "energy is at work" lines in its first lesson.

My recommendation: yes, one sweep, all three topics, run by the same agents who own those topics. Choices: all three / Topics 11 and 12 only.

7. May students now read "heat" as a noun?

Your line is "heat is carrying energy to your skin". The built Topics 11 and 15 never let a student read "heat" as a noun; they say warm, warmer, warms up, warmth, after an internal review worried children would hear heat as a stuff.

Your wording is the standard's (TEKS 3.8A names thermal energy) and gives the third carrier a name a child already uses.

My recommendation: yes, "heat" as a carrier noun, in the fixed frame "the fire's heat carries energy to your skin"; "warms up" stays the verb. Choices: yes / keep "warmth" only.

Applied without asking (your rulings of today): energy is had or carried, never "at work" and never "makes things happen"; light carries energy all around, sound carries it to your ears, heat to your skin; every energy sentence names where the energy came from; "kinetic energy" replaces "mechanical energy", with one closing line saying some people call it mechanical (TEKS 3.8A names the word, so it appears once); a lesson at the end of the topic tells force and energy apart; force arrows start at the centre of the thing they act on.

The rebuilt Energy topic at a glance

Teaching order. The "has" lessons first, then the "carried" lessons, then the contrast that closes the topic. Every line is one lesson; the atom's behaviour is in the detail cards.

Cut outright: the rule "Energy is at work when something moves, warms up, gives light or makes a sound"; the rule "Energy is what makes things move or change"; the sorting question "What is the energy doing?" and its three answers. Their scenes (kitchen, flashlight, drum, heater) are reused where they fit.

PP100 clusters (for the architecture's Card 2 when you rule): Has = L01–L03, capstone ENE3-034 (faster means more); Carried = L04–L07, capstone ENE3-P03 (force or energy?). The type sheet loses types 1, 2, 4, 9 and 10 (all "at work" or "makes things happen") and gains a source type ("Where did the energy come from?"), a carrier type ("What carries the energy from X to Y?") and a force-or-energy type.

Detail cards — one per lesson

Each card: the headache, the forest line, then the part line in the blueprint's form: part | atom + behaviour | leans on | check | figure | status, and what the video adds.

L01 — Things that have energy (ENE3-001, reworded) — new

Headache:

Here is a playground on a sunny afternoon.

A girl swings high on the swing.

The metal slide is hot. It has stood in the sun all day.

At the top of the slide, a boy holds a ball up high.

Down on the grass, another ball sits still, cool and low.

What do the swing, the slide and the held-up ball have that the ball on the grass does not?

Forest:

Each of those three has energy.

A moving thing has energy.

A hot thing has energy.

A thing held high up has energy.

The ball on the grass is not moving, not hot and not high up. It has no energy to give.

Some still things have energy too: a wound-up spring, a battery. You will meet them in L06.

• P1 | ENE3-001: decide whether a thing has energy by checking whether it is moving, hot or high up | Topic 1 (moving means changing position); Topic 15's warm/cool words are not needed | — | cartoon: the playground, three chips HAS ENERGY, one NO ENERGY | new
• P2 | the same, as a run: the swing (moving) → the same swing hanging still → the slide, hot → the same slide at dawn, cold → the ball held high → the same ball on the grass | one thing changes each time | fluency quiz: yes / no × 9 on fresh scenes, a still hot iron and a still spring inside; claims (Bodhi: the still hot iron has energy — yes; Rafi: only living things — no) | cartoon | new
• Video adds: the three things lit in turn; the chip appears on the word "moving", "hot", "high up"; the still ball last.

L02 — Moving things have kinetic energy (ENE3-004, reworded) — improve-only

Headache (kept):

Here is a soccer ball on the grass. The ball sits still.

A girl kicks the ball. The ball rolls across the grass and knocks a cone over.

The still ball knocked nothing over.

What does the rolling ball have that the still ball does not?

Forest:

The girl's kick is a push. A push is a force.

The push starts the ball moving. Then her foot leaves the ball.

The ball is moving, so the ball has energy.

The energy a moving thing has is called kinetic energy.

The still ball is not moving, so it has no kinetic energy.

