Topic 25 · How matter loops and energy flows through — the question types, for your rulings

Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ c83cbd2

Topic 25 — How matter loops and energy flows through — 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 5 standing brief the bank is built straight away (54 items in content/G5T25_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 trace or sort; medium = the rule applied to a fresh case, a drawn card or ring read, a reason picked; hard = a term produced by typing, a documented belief judged by its correct reason, a set answer, a drawn energy layer read against the rule, or two ideas chained — and rise with the atom's order: LIF5-012 nine easy, five medium, two hard; LIF5-013 six easy, eight medium, four hard; LIF5-014 three easy, eight medium, nine hard. Bank: easy 18 · medium 21 · hard 15. Every hard item carries a one-line "hard because" (hb) in the bank file. MCQ keys A 13 · B 12 · C 12 · D 9. check_key_tells.py: KEY TELLS: 0 of 97 MCQs flagged.

Rulings already applied. Four options on every MCQ (fixed sets: "the Sun / the store / the soil / the kitchen" for where a food's energy came from, rotated so the key is not always first; the kind-of-energy set "chemical / kinetic / thermal / elastic energy"; both declared in KEY_TELL_EXEMPT_SETS); no option bundles a verdict with its reason (the two bank claims are "X is wrong … What is the correct reason?" with four single-statement reasons — the Leo-item form James wrote on 8 Oct is NOT used, so no named exception); every stem is a positive question of at most two sentences unless tagged hard; an item card or ring carries a blank box or a wrong orange arrow and its blind text lists the boxes and the arrows as data, never the missing word or the verdict; the typed keys are "Sun", "chemical", "decomposers", "matter" and "thermal" (one word each, inside the lexicon's sentences; article forms, "sunlight" / "the Sun's light" for the Sun, and child spellings in the accept lists); one multi-select, where the answer is genuinely a set; one order item (the loop's stages, the plant first, the key stored the stem's way); every item names ONE atom; US spelling; units as words.

The bar list (real things and words a generated item must never use): "forms of energy", "light energy", "heat energy" (light carries energy); "gives / gets energy", "energy giver" (say "transfers … to", "energy source"); "used up", "ran out of energy", "no energy", "all its energy" (S43); "nutrients" (Grade 4's word; here "tiny bits"); "heat moves / travels / flows" (the hotter thing heats the colder thing); "leak", "lift", "snap"; any lesson scene (the cookout burger, cow and grass; the scrambled eggs, hen and corn; the orange and orange tree; Zeke's apple tree, fallen apple, mold and squirrel; Ada's classroom loop of grass, rabbit and decomposers; the compost pile); any quiz, attached, summary or practice scene (the banana; the lamb chop, sheep and hay; rice; the tuna, small fish and tiny floating plants; the hawk, mouse and seeds; the goat-cheese pizza; the chocolate bar and sugar cane; the peanut butter; the dead park leaf; the oak, acorns and deer; the grasshopper and wheat; the pine needle; the dead Texas sunflower; the chipmunk and fox; the elk; the Kentucky clover; Zeke's pond of water plants and fish; the Florida pond of pondweed and tadpoles; the milkweed and caterpillar; the peach-tree leaf; the baked potato; the maple leaf; the dandelion, slug and toad; the turkey and oats; the barley soup; the Georgia bean stems; the horse and oats; the Idaho dead fish; the squash plant and squash bug; the granola bar; the honey, bees and wildflowers; the forest-loop drawing; the Alaska dog; the intro's garden with lettuce and rabbits); a claim-maker outside Ada and Zeke, each used once in the bank; "biggest / smallest" for an amount; a non-US animal.

