Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ efd8fba · v2 (2 Oct 2026, the fix pass: exemplars and ⟂ list updated) @ fb37d14 · v3 (2 Oct 2026, polish: Maggie → Ayesha; PP-09 one shape; PP-19 the warm air; PP-34 / PP-35 re-lettered; PP-46 and PP-49 keys trimmed) @ e23b67f
Topic 27 — Energy from wind, water, sunlight and plants — the PP100's question types, with their exemplars
What this page is. James reads a bank as its question TYPES first (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each). Under the Grade 4 standing brief the bank is built straight away (50 items in content/G4T27_pp100_bank.py); this sheet is the way in. Each type line says what the stem asks, what the four options (or the accept list) are, and prints one exemplar in full. Tags follow depth of reasoning — easy = one fact or a one-step sort; medium = the rule applied to a fresh case, a reason picked, a drawn card or table read; hard = a term or carrier produced, a claim judged by its correct reason, a set answer, or two ideas chained — and rise with the atom's order: EAR4-083 (the wind) nine easy and four medium; EAR4-084 (moving water) five easy, six medium, one hard; EAR4-085 (sunlight) four easy, five medium, three hard (v2: the garage card PP-19, old PP-29, retagged easy); EAR4-086 (plants, the capstone) one easy, five medium, seven hard. Every hard item carries a one-line "hard because" (hb) in the bank file.
Rulings already applied. Four options on every MCQ (fixed sets: what-pushes "the moving air / the electricity in the wires / the still air / the sunlight"; the thing-from-its-job set "a wind turbine / a dam / a solar panel / a water wheel", whose key moves; the how-much set "none / a little / the same as usual / more than usual", ordered and kept in order); no option bundles a verdict with its reason (every bank claim is "X is wrong … What is the correct reason?" with four single-statement reasons); every stem is a positive question of at most two sentences unless tagged hard; an item card carries a blank box or a blank chip and its blind text lists the boxes and the arrow chips as data, never the missing word; "energy resource", "wind turbine" and "solar panel" are recalled by MCQ (RECALL_BY_MCQ — a two-word term is a phrase and is never typed); the typed keys are "dam", "sunlight", "heat" and "wood" (one word each, inside the lexicon's sentences, child spellings in the accept lists); one multi-select, where the answer is genuinely a set; every item names ONE atom; US spelling; units as words in prose, numerals on drawings. MCQ keys A 13 · B 13 · C 9 · D 10.
The bar list (real things a generated item must never use): "renewable" / "nonrenewable" (Topic 29 coins them — say "nature keeps giving it"); coal, oil, natural gas, "fuel" (Topic 28); "generator", "turbine blades spin a generator", "magnet", "coil" (grades 6-8: here "a machine that makes electricity"); "solar energy", "wind energy", "light energy", "heat energy" (light, heat and electricity CARRY energy); "the wind is energy", "the wind makes electricity", "energy makes / gives / lifts"; the trace of a plant's energy back to the Sun (Topic 34's LIF4-012); any lesson scene (Maddox's car on a Texas highway with the towers; Ayesha's walkway on a Tennessee dam; Malia's front steps and the neighbor's roof; the cabin with the wood stove and corn bread; the intro's classroom in a storm); any quiz, attached, summary or practice scene (the Kansas hill, the Oklahoma windy day, the Iowa tower, the Wyoming hill, the Nebraska still morning, the Montana night, the ferry; the Washington dam, the Idaho dam, the Oregon wheel, the Montana pipe, the Kentucky forty years, the Colorado camp stream; the Arizona shed, the Colorado school roof, the Utah barn, the Ohio cloud, the Florida house, the houseboat, the Nevada garden lamp; the Vermont fireplace, the oatmeal, the Georgia wood chips, the Maine farmer, the Texas corn cobs, the apple; the Wyoming turbine, the Texas barn panels at midnight, the rice; the New Mexico ranch, the South Dakota dam, the Oregon bus stop, the Michigan baker, the Pennsylvania wall, the Nevada still cloudy day, the North Dakota town, the Missouri tower, the Alaska trailer, the Colorado wall); a claim-maker from another topic's row (only Maddox, Ayesha and Malia); "biggest / smallest" for an amount (most, least).
