How can you tell they’ve got it: Building an energy-converting device?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Design a device that converts one form of energy to another (e.g. electrical to light, kinetic to sound); Build, test, and identify what works well and what needs improvement; Explain the energy conversion taking place in the device. Or just try it together: Could your child design and build a simple device — like a rubber-band car or a solar oven — that changes energy from one form to another?

Science Energy Ages 9–10

Building an energy-converting device

Your child can build a device that changes one kind of energy into another, like a rubber-band car. They test it, improve it, and explain the change taking place.

In curriculum terms

Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Design a device that converts one form of energy to another (e.g. electrical to light, kinetic to sound)
Build, test, and identify what works well and what needs improvement
Explain the energy conversion taking place in the device

🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.

Try this together

Could your child design and build a simple device — like a rubber-band car or a solar oven — that changes energy from one form to another?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

How energy travels aroundages 9–10Must understand energy transfer forms before designing an energy conversion device

Building an energy-converting devicethis skill · ages 9–10

Unlocks

Nothing on the map depends on this yet.

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9S6U03low confidenceYear 6 · Science understanding

investigate the transfer and transformation of energy in electrical circuits, including the role of circuit components, insulators and conductors

AC9S3U03low confidenceYear 3 · Science understanding

identify sources of heat energy and examine how temperature changes when heat energy is transferred from one object to another

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

ST2-PQU-01low confidenceScience and Technology K-6 · Stage 2

ST3-DDT-01low confidenceScience and Technology K-6 · Stage 3

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2TDE6C01medium confidenceDesign and Technologies · Levels 5 and 6 · Technologies Contexts strand

VC2S6U09low confidenceScience · Levels 5 and 6 · Science Understanding strand

VC2S4U09low confidenceScience · Levels 3 and 4 · Science Understanding strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Circuit vocabularyages 9–11 How energy travels aroundages 9–10 Reading and drawing circuit diagramsages 9–10 Speed and energyages 9–10

All Energy skills →