• P1 | ENE3-004: name the energy a moving thing has as kinetic energy | ENE3-001 (moving → has energy); FOR3-012 (a push is a force) for the one seeded line | — | cartoon (kept): the still and rolling balls; chip KINETIC ENERGY replaces MECHANICAL ENERGY | improve-only
• P2 | the run kept: rolling ball → same ball still → swing swinging → same swing hanging → top → bird | — | fluency quiz (kept, 14 items): the typed term now accepts kinetic and mechanical | cartoon (kept) | improve-only
• Video adds: the chip swap and the one new line "The push starts the ball moving"; a short red arrow from the ball's centre for the kick.

L03 — Faster means more kinetic energy (ENE3-034) — improve-only

Headache (kept): two matching toy cars, the blue one slow, the red one fast; each bumps a box; the red car's box goes farther. Which car has more energy?

Forest:

Both cars are moving, so both have kinetic energy.

The red car is faster. The red car has more kinetic energy.

The red car gives its box more energy, so the box slides farther.

Of two matching things, the faster one has more kinetic energy.

• P1 | ENE3-034: predict which of two identical things has more energy from their speeds | ENE3-004; Topic 2 (faster means farther in the same time) | comparative run "which has more kinetic energy?" × 7 (kept) + claims | cartoon (kept) | improve-only
• The two "energy makes / more happens" lines become "the faster car gives its box more energy".
• Video adds: nothing new beyond the words; re-narrate only.

L04 — Sound, light and heat carry energy (ENE3-003, reworded) — new

Headache (Sound first):

Remember the drum and the tray of rice.

Boom! The rice jumped, and the drum never touched it.

Now you stand one step back from a campfire. Your face warms up. Nothing touched your face.

A lamp is on across the room. The wall beside you is lit up.

How did anything from the drum, the fire and the lamp reach the rice, your face and the wall?

Forest:

Energy can be carried from one thing to another.

The drum's sound carried energy through the air to the rice, and the rice jumped.

The fire's heat carries energy to your skin, and your skin warms up.

The lamp's light carries energy all around the room.

Sound, light and heat carry energy. Always say where the energy came from.

• P1 | ENE3-003: say which carrier (sound, light or heat) brings energy from a named source to a named receiver | Sound Topic (the vibration travels through the air); Topic 13 (light travels from a source) if built first — else the lamp is stated | — | cartoon: three panels, giver → carrier → receiver, chip ENERGY riding the arc (Sound L03's drawing) | new
• P2 | the run: a whistle → a night-light → a radiator → a doorbell → headlights → a hot-water bottle, each asked "What carries the energy, and from where?" | one frame sentence | fluency quiz: sort by carrier × 9 + two name-the-source items + claims (Laila: the drum's sound carries energy to her ears — yes; Cato: light only makes things bright — no) | cartoon | new
• If Energy stays before Sound, the headache opens on the drum across a field instead and the rice comes later in Sound; the forest is unchanged.
• Video adds: the arc with the chip ENERGY travelling from giver to receiver, three times; the source named on screen each time.

L05 — Electricity carries energy (ENE3-005) — improve-only

Headache and forest kept: the lamp's cord to the wall; electricity travels along the cord and carries energy to the lamp; plug out, no energy reaches it.

• P1 | ENE3-005: state that electricity carries energy along wires to whatever is plugged in | ENE3-003 (carriers) | fact shape (kept, 10 items) | cartoon (kept): dashed amber arrow along the cord | improve-only
• Two lines change: "the energy arrives and does the three things" → "the toaster gets hot; the fan moves; the speaker's sound carries energy to your ears".
• Video adds: re-narrate two beats only.

L06 — Energy always comes from somewhere (ENE3-002, reworded) — improve-only

Headache (kept): the wind-up frog hops across the table, the hops get smaller, it stops. Where did the energy for the hops come from? And where did it go?

Forest:

The energy came from the tight spring.

With every hop the spring gave a little of its energy to the legs.

When the spring had no more to give, the frog stopped.

The energy did not disappear. Each hop warmed the spring and the air a little, and each hop's sound carried energy to your ears.

Energy always comes from somewhere, and it always goes somewhere. Nothing makes energy from nothing.