The fifteen types (fewer would be better; the four sources each need the push / turn / carrier forms, and the capstone needs the claim, the set and the two-step forms)
| Type | Items | Atom | Tags | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 083, 084 | easy | MCQ, the what-pushes set | what pushes the blades (or the dam's wheel) round; v2: PP-02 asks which thing is MISSING when the blades hang still (the moving air) | the moving air / the electricity in the wires / the still air / the sunlight; for the dam: the moving water in the pipe / the still lake / the wall / the wind | a Colorado hill; an Indiana farm; an Arkansas dam |
| 2 | 3 | 083, 084 | easy | MCQ | what the turning blades (or wheel) turn; v2: PP-04 asks WHERE inside the turbine the electricity is made (in the machine at the top) | a machine that makes electricity / a pump that makes wind / a lamp inside the tower / a solar panel | the edge of a town in Illinois; a New Hampshire hill; a Nebraska dam |
| 3 | 3 | 083, 084, 085 | easy | MCQ | what carries the energy on from the machine or the panel | electricity, along wires / the wind, through the air / light, through the air / heat, through the ground | Minnesota; an Alabama dam; a Nevada store roof |
| 4 | 3 | 083, 084, 085 | easy | MCQ, the thing-from-its-job set | which thing has blades the wind pushes; which holds a river back; which makes electricity when sunlight falls on it | a wind turbine / a dam / a solar panel / a water wheel | the three jobs |
| 5 | 3 | 083, 084 | easy | MCQ | which thing is the energy resource; where the electricity is made | one thing from nature and three things people make | a lamp, a wire, a wall; an Ohio town; a city's dam |
| 6 | 5 | 083, 084, 085 | easy, medium | MCQ, the how-much set | how much electricity on a still day, with the pipe shut, at night, in fog; at which times a turbine can make electricity | none / a little / the same as usual / more than usual (ordered); any time the wind blows / only in daylight / … | limp flags in Texas; a Virginia dam; an Oklahoma library roof; fog over a Washington town |
| 7 | 6 | 083, 084, 085, 086 | easy, medium | MCQ, drawn source card | what goes in the blank box or on the blank chip | four things, or four chip words (FOOD / HEAT / LIGHT / ELECTRICITY on the hay card — FOOD is Grade 4's one word on an eater arrow, v2) | an island; a factory; a city; a garage (easy, v2: light-givers as distractors); a wood stove; a cow and her hay |
| 8 | 4 | 083, 084, 085 | medium | MCQ | the correct reason a still turbine makes none; what stops a dam; where in the dam the water pushes; why noon beats sunset | four single statements | an Idaho calm day; the shut pipe; the pipe not the lake; a Kansas panel |
| 9 | 3 | 084, 085 | medium | MCQ | which thing works the same way as a mill wheel; which keeps the lake full; which place gets the most from a panel | four things / four places | a Vermont mill; a river; a sunny desert in Arizona |
| 10 | 1 | 085 | medium | MCQ, drawn table | at which logged time the panel made no electricity | the four times in the log | one day's sky log |
| 11 | 4 | 086 | easy, medium | MCQ | what carries energy from burning logs; which thing is the receiver; what pushes the wheel in a big building that burns plants to make electricity (never named — Topic 28 coins "power plant"); which is a way people get energy from plants | four single answers | a Utah campfire; a horse's oats; a Florida building burning straw; a stove |
| 12 | 4 | 084, 085, 086 | hard | typed | the name of the wall; what must fall on the panel; what carries the energy from the logs; the stuff from the trees that burns | dam / sunlight / heat / wood, each with article, plural and child spellings | North Carolina; a Vermont road sign; a Minnesota bakery; an Alabama paper mill |
| 13 | 3 | 085, 086 | hard | MCQ | a named child's claim is wrong: what is the correct reason (the panel stores sunlight; a still log has no energy; the stove's metal makes the heat) | four single-statement reasons | Malia's panel; Maddox's log; Ayesha's stove |
| 14 | 3 | 085, 086 | hard | MCQ | two ideas chained: cold clear day against hot cloudy day; the wood pile refilled from planted trees; a snack traced to plants then into the body | four statements | a Michigan roof; a Wisconsin farmer; a girl in the Colorado hills |
| 15 | 1 | 086 | hard | multi-select | the TWO ways people get energy from plants | burning wood for its heat / eating food that comes from plants / turning leaves in the wind / shining sunlight on a plant | the set |
Hard because — type 12: the word is produced, not picked. Type 13: each claim is judged by its correct reason, which needs the lesson's idea held against the belief (the night rule against storing; "everything has some energy" against the moving-or-hot test; giver and receiver told apart inside one stove). Type 14: two ideas chained. Type 15: a set held together.
