How can you tell they’ve got it: Energy can't be created or destroyed?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: States the law of conservation of energy; Explains why the total energy in a closed system is always the same even though it changes form; Explains what dissipation means and why it happens in real machines (friction, air resistance); Gives an example showing why 'wasted' energy is not lost but transferred to the surroundings. Or just try it together: If your child charged their phone overnight and was asked where the electrical energy goes, could they explain what conservation of energy means — and why the charger gets warm even though that heat isn’t doing any useful work?

Science Energy Ages 11–12

Energy can't be created or destroyed

Your child knows energy is never made or lost, only moved or changed. When a charger warms up, that heat is not gone — it has simply spread to the air.

In curriculum terms

Explain the principle of conservation of energy (energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred between stores), and describe how energy is dissipated as thermal energy to the surroundings in all real processes

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.

States the law of conservation of energy
Explains why the total energy in a closed system is always the same even though it changes form
Explains what dissipation means and why it happens in real machines (friction, air resistance)
Gives an example showing why 'wasted' energy is not lost but transferred to the surroundings

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Try this together

If your child charged their phone overnight and was asked where the electrical energy goes, could they explain what conservation of energy means — and why the charger gets warm even though that heat isn’t doing any useful work?

Where this sits on the map

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

Builds on

Naming types of energyages 7–9Explaining conservation of energy and dissipation requires energy store and transfer vocabulary

Energy stores and transfersages 11–12Conservation of energy is a property of energy stores and transfers — the stores and pathways model must be established first

Energy can't be created or destroyedthis skill · ages 11–12

Unlocks

Efficiency, Sankey diagrams, and work doneages 12–13Efficiency calculations quantify how much energy is conserved vs dissipated — conservation and dissipation must be understood first

Power: watts and energy per secondages 12–13Power is the rate of energy transfer — the concept of energy stores and conservation must be understood before rates can be discussed

Reactions That Release or Absorb Heatages 12–13Conservation of energy in physical systems connects to exothermic/endothermic reactions — energy is conserved in chemical systems too

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 · 1 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

This skill sits outside the F–6 Australian Curriculum — no candidate code matched (v0.1).

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2TDE6C01low confidenceDesign and Technologies · Levels 5 and 6 · Technologies Contexts 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

Current, voltage, and what they measureages 11–12 Energy stores and transfersages 11–12 Static electricity and sparksages 11–12 Conduction, convection, and radiationages 12–13

All Energy skills →