• P1 | ENE3-002: name where the energy came from when something starts moving or warms up | ENE3-001; ENE3-003 (carriers, for "where it went") | — | cartoon (kept): the frog's spring | improve-only
• P2 | the battery car and the pan on the stove, asked the same way (came from the battery; came from the stove) | — | what / why / transfer on sources; claims (Noa: the car moves because it wants to — no; anti-"used up": Enzo: the spring's energy is gone for good — no) | cartoon (kept) | improve-only
• Cut: the rule "Energy is what makes things move or change. With no energy, nothing moves and nothing changes." and the recall item "What is energy? — what makes things move or change".
• Video adds: the source named on screen with a chip FROM THE SPRING; the closing beat "where did it go?" with the warm-air lines and the sound arc.

L07 — A force is not energy (ENE3-P03, new) — new, closes the topic

Headache:

Here is a girl and a cart. She pushes the cart, and it rolls away across the yard.

Her hands leave the cart. The cart keeps rolling.

One friend says, "The cart has a force." Another says, "The cart has energy."

Only one of them is right. Which one, and why?

Forest:

The push is a force. A force acts on one thing, in one direction, and it stops when her hands leave the cart.

The rolling cart has kinetic energy, because it is moving. It keeps that energy after the push has stopped.

A thing can have energy. A thing cannot have a force.

Energy can be carried from one thing to another. A force acts on one thing, in one direction.

• P1 | ENE3-P03: decide whether a sentence about a scene names a force or names energy | FOR3-012, FOR3-008, FOR3-006 (a force: push or pull, on one object, in one direction); ENE3-001, ENE3-003 | — | cartoon: the same cart twice — first read a red arrow from the cart's centre (the push), second read a chip ENERGY on the rolling cart | new
• P2 | two more paired reads: a hot pan and the air above it (the pan HAS energy; heat CARRIES it; no force in the story); a ball held high (Earth's pull is the force; the held ball HAS energy) | Topic 3 (Earth's pull) | — | cartoon | new
• P3 | the sort: six sentences, "force or energy?" | — | fluency quiz: sort × 8 + claims (Mabli-style: "the cart has a force" — no; "the hot pan has energy" — yes) | none | new
• P4 (closing part) | Some people call kinetic energy "mechanical energy". You may see that word on a test. We say kinetic energy. | TEKS 3.8A names the word | one recall item, both words accepted | none | new
• Video adds: the two reads of one scene, arrow then chip; the rule slide last.

The atom changes (for the knowledge-graph register, after you rule)

Register: courses/g35-science/registers/ENE3.json; re-assemble, validate, log. Codes stay where they are on every atom. The id slot ENE3-006 is free for the new atom.

Also for the register's decisions log: the physics misconception catalogue row ENE-05 gains its atom; row ENE-03 (used up) is now confronted in L06, not only avoided.

The Sound topic's line changes (decision 5)

Current lines that mention energy, verbatim:

• L01 quiz, recall item: "A bell rings in the hall. What is the energy doing here?" — feedback "The bell rings. The energy is making sound."
• L03 forest: "The drum's sound carries energy to the rice."
• L03 article and script: "The drum's sound carries energy to the rice, and the rice jumps." (twice), and the fluency item "What does the gong's sound carry to the sugar? — energy".
• L03 rule (unchanged either way): "The farther a thing is from the sound, the less it shakes."

Proposed (Sound first): the L01 recall item becomes a Topic 10 recall (unbalanced forces change motion — the drumstick's push starts the skin moving); the L03 lines become "The drum's vibration travels through the air to the rice and shakes it"; the gong item is retired; Energy L04 opens on the rice and adds the energy reading. Title "Sound shakes things at a distance" stays: it names the happening, and the atom's behaviour is the distance prediction.

Proposed (Energy first): keep the L03 "carries energy" lines as they are (they already name the source and the receiver); rewrite only the L01 item: "A bell rings in the hall. What carries energy from the bell to your ears? — the bell's sound".