One exemplar per type, in full
Type 1 (easy, EAR4-083). A wind turbine's blades turn on a windy hill in Colorado. What pushes the blades round? — the moving air / the electricity in the wires / the still air / the sunlight. Why: The wind is moving air. Moving air pushes on the blades of a wheel, so the wheel turns. So the moving air pushes the blades round. (nearest lesson-side instance: L01-q3, the Oklahoma tower, three options — here the set is four and fixed)
Type 2 (easy, EAR4-083). The wind turns the blades of a wind turbine at the edge of a town in Illinois. What do the turning blades turn? — a pump that makes wind / a lamp inside the tower / a machine that makes electricity / a solar panel. (nearest: L01-q4, the Iowa tower, three options)
Type 3 (easy, EAR4-083). A row of wind turbines in Minnesota sends energy to a town. What carries the energy to the town? — the wind, through the air / electricity, along wires / light, through the air / heat, through the ground. (nearest: L01-q6, the Wyoming hill)
Type 4 (easy, EAR4-084). Which of these holds a river back, and makes electricity with the water that falls through it? — a wind turbine / a dam / a solar panel / a water wheel. (nearest: the term items L02-q5 and PR-8, which give the definition and ask the name — here the job is given and the thing is picked from the topic's four)
Type 5 (easy, EAR4-083). Which of these is an energy resource? — a lamp / the wind / a wire / a wall socket. (nearest: L01-q12, the term from its definition — here a sort of four things)
Type 6 (medium, EAR4-083). At a row of wind turbines in Texas, the flags hang limp all afternoon, with no wind at all. How much electricity do the turbines make that afternoon? — none / a little / the same as usual / more than usual. (nearest: L01-q8, the Nebraska still morning, two options — here the cue is the limp flags and the set is the ordered four)
Type 7 (medium, EAR4-084, drawn). Here is a source card for a city's electricity, with the middle box blank. What goes in the blank box? — the solar panel / the wind turbine / the wood stove / the wheel inside the dam. (figure pp_card_dam_mid: boxes "moving water; ?; the city", chips PUSH; ELECTRICITY — the blind text lists exactly that; nearest: L02-q10, the dam card with the FIRST box blank)
Type 8 (medium, EAR4-083). A wind turbine on a hill in Idaho stands still on a calm day and makes no electricity. What is the reason? — The wires are too long. / No moving air pushes the blades. / The Sun is behind a cloud. / The tower is too tall. (v2: one clause, like its distractors) (nearest: L01-q8's why line — here the reason is the thing picked)
Type 9 (medium, EAR4-084). An old mill's water wheel in Vermont turned the millstones. Which of these works the same way, with moving water pushing a wheel round? — the wheel inside a dam / a solar panel / a wood stove / a lamp. (nearest: L02-q9, what is the same in the mill and the dam — here the dam's wheel is picked among the topic's other things)
Type 10 (medium, EAR4-085, drawn). Here is a log of the sky over a solar panel on one day. At which time did the panel make no electricity? — 7 in the morning / 1 in the afternoon / 4 in the afternoon / 10 at night. (figure pp_table_panel_log; the blind text is the four rows; nearest: L03-q5, the Utah barn at night, two options)
Type 11 (medium, EAR4-086). A big building in Florida burns corn stalks and straw to make electricity. What pushes the wheel round inside the building? — the corn stalks / the wind / the electricity / the steam. (v2: the key is one noun phrase like its distractors) (nearest: L04-q7, the Georgia wood chips, "what does the heat do first" — here the pusher is asked and the fuel is straw)
Type 12 (hard, EAR4-086, typed). Logs burn in the stove of a bakery in Minnesota, and the room warms up. Type the name of what carries the energy from the burning logs to the room. — accept: heat, the heat, its heat, warmth, the warmth, heet, heat from the fire. Hard because: the carrier is produced from a fresh scene with no option set. (nearest: L04-q3 and PR-7, heat picked among three)
