The official Physics General senior subject page listed Physics 2025 v1.3 for students completing in 2026 or beyond when checked 29 September 2026. Its official January 2026 syllabus PDF names Unit 1: Thermal, nuclear and electrical physics (printed p. 19) and Topic 1: Heating processes (printed pp. 20–21, 15 notional hours). These are precise source locations, with printed page numbers two below the PDF viewer page index. Topic phrases below are short paraphrases, not copied QCAA worked examples. Queensland General senior syllabuses do not assign AC9 Year 11 content-description codes. The dated source snapshot is not a source-PDF byte hash.
| Official location | Printed page | Days and actual opportunity | Limit / later teaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 overview/objectives | 19 | Days 1–10 describe, apply, analyse or evaluate a small heating-process claim, while explicitly separating model from observation. | Paper-only fictional sources do not meet the unit's experiment/investigation objective or cover nuclear/electricity topics. |
| Topic 1 science understanding: kinetic model and thermal quantities | 20 | Day 1 distinguishes temperature/average particle state from whole-sample internal energy, with same-material/same-phase comparison. | Only an introductory comparison; full kinetic-particle models, thermal energy and phase-change internal-energy reasoning remain. |
| Topic 1 science understanding: transfer pathways | 20 | Days 2–5 locate conduction in a solid, convection with a moving fluid and radiation across an evacuated gap, then allow all three in a bounded system. | A path diagram does not quantify heat flow, absorption, insulation performance or safety. |
| Topic 1 science understanding: Celsius–Kelvin conversion | 20 | Day 6 uses the syllabus convention T(K)=T(°C)+273 for separate temperature values and preserves interval size. |
This is the syllabus's rounded conversion. The BIPM SI Brochure gives the exact 273.15 offset and equal-sized Celsius/Kelvin intervals; no high-precision thermometry is claimed. |
Topic 1 science understanding: temperature change without phase change, c and Q=mcΔT |
20 | Days 8–9 solve one-phase, constant-c, no-loss fictional comparisons with explicit kg, K and J; Day 10 finds model slope mc then c. |
No actual material constant, phase transition, changing c, heat loss or heater design has been tested. Wider and mixed problems remain. |
| Topic 1 science understanding: interpret specific-heat-capacity data | 20 | Day 10 interprets a calculated Q–ΔT table and its model domain. | It is not interpretation of data from a real experiment; that full practical opportunity remains for the school. |
| Topic 1 science inquiry: common units and uncertainty | 21 | Day 7 uses stipulated two-reading uncertainty to report a conservative difference bound and percent; Days 6–10 carry units and assumptions. | No actual measuring-device comparison, calibration, collection, repeatability test or complete scientific investigation. Display precision is not accuracy. |
| Topic 1 phase changes, equilibrium, first law and efficiency | 20–21 | Not claimed in these ten introductory sessions. | These are substantial required Topic 1 areas for later school teaching, along with science as a human endeavour and practical inquiry. |
Ten optional 25-minute sessions total 250 minutes, about 4 hours 10 minutes. That is far short of Topic 1's 15 notional hours and a General unit's 55 notional hours under the QCE handbook §4.1.2. The syllabus course-design pages 5–6 assign delivery and Unit 1–2 assessment design to school decisions. These public formative checks and keys are not secure exams, QCAA instruments, unit standards, practical evidence or classroom outcome claims. Schools still select sequence, conduct supervised safe experiments, provide access arrangements, address the rest of Topic 1 and Unit 1, and apply their assessment/reporting requirements.
Source rights: © State of Queensland (QCAA) 2026 under QCAA copyright and exceptions. We link and paraphrase; QCAA does not endorse this original SubjectNest pack. Source/rights ledger distinguishes QCAA/BIPM/font rights from original CC BY 4.0 material.