← All topics (review home)

Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ 58d971a

Topic 15 — Light and warmth — the PP100's seven question types, with their exemplars

Revised 28 Sep (night) after the non-author review (REVIEW_G3T15_2026-09-28.md, adjudicated in BUILD_RECORD_G3T15.md): type 1 now asks "Which thing is warm?" so ENE3-020 is tested alone (the student infers warm from gives-light); type 5 is counted under ENE3-033 with a 020 distractor; PP-6's accept list takes the topic's own "sunshine" and apostrophe forms; PP-7 no longer hands over "the sticks were moving" and accepts the full term only; the rubbing rule reads "When two things rub together, both get warmer." everywhere.

What this page is. James approves a bank's question TYPES before the bank is generated (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each, 28 Sep 2026). This sheet writes the exemplars in full, exactly as they sit in content/G3T15.py (PP100, flagged TYPE_SHEET_ONLY). Seven types, seven exemplars, at most two types per atom; two of the seven are typed hard items (James, 28 Sep night: hard = text entry). No other bank item exists yet. Once the types stand, about fifty items are generated from them, varying scene and nouns, easy-heavy.

How to read a type line. Each says what the stem asks, what the options (or the typed answer) are, and gives its exemplar scene. Every MCQ has four options and a why (no per-option feedback in the bank). Tags follow depth of reasoning: easy = one-step fact or prediction; medium = the reason for a fresh case against the catalogued beliefs; hard = two ideas chained, typed. No option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem is a positive question; no non-hard stem runs past two sentences; no bank item shows a reference card. Language: "heat" is never printed (Topic 11's ruling); light CARRIES energy; "mechanical energy" is Topic 11's term.

The seven types

TypeItemAtomTagThe stem asks…The options / the typed answer are…Exemplar scene
1PP-1ENE3-020easyfour things on a night-time table are named, untouched for an hour; which one is warmfour things from the scene; exactly one gives light, and the student infers it is the warm one (gives light → usually warm)a lit lantern, a plate, a bottle of water, a spoon on a picnic table
2PP-2ENE3-021easytwo named things are rubbed together, fast; what happens to themfour happenings: both colder / both the same / both warmer / one warmer and one colderMatias and two wooden blocks
3PP-3ENE3-033mediuma thing has stood in sunshine and is warm; whyfour single-statement reasons; the key is the transfer sentence (the Sun's light carried energy to it); the distractors are "it makes its own warmth", "warm wind blew from the Sun" and "bright things are always warm"a garden wall by noon
4PP-4ENE3-021mediumrubbed hands warm up; whyfour reasons; the key is that the moving hands gave some of their energy to the skin; the distractors are the catalogue's ENE-08 belief (the cold left), the air warmed them, warmth from nothingSoledad's cold hands
5PP-5ENE3-033 (with a 020 distractor)mediuma lamp has been on for an hour and the book under it is warm; why is the book warmfour reasons; the key is that the lamp's light carried energy to the book; the distractors are "the book makes its own warmth", "the warm bulb touched the book" (the 020 fact misapplied) and "bright, so warm"a desk lamp and a book
6PP-6ENE3-033hard · TEXTa wall faces the Sun all morning and gets warm, nothing touches it; what carries the energy from the Sun to the wall — type the name of the carriertyped: light / the light / sunlight / the Sun's light …; most students will type "the Sun" (the source, not the carrier)a wall in the morning sun
7PP-7ENE3-021 + ENE3-004 (Topic 11, pair)hard · TEXTrubbed sticks warm up; what kind of energy did the moving sticks have — type the two wordstyped: mechanical energy / the mechanical energy (the stem no longer says the sticks were moving — the student supplies that step)Lorcan's two sticks

Coverage (every atom alone, and the pairs)

AtomTypes testing it alonePair types
ENE3-020 something that gives light is usually warm too1— (type 5 carries a 020 distractor)
ENE3-033 light carries energy3, 5, 6 (typed)—
ENE3-021 rubbing warms things up2, 47 (with Topic 11's ENE3-004, mechanical energy)

Two types per atom at most, no more. Order in the file: easy → medium → hard (PP-1 … PP-7). MCQ keys: B C A D B (five MCQs over four letters; B repeats once and clears as the bank grows). Typed items carry no key letter. Draw-one-per-test pairs for the generation step: PP-2 with PP-4 (both rubbing; different move); PP-3 with PP-6 (both a sunny wall; MCQ reason vs typed carrier — never the same wall in one test); PP-5 with L02-q5 (a lamp on a thing for an hour; the quiz asks what happens, the bank asks why). Draw constraints (⟂, the test builder reads these): PP-2 ⟂ PP-7 (PP-7's stem states a rubbed pair's outcome); PP-5 ⟂ PP-6 (PP-5's key names the carrier PP-6 asks for); PP-4 ⟂ PP-7 (PP-4's key is PP-7's first step); PP-7's typed term is printed in no other item's stem or options. Generator note: vary the lantern, the wall and the sticks — each already appears three or four times across the quizzes, the summary and this sheet.