Type 13 (hard, EAR4-086). Maddox is wrong to say a log has no energy because it is not moving. What is the correct reason? — A log is always a little warm. / A log moves when the wind blows it. / A still, cold log still has energy to give. / A log is high up on the wood pile. (v2: one short statement like its distractors; the lesson's "Everything has some energy" sits in the why) Hard because: "everything has some energy" is held against the moving-or-hot test. (nearest: L04-q5, Ayesha's TRUE claim as bare yes / no)
Type 14 (hard, EAR4-085). A family in Michigan has solar panels on the roof. On a cold, clear winter day and on a hot day of thick cloud in summer, which day's panels make more electricity? — the hot, cloudy summer day / the cold, clear winter day / both days the same / neither day makes any. Hard because: the panel needs light, not warmth, so the warm day's cue must be set aside. (nearest: L03-q9, what the panel needs — here two days are weighed)
Type 15 (hard, EAR4-086, multi). Select the TWO ways people get energy from plants. — burning wood for its heat / eating food that comes from plants / turning a plant's leaves in the wind / shining sunlight on a plant. Hard because: the answer is a set. (nearest: L04-q6, why plants are an energy resource, one option)
Design-move inventory (move · scene kind · nearest earlier item)
The bank's 50 moves against the lesson side (L01 12 quiz items, L02 12, L03 12, L04 11, 4 attached, 3 summary, 15 practice; the lessons' own cases: the car and the row of towers, the pinwheel recall, the tower from the side, the wire into the ground, the still day (L01); the walkway on the dam, the mill wheel, the dam from the side, the shut pipe, the rain and the river (L02); the front steps and the neighbor's roof, the face in the Sun, the panel by day and by night, the sun-panel table, the cold winter panel (L03); the cabin stove and the corn bread, the corn field, the burning log, the corn bread as giver, the wood-chip power station, the new trees (L04); the intro's classroom in a storm):
- Type 1 (4): what pushes the blades or wheel round — a Colorado hill, an Indiana farm, an Arkansas dam (and the same move inside type 7's blank first box). Nearest: L01-q3, L02-q3, PR-5. Same move by design (the fact, the fixed set); every scene a new place and cue.
- Type 2 (3): what the turning thing turns — Illinois town edge, New Hampshire hill, Nebraska dam. Nearest: L01-q4, L02-q4, the L01 and L02 attached. Same move by design; the set is four.
- Type 3 (3): what carries the energy on — Minnesota turbines, an Alabama dam, a Nevada store roof. Nearest: L01-q6, L03-q8, PR-3.
- Type 4 (3): the thing from its job — three jobs on one fixed set. Nearest: the three term items (L01-q5, L02-q5, L03-q3), which give the definition — here the job is the cue and the set is the topic's four things. New form.
- Type 5 (3): which is the energy resource / where the electricity is made — a sort of four things; an Ohio turbine's electricity; a city's dam. Nearest: L02-q11 (the camp stream's resource), L01-q7 (the wall-socket claim), L04-q10.
- Type 6 (5): how much electricity — limp flags in Texas, a Virginia pipe shut, an Oklahoma library at night, fog over Washington, and when a turbine can make electricity. Nearest: L01-q8, L02-q8, L03-q5, L03-q6, L01-q11, PR-6. Same move by design (the ordered set); every cue is new (limp flags, repairs, a library, fog).
- Type 7 (6): read a card with a blank — an island, a factory, a city, a garage, a wood stove, a cow's hay. Nearest: the six quiz cards (L01-q10 ferry, L02-q10 town, L03-q10 houseboat, L04-q8 tent) and PR-4 (the ranch). Same move by design (the drawn fluency run); every card blanks a different box or chip on a fresh receiver.