The wording sweep (decision 6)

403 lines carry a struck phrase. Every line is listed in the collapsed appendix at the foot of this page with its rewrite class. The classes:

• A — "energy (is) at work": 113 lines → the thing HAS energy; "Is energy at work?" → "Does it have energy?". Topic 12 L01 (62), Topic 12 intro/summary/practice (15), Topic 12 drawings (23), Topic 15 L01 (6), scattered (7).
• B — "energy makes things happen / is what makes": 20 lines → cut with the L02 rule; the topic's line becomes "Energy always comes from somewhere". Topic 12 L02 (11), L06 (2), intro/summary (6), L01 (1).
• C — "the energy is giving / making / warming", "what is the energy doing", "energy does": 79 lines → "the <source>'s light / sound / heat carries energy to <receiver>". Topic 12 L03 (53), drawings (12), intro/summary (7), Topic 11 L01 (3), Topic 15 L01–L02 (4).
• D — "mechanical energy": 141 lines → "kinetic energy"; the word mechanical survives in one closing line and in typed-item accept lists. Topic 12 L04 (68), drawings (21), intro/summary/PP100 (21), L05–L06 (8), headers (2); Topic 15 L03 (11), PP100 and summary (8), headers (2).
• E — "the spring has energy to give", "the stove gives the water energy": 47 lines, allowed shape (a named giver and receiver) — keep; L06 adds where the energy went.
• Seven lines matched only on a loose pattern (author's notes naming "mechanical" in the lesson-type field) — rename with class D.

Topic 15's six class-A lines, quoted with the rewrite: "Energy is at work in the bulb: the bulb gives light, and the bulb warms up too." → "The bulb is hot, so the bulb has energy. Its light carries energy across the room, and its heat carries energy to your finger."; the L01 recall item "A flashlight is on. It gives light to the path. Is energy at work?" → "…What carries energy from the flashlight to the path? — its light"; Ludo's claim "the candles' energy is giving light and warming the air" → "the candles' light carries energy across the room and their heat carries energy to the air above them — is Ludo right? yes".

What happens next

You rule on the seven questions above. Then, in this order: the register changes go to the knowledge-graph repo (decision 4); the folders and codes swap if Sound moves first (decision 1); the Topic 11 lines change (decisions 2 and 5); the seven Energy lessons are written to the cards above under write-lesson, with the new type sheet for the PP100; the wording sweep runs across Topics 11, 12 and 15 (decision 6); the videos are briefed last, with the force arrow from the centre of the cart. Topics 13 and 14 carry no energy wording and are untouched.

James's notes, verbatim (page 1 of the Physics unit review, 29 September 2026 — the energy and sound part)

Spot energy at work - saying energy is at work could be problematic, because forces do work - not energy. You should restrict the language to saying something "has" energy, or energy is being transferred from one thing to another Energy makes things happen - no - that's what forces do. You're conflating the definition of energy and force. I think we need a specific lesson in this topic at the end distinguishing between energy and force. E.g. an object can have energy - if its moving, hot, high off the groun. And that energy can transfer / be carried – e.g. a hot wire warming up a room. But that's not the same as a force. Cos a force only ever acts on one thing, in one direction. And force isn't something that an object "has" "Here, the energy is giving light / making a sound." this makes no sense. You need to also word things in a way that avoids the misconception that energy is being created. Always try and describe where the energy comes from "The energy is giving light." - no - light is carrying energy all around sound is carrying energy to your ears Heat is carrying energy to your skin Mechanical energy, lets actually just call it kinetic energy - that's the energy of something that's moving. We can add a final lesson that says sometimes people call it mechanical energy, but we're gonna stick with kinetic energy For sound travelling through the air, i think the kids need to know that air has particles for this to work, no? But equally, the sound topic could come before the energy topic, as that gives some nicer examples of how sound transfers energy And in that case, you can mix in some recall questions e.g. showing how the sound transferred energy - same with how you've done that later with the light and heat topic nicely

From page 2, on the Topic 15 item: "Lorcan rubs two sticks together, fast, and the sticks warm up. What kind of energy did the moving sticks have? Type the two words." you'll need to accept both kinetic and mechanical here - also, only one word is necessary - kinetic or mechanical – energy is not necessary

The whole review is filed at reviews/james/G3_PHYSICS_FEEDBACK_2026-09-29.md.

Appendix — every wording hit, one line each (403)

Class key: A "at work" · B "makes things happen" · C "the energy is giving / doing" · D "mechanical" → kinetic · E allowed giver–receiver shape (keep) · ? loose match, treat as D.