Science Assessment

Students should know that:

1. All objects have some amount of energy that is associated with how high the object is above the surface of the earth.
2. The farther away an object is from the surface of the earth, the more energy it has, and the closer an object is to the surface of the earth, the less energy it has (assuming the height above the surface of the earth is the only thing that changes).
3. The higher an object is above the surface of the earth, the more damage it can do when it falls to the ground or the more it can change the shape of the surface of the earth when it falls to the ground.

Boundaries:

1. The term “gravitational potential energy” will not be used in Basic level items because energy will be treated as a unified concept at this level and not in its various forms.
2. Assessment items are limited to scenarios in which mass is kept constant by involving only one object or two identical objects.
3. The distance used in the assessment items is the distance above the surface of the earth unless a substitute reference plane, such as the floor, is explicitly stated in the assessment item.  When this is the case, the reference plane is chosen so that there will be only positive values for the distance.