- Type 8 (4): the reason — the calm Idaho day, what stops a dam, where the water pushes, noon against sunset. Nearest: L01-q8 and L02-q8 (the outcome asked, not the reason), L02-q9.
- Type 9 (3): compare or pick the keeper — the Vermont mill's twin, what keeps the lake full, the sunniest place. Nearest: L02-q9 (the mill), L02-q12 (forty years), L03-q11 (which day).
- Type 10 (1): read the sky log — one day's table. Nearest: L03's sun-panel table (the lesson's own, three rows of words) — here four timed rows and a question.
- Type 11 (4): plants' carrier, receiver, pusher and way — a Utah campfire, a horse's oats, a Florida straw-burning station, a stove. Nearest: L04-q3, q4, q7, q11; PR-7.
- Type 12 (4): the word typed — four fresh scenes. Nearest: L02-q6 and PR-14 (typed "dam", two rivers); no lesson-side typed "sunlight", "heat" or "wood".
- Type 13 (3): a claim judged by its correct reason — the storing panel (new belief: the panel saves sunlight), the still log (ENE-02), the stove's metal (new: the receiver taken for the giver). Nearest: L03-q4, L04-q5 (bare yes / no on neighbouring beliefs).
- Type 14 (3): two steps — winter against summer, the refilled wood pile, the snack and the climb. Nearest: L03-q9 (one step), L04-q9 (one step), L04-q11 (one step).
- Type 15 (1): a set — the two ways. Nearest: none on the lesson side.
⟂ draw constraints (never in one served test together)
- PP-06 ⟂ PP-12 ⟂ PP-16 (the thing-from-its-job set keyed on the turbine, the dam and the panel): three items on one set hand each other their eliminations; draw one.
- PP-23 (the card with the dam's wheel blank, "moving water" printed as the pusher) ⟂ PP-10 (what pushes the dam's wheel round).
- PP-29 (the card with the Sun blank and the chip LIGHT) ⟂ PP-41 (typed "sunlight") ⟂ PP-15 (what falls on the panel at noon): one fact three ways.
- PP-35 (the stove card with the chip HEAT) ⟂ PP-44 (typed "heat") ⟂ PP-18 (heat picked among four).
- PP-20 (the factory card with the ELECTRICITY chip blank) ⟂ PP-05 and PP-13 (electricity along wires picked among four).
- PP-49 (the wood pile refilled) ⟂ PP-27 (what keeps the lake full): the same "nature keeps giving it" move on two sources.
- PP-42, PP-46, PP-47 (the three "X is wrong … correct reason" claims) share one form; draw at most two.
- PP-30 ⟂ PP-32 (a panel at night: the how-much set, then the sky log): the log's key is the night row.
v2 renumbering and ⟂ list (2 October 2026)
PP-29 (the garage card) was retagged easy and re-sorted to the END of the easy block (the stable re-sort rule), so old PP-29 is now PP-19 and old PP-19…PP-28 are now PP-20…PP-29; PP-30 onward keep their numbers. The ⟂ list above is read with that map: PP-06 ⟂ PP-12 ⟂ PP-16 (unchanged) · PP-24 (old PP-23, the dam's wheel blank) ⟂ PP-10 · PP-19 (the garage card) ⟂ PP-41 ⟂ PP-15 · PP-35 ⟂ PP-44 ⟂ PP-18 · PP-21 (old PP-20, the factory card) ⟂ PP-05 ⟂ PP-13 · PP-49 ⟂ PP-28 (old PP-27, what keeps the lake full) · PP-42, PP-46, PP-47 draw at most two · PP-30 ⟂ PP-32. New (v2): PP-04 ⟂ PP-08 — both ask where the electricity is made (inside the turbine; not in the walls). PP-36's options are now FOOD / HEAT / LIGHT / ELECTRICITY with FOOD the key (the eater arrow's one word); the hay card's blind text says "a grey arrow with a blank chip". MCQ keys stay A 13 · B 13 · C 9 · D 10.