The ten types (one per move; the drawn forms and the typed form are shared across atoms)

Type	Items	Atom	Tags	Form	The stem asks…	The options / the accept	Exemplar scene
1	4	012	easy	MCQ, the fixed "where it came from" set (two items); a two-eater trace; what carried the energy to the plant	where a food's energy came from, in the end; what carried the energy to the vine	the Sun / the store / the soil / the kitchen (fixed, the key moves); the Sun's light / the rain / the soil's tiny bits / the wind	tomato soup in New Mexico; a strawberry in Oregon; a trout in Washington; watermelon in Texas
2	3	012	easy	MCQ	which living thing comes one step back from a food	four living things or people	cherries; blueberries in New Jersey; fried catfish in Mississippi
3	4	012	easy, medium	MCQ	where a food's chemical energy transferred to when it was eaten; a two-eater trace back to the Sun; the missing step in a trace	four receivers; four traces; four steps	a cabbage worm in Kentucky; a spider in Montana; a ladybug, aphids and a rose bush in Ohio; a robin, a cricket and a daisy in Vermont
4	3	012	medium	MCQ with a drawn energy trace card (one blank box)	which belongs in the blank box	four things	the pig card (Wyoming ham), the cat card (a sparrow and berries), the crab card (Maryland seaweed)
5	6	012, 013, 014	hard	typed	the thing every food's energy came from; the kind of energy all food has; the one word for living things that break dead things into bits; the word for the stuff a thing is made of; the kind of energy warm air gains; the thing a loop's fresh energy comes from	Sun / chemical / decomposers / matter / thermal / Sun, with article forms and child spellings	a cracker, a pretzel and a cookie; worms and mushrooms in a Florida garden; a rock, a puddle, tire air and a bird; a coyote in Utah
6	10	013	easy, medium	MCQ	who breaks a dead thing into bits; what decomposers give off into the air; which part takes in water and bits, which takes in carbon dioxide; where an eaten thing's stuff is; what "matter" means; where a dead thing's stuff goes; where a new branch's stuff comes from; how stuff gets from the air back into a plant	four single answers	a dead seal in Oregon; a dead log in Washington; a melon vine in Illinois; a cotton plant in Georgia; a bullfrog and a dragonfly in Idaho; a dead salmon in Alaska; a pecan tree in Texas; a fallen plum in California; a dead scorpion in Nevada; a Kansas prairie
7	4	013	medium, hard	MCQ with a drawn stuff ring (one blank box); an ORDER item; a two-step chain	which belongs in the blank box; the loop's stages in order from the plant; what is true of an old pear and a new pear a year later	four things; five stages; four single statements	the carrot ring (Idaho, a groundhog); the reeds-and-goose ring (a Minnesota lake); a cactus and a desert tortoise in Arizona; a pear tree in Washington
8	2	013, 014	hard	MCQ, the claim form ("X is wrong. What is the correct reason?")	Zeke's claim that a walnut tree's new wood is soil packed together (register SD-2, induced); Ada's claim that a forest's energy goes round and round (register SD-2, induced)	four single-statement reasons	a walnut tree; a forest of trees and porcupines
9	13	014	easy, medium, hard	MCQ	which kind of energy warm air gains; where a loop's fresh energy comes from; what happens to the energy at every step; where some of an eaten thing's energy ends up; where the decomposers' energy ends up; which one thing goes from the soil and the air back into a plant; what rotted plants give next year's plants; at which steps energy ends up as thermal energy; what comes in fresh from outside; a two-step chain; what runs short under snow-covered ice	four single answers	a raccoon in Ohio; a Louisiana swamp; a bobcat and a quail in Arizona; a dead Texas lizard; dead cucumber vines in Ohio; a snake, a frog and a fly in Florida; a Michigan forest; a snail and a duck in Georgia; an Oregon gardener; a Wisconsin lake
10	5	014	medium, hard	MCQ with a drawn ring and its energy layer; a multi-select; two drawings judged	which arrow carries energy into the loop; which orange arrow is drawn wrong (twice: a described poster and a drawn pond); the TWO true sentences; whose drawing is right	four arrows; four sentences (two keyed); Zara's / Zeke's / both / neither	the willow-and-beaver ring; the Texas bluebonnet poster; the lily-pad-and-water-beetle ring; a Colorado meadow; a prairie drawn twice

Hard because — type 5: the word is produced, not picked. Type 8: a documented belief judged by its correct reason, with the lesson's idea held against the belief. Type 7 (the pear) and type 9 (the snail and the duck; the gardener; the lake under snow): two steps chained, or the rule run forward to a prediction. Type 10 (the wrong arrow; the multi; the two drawings): the drawn or described energy layer read against both halves of the rule.