The exemplars, in full

Type 1 — PP-1 · ENE3-020 · easy

Stem: On a picnic table at night sit a lit lantern, a plate, a bottle of water and a spoon, untouched for an hour. Which thing is warm?

Why: The lantern's flame gives light. / Something that gives light is usually warm too, and a flame is hot. / Nobody has touched the plate, the bottle or the spoon, and they give no light, so the lantern is the warm thing.

Easy because: one step — the student sees which thing gives light and infers that it is the warm one; a student who thinks light-givers are cool has no warm thing to pick.


Type 2 — PP-2 · ENE3-021 · easy

Stem: Matias rubs two wooden blocks together, fast, for a minute. What happens to the blocks?

Why: The two blocks rub against each other. / When two things rub together, both get warmer. / So both blocks get warmer.


Type 3 — PP-3 · ENE3-033 · medium

Stem: A garden wall stands in the sunshine all morning, and by noon it is warm. Why is the wall warm?

Why: The Sun's light lands on the wall. / Light carries energy from its source to whatever it lands on. / The wall gets that energy all morning, so the wall is warm.

Medium because: the reason is the transfer sentence applied to a fresh scene, against three catalogued beliefs (the thing warms itself; warmth arrives on the wind; white things are warm — false by Topic 14). Every option is one statement of the same shape.


Type 4 — PP-4 · ENE3-021 · medium

Stem: Soledad rubs her cold hands together, fast, and they warm up. Why do her hands warm up?

Why: Soledad's hands were moving. / A moving thing has mechanical energy. / The moving hands gave some of that energy to the skin where they rub, so her hands warmed up; there is no such thing as cold leaving them.

Medium because: the key rests on two ideas (a moving thing has mechanical energy; the moving hands gave some of it to the skin) against the ENE-08 belief in option a and the "warmth from nothing" belief in option c.


Type 5 — PP-5 · ENE3-033 (with a 020 distractor) · medium

Stem: A desk lamp has been on for an hour, and the book under it is warm. Why is the book warm?

Why: The lamp's light lands on the book. / Light carries energy from its source to whatever it lands on. / The book gets that energy for an hour, so the book is warm.

Medium because: the lamp is warm (020) AND the book under it is warm (033), and the student must pick the light's carrying over "the warm bulb touched it" — the 020 fact misapplied to a thing the bulb never touched.


Type 6 — PP-6 · ENE3-033 · hard · TEXT

Stem: A wall faces the Sun all morning and gets warm. Nothing touches the wall. What carries the energy from the Sun to the wall? Type the name of the carrier.

Accept: light · the light · sunlight · the sunlight · sun light · the sun light · sunshine · the sunshine · sun shine · the sun shine · the sun's light · sun's light (straight and curly apostrophe) · the suns light · suns light · its light · the light from the sun · light from the sun

Why: The Sun's light travels to the wall and lands on it. / Light carries energy from its source to whatever it lands on. / So the light carries the energy from the Sun to the wall, and the wall warms up.

Hard because: two steps — the student must know the wall warmed because energy arrived, then name the CARRIER rather than the source (most will type "the Sun"); the answer is typed, and the stem prints neither "light" nor "sunlight". The stem's four sentences are within the hard tag (sweep S23).


Type 7 — PP-7 · ENE3-021 + ENE3-004 (Topic 11) · hard · TEXT

Stem: Lorcan rubs two sticks together, fast, and the sticks warm up. What kind of energy did the moving sticks have? Type the two words.

Accept: mechanical energy · the mechanical energy

Why: The sticks were moving. / A moving thing has mechanical energy. / The moving sticks gave some of that mechanical energy to the places that rubbed, so the sticks warmed up.

Cold-read note for James: an untaught reader offered "movement energy" and "kinetic energy"; the course's students have met only "mechanical energy" (Topic 11), so the item stands as typed recall of the taught term.

Hard because: two atoms chained across topics — the student supplies that the rubbing sticks were moving, so they had mechanical energy (Topic 11's ENE3-004), and that this is the energy the rubbing gave to the sticks (021); the term is typed and printed nowhere on the sheet.


Reading notes for the review