Physical Science · California Grade 7 · integrates engineering

MS-PS1-6

Undertake a design project to construct, test, and modify a device that either releases or absorbs thermal energy by chemical processes.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the design, controlling the transfer of energy to the environment, and modification of a device using factors such as type and concentration of a substance. Examples of designs could involve chemical reactions such as dissolving ammonium chloride or calcium chloride.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to the criteria of amount, time, and temperature of substance in testing the device.

Source: California Department of Education, NGSS Preferred Integrated Course Model, Grade 7 (accessed 2026-10-18)

Chapters

Chapter 14: Energy in Chemical Reactionsassesses

Lab 2 has students build a warming or cooling pack from teacher-measured safe reagents, test it against criteria of amount, time and temperature, and modify it twice across three prototypes, which is the evidence the PE asks for and stays inside its assessment boundary. W9 is the paper version of the same design task. The clarification statement names dissolving calcium chloride and ammonium chloride as acceptable chemical processes, so the calcium chloride hot pack qualifies even though dissolving is not a reaction in the strict sense.

Worksheets (10)

Chapter	Worksheet	Role	How it connects
Ch. 14	W1 · Warm Pouch, Cold Pouch: Energy Moving Two Ways Phenomenon exploration	supports	Students observe two real devices that release or absorb thermal energy by chemical processes and ask their own questions about them. They do not yet design, test or modify anything; this sheet opens the chapter's puzzle that the design project in Lab 2 and W9 will answer.
Ch. 14	W2 · System, Surroundings and the Words Engineers Use Vocabulary in action	supports	The design project in this PE asks students to judge a device by amount, time and temperature and to talk about the energy it releases or absorbs. This sheet builds the vocabulary (system, surroundings, exothermic, endothermic, criteria, constraints, prototype, iteration) that the design record will use; it produces no device or test data.
Ch. 14	W3 · Keeping the Books on Energy: Where It Goes When Matter Changes Reading with evidence	supports	The passage explains the science behind devices that release or absorb thermal energy by chemical processes and ends with engineers judging a prototype by temperature and time. It is background reading for the design project rather than evidence toward the PE.
Ch. 14	W4 · Boundaries, Bars and Arrows: Modeling Where the Energy Goes Diagrams and models	practice	Before students can control the transfer of energy to the environment in a device, they need a model of that transfer. This sheet builds the boundary model and the bond-balance model for the two devices the design project uses, the iron hand warmer and the salt cold pack, without yet building or testing anything.
Ch. 14	W5 · Three Prototypes, One Winter: Reading Hand-Warmer Test Curves Data and graphing	practice	The data are judged exactly by the PE's assessment boundary, amount of substance, time and temperature, and students must say what they would modify next. They analyze rather than build, so this is practice toward the design project in Lab 2 and W9.
Ch. 14	W6 · Rubbing or Reacting? A Claim-Evidence-Reasoning Case Claim, evidence, reasoning	practice	Students use test data on a device that releases thermal energy by a chemical process to decide what controls the release (oxygen reaching the iron) and which way energy flows. Knowing the cause is what lets a designer control the transfer in the design project; the sheet itself builds no device, so it is practice.
Ch. 14	W7 · Fixing Tomas's Lab Summary: Seven Energy Errors Error analysis	supports	A designer who believes cold flows out of a pack, or that the hottest prototype lasts longest, will modify a device for the wrong reasons. This sheet repairs those ideas before the design project; it produces no device or test data of its own.
Ch. 14	W8 · Which Way Did the Energy Go? An Evidence Sort for Pack Designers Collaborative investigation	practice	Choosing a chemical process for a device that releases or absorbs thermal energy is the first decision of the design project. Here groups judge eleven candidate processes by temperature change and safety, which builds that decision without constructing or testing a device.
Ch. 14	W9 · A Cold Pack for the Cross-Country Kit: Define, Evaluate, Modify Transfer and design	practice	The device absorbs thermal energy by a chemical process and is judged by amount, time and temperature, inside the PE's assessment boundary. Students modify a design on paper from supplied test data rather than constructing and testing it themselves, so this is practice; Lab 2 produces the hands-on evidence.
Ch. 14	W10 · Energy in Reactions: Mastery Check Retrieval and mastery check	practice	Items 8 and 13 give prototype readings and ask whether the device meets its criteria and what to modify; the understanding of energy release and absorption in items 1-7 and 9-12 is what the design project depends on. No device is built here, so the role is practice.

Labs (3)

Chapter	Lab	Role	How it connects
Ch. 14	Lab 1 · Four Mystery Packets: Which Way Does the Energy Go? Evidence-based mystery	practice	Before students can design a pack in Lab 2 they need to know which safe processes release thermal energy and which absorb it, and how much. This lab produces that evidence with the same reagents, so it is practice toward the design PE rather than evidence of it.
Ch. 14	Lab 2 · Build a Better Pack: Design, Test and Improve a Hot or Cold Pack Engineering design challenge	assesses	Students build a real device from safe reagents, test it by amount of substance, time and temperature (the PE's assessment boundary), and modify it twice on the basis of their own data. The clarification statement names dissolving calcium chloride as a qualifying chemical process, and the citric acid reaction is a genuine chemical reaction, so both pack types produce evidence for the PE.
Ch. 14	Lab 3 · The Decision Meeting: Six Hand-Warmer Prototypes, Three Customers Data-driven decision	supports	No device is built in this lab; the data are exactly the amount-time-temperature measurements the PE's assessment boundary names, so the lab supports the design work of Lab 2 and W9 by showing how finished prototypes are compared.