One exemplar per type, in full

Type 1 (easy, LIF5-012). A bowl of tomato soup in New Mexico is made from tomatoes, and tomatoes grow on a tomato plant. Where did the soup's energy come from, in the end? — the Sun / the store / the soil / the kitchen. Why: The first plant made its food with the energy the Sun's light carries. Tomatoes grow on a tomato plant. So the soup's energy came from the Sun. (nearest lesson-side instance: Lesson 1 (Trace a food's energy back to the Sun)-vq, the banana, three options)

Type 2 (easy, LIF5-012). A girl in New Jersey eats a bowl of blueberries. Which living thing comes one step back from the blueberries? — the blueberry bush / a bird / the farmer / a worm. Why: To trace a food's energy back, go back one step at a time. Blueberries grow on a blueberry bush. So one step back from the blueberries is the blueberry bush. (nearest: Lesson 1 (Trace a food's energy back to the Sun), question 1, the lamb chop and the sheep, three options)

Type 3 (medium, LIF5-012). A ladybug in Ohio eats aphids, tiny green bugs that had sucked juice from a rose bush. Where did the ladybug's energy come from, in the end? — from the Sun's light, through the rose bush and the aphids / from the aphids only, and not from anything before them / from the soil under the rose bush, through the bush's roots / from the air around the rose bush, through the bush's leaves. Why: Go back one eater at a time: the ladybug ate the aphids, and the aphids ate the rose bush's juice. The rose bush made its food with the energy the Sun's light carries. So the ladybug's energy came from the Sun's light, through the rose bush and the aphids. (nearest: Lesson 1 (Trace a food's energy back to the Sun), question 8, the chocolate bar)

Type 4 (medium, LIF5-012, drawn card pp_card_crab). Here is the energy trace card for a crab on a Maryland shore that eats a small animal that ate seaweed, with its third box blank. Which belongs in the blank box? — a shark / a gull / a sea snail / a whale. Blind text: "boxes left to right: the Sun; seaweed; a blank box; a crab. chips: LIGHT, FOOD, FOOD". Why: Each food transferred its chemical energy to the eater that ate it. The animal that ate the seaweed and was eaten by the crab is a sea snail. So a sea snail belongs in the blank box. (nearest: Lesson 1 (Trace a food's energy back to the Sun)'s teaching cards, which are never items)

Type 5 (hard, LIF5-013, typed). A rock, a puddle, the air in a tire and a bird are all made of stuff. Type the one word scientists use for the stuff a thing is made of. — accept: matter, the matter, mater, matter., mattr. Wrong_fb: "energy" → Energy is not stuff: a thing has energy. The word for the stuff a thing is made of is matter. "stuff" → Stuff is the everyday word. Scientists call it matter. Why: Matter is the stuff a thing is made of. A rock, a puddle, air and a bird are all made of stuff. So the word is matter. hb: the word is produced, not picked. (nearest: Lesson 2 (Trace the stuff round the loop), question 9, the recognition item on the same word)

Type 6 (easy, LIF5-013). A dead seal lies on a beach in Oregon. Which living things feed on it and break it into tiny bits? — producers / decomposers / consumers / the waves. Why: A decomposer is a living thing that feeds on dead things, breaking them into tiny bits. The seal is dead. So decomposers feed on it and break it into tiny bits. (nearest: Lesson 2 (Trace the stuff round the loop), question 2, the dead deer, three options)

Type 7 (medium, LIF5-013, order). In an Arizona desert, a desert tortoise eats cactus pads. Put the steps of the stuff's loop in order, starting with the cactus and ending with the next cactus. — the cactus · the tortoise · the decomposers · the soil and the air · the next cactus (the key is stored in the stem's direction, plant first). Why: The stuff goes from the cactus into the tortoise that eats it. When the tortoise dies, decomposers break it into tiny bits that go into the soil, and they give off carbon dioxide into the air. The next cactus takes in the carbon dioxide, the water and the bits. (nearest: Lesson 2 (Trace the stuff round the loop), question 6, the grasshopper and the wheat)

