Science Assessment ~ Ideas ~ Motion energy (kinetic energy) is associated with the speed and the mass of an object.

Key Idea: The amount of energy an object has depends on how fast it is moving.

Sub-Ideas
Items & Student Performance
Misconceptions
NGSS

Students should know that:

Any object that is moving has some amount of energy that is related to how fast it is moving.
The faster an object moves, the more energy it has due to its motion, and the slower an object moves, the less energy it has due to its motion.
The faster an object is moving, the more damage it can do or the bigger the change in shape it can cause to itself and another object if the two objects hit each other.

Boundaries:

The terms “motion energy” and “kinetic energy” is not used in Basic level items because energy will be treated as a unified concept at this level and not in its various forms.
Assessment items are limited to scenarios involving only one object or two identical objects because mass is kept constant.
This idea refers to motion with respect to the surface of the earth. An object is considered to be "not moving" if its position with respect to a point on the surface of the earth is not changing.
Assessment items do not use unit rates or use rate language, such as feet per second or miles per hour, in elementary school because these ideas are not expected until the 6^th grade according to the math Common Core State Standards (CCSS 6.RP, pg. 42).
Items may show objects moving in a straight line, vibrating back and forth, or rotating. In all cases, students are expected to know only that the energy of motion depends on speed. In items, comparisons are made between objects moving in the same manner (i.e., both rotating) and with the same distribution of mass from the origin.

Percent of students answering correctly (click on the item ID number to view the item and additional data)
Item ID Number	Knowledge Being Assessed	Grades 4–5	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12
RG061002	When comparing two airplanes thrown at different speeds into a wall, the faster plane will be damaged more because it hits the wall with more speed.	82%	73%	75%
RG088002	As a marble rolls, slows downs, and eventually stops its energy gets smaller until it stops moving.	67%	59%	66%
RG060003	When comparing the a ball dropped down and a ball thrown down, the thrown ball has more energy because it is moving faster.	74%	59%	60%
RG062003	When comparing two airplanes thrown at different speeds, the faster plane has more energy because it has a higher speed.	59%	58%	62%
RG059003	When comparing dropping versus throwing a ball into sand, throwing the ball will make a deeper dent because it is moving faster.	49%	60%	58%

Frequency of selecting a misconception
Misconception ID Number	Student Misconception	Grades 4–5	Grades 6–8	Grades 9–12
RGM096	The more time an object has been moving the more energy it has.	49%	47%	47%
RGM068	The damage a moving object will cause depends on the distance it travels not the speed at which it travels.	15%	15%	14%
EGM012	The motion energy of an object does not depend on speed (the motion energy of an object does not increase as the speed increases) (Kruger, 1990).	10%	14%	13%
RGM067	An object will cause the same amount of damage regardless of how fast it is moving. For example, a ball will make the same dent in the ground whether it was dropped or thrown.	12%	12%	12%
EGM073	The faster an object moves the less kinetic energy it has. For two objects with the same mass, the one that is moving faster will have less kinetic energy.	5%	11%	8%

Frequency of selecting a misconception was calculated by dividing the total number of times a misconception was chosen by the number of times it could have been chosen, averaged over the number of students answering the questions within this particular idea.

NGSS Statements
Code	Statement
PS3.A Grade 4	The faster a given object is moving, the more energy it possesses.