Type 8 (hard, LIF5-014, the claim form). Ada is wrong when she says the energy in a forest goes round and round, from the trees to the porcupines to the decomposers and back to the trees. What is the correct reason she is wrong? — The decomposers keep the energy inside themselves; nothing goes back to the trees. / The energy goes round the loop in summer; in winter it stays in the soil. / At every step some energy ends up as thermal energy in the air; only stuff goes back to the trees. / The trees take their energy from the porcupines' droppings; the Sun only warms them. Source: register LIF5 SD-2 (induced): "Energy circles round a food web the way matter does"; Lesson 3 (Matter loops, energy flows through)'s verdict line. hb: the register's documented belief judged by its correct reason. (nearest: Lesson 3 (Matter loops, energy flows through), question 3, Zeke's pond claim, bare yes / no)

Type 9 (medium, LIF5-014). A bobcat in Arizona eats a quail, and the bobcat is warm. Where does some of the quail's energy end up after the bobcat eats it? — back in the seeds that the quail had eaten / as tiny bits in the soil under the bobcat / as thermal energy in the air around the bobcat / in the Sun, far above the desert. Why: At every step some energy ends up as thermal energy in the warm living thing and the air. The warm bobcat heats the air around it. So some of the quail's energy ends up as thermal energy in the air. (nearest: Lesson 3 (Matter loops, energy flows through), question 1, the elk, three options)

Type 10 (hard, LIF5-014, drawn ring pp_ring_wrong_pond). Here is a loop of lily pads, a water beetle, decomposers, and the water and the air, with the energy drawn in orange. One orange arrow is drawn wrong. Which arrow is drawn wrong? — the arrow from the Sun to the lily pads / the arrow from the lily pads to the water beetle / the arrow from the water beetle to the decomposers / the arrow from the water and the air to the lily pads. Blind text lists every box and every brown and orange arrow as "from X to Y (chip)" data, including the wrong one, and never says which is wrong. Why: The energy does not go round: only stuff goes from the water and the air back to the plants. An orange arrow from the water and the air to the lily pads says energy comes back. So that arrow is drawn wrong. hb: the drawn energy layer is read against the rule, and the one wrong arrow found among four. (nearest: Lesson 3 (Matter loops, energy flows through), question 5, the milkweed ring, three options)

Draw constraints (⟂ pairs: never on one test form together)

• PP-49 (the multi-select: "The stuff goes round the loop and is used again" is a keyed sentence) ⟂ PP-34 (which one goes from the soil and the air back into a plant: stuff) and PP-38 (which comes in fresh from outside: energy from the Sun's light) — the multi's keyed sentences answer both.
• PP-48 (Ada's claim; the key states the rule) ⟂ PP-50 (the lily-pad wrong arrow) and PP-39 (the bluebonnet poster) — the claim's key hands over the wrong-arrow verdict.
• PP-40 (the typed "Sun" for every food) ⟂ PP-1 to PP-4 (the fixed-set "the Sun" items) — four items print the typed answer as a keyed option.
• PP-46 (the typed "thermal") ⟂ PP-16 (the raccoon: thermal energy as a keyed option).
• PP-42 (the typed "decomposers") ⟂ PP-10 and PP-25 (decomposers as a keyed option).
• PP-43 (the typed "matter") ⟂ PP-15 (what "matter" means).

Added at the adjudication (8 Oct 2026, the coordinator's list; two cold readers agreed every key):

• PP-01 ⟂ PP-02 (the fixed "where it came from" set; PP-03 and PP-04 are now different cases — a trout two eaters back, and what carried the energy to the vine).
• PP-16 (the raccoon: thermal energy as a keyed option) ⟂ PP-41 (typed "chemical") and PP-46 (typed "thermal").
• PP-10 (the dead seal: decomposers keyed) ⟂ PP-42 (typed "decomposers").
• PP-39 (the poster: one orange arrow drawn wrong) ⟂ PP-50 (the lily-pad wrong arrow).
• PP-47 (typed "Sun" for the loop's fresh energy) ⟂ PP-18 (what happens to the energy at every step) and PP-48 (Ada's claim).
• Practice page: PR-08 prints "thermal energy" as an option above the typed PR-12 — James's recognition-before-recall order; left and recorded.