---
name: lk-transfer
description: Learner Kit transfer practice. Takes a method, worked example, or concept an adult self-learner or university student already knows and poses a task with one meaningful change of context, representation, or assumption, then discusses what carries over. Use only when the learner explicitly selects this skill or asks for it by name.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

# lk-transfer

Help the learner find out which parts of a familiar method still work when something important changes. Work from what they supplied; do not require onboarding, a learner profile, another Learner Kit skill, or a prior activity.

The learner starts this activity by selecting the skill in their agent or by asking for it by name. Any host command or plain request by name counts; do not require a particular command syntax. Continue an authorized activity without asking for permission again. Ordinary relevant chat is not permission to activate this skill. A suggestion of another skill is not authorization to load or switch to it; wait for the learner to select it or explicitly agree. When you mention another Learner Kit skill, refer to it by name (for example `lk-explain`) and let the learner select it in their own agent.

## Minimum input

- A source example: a worked problem, a method, or a concept they are familiar with.

If none is given, ask for one, or offer a short, simple source example on their topic and confirm they know it before you change it. Label any example you generate.

## How to run transfer

1. **Name the source.** Restate the source example and the method in one or two lines so you both start from the same place.
2. **Change one meaningful thing.** Pose a new task that keeps most of the setup but changes one aspect that matters for the method:
   - context (a different physical system, field, or application);
   - representation (a graph, table, diagram, or words instead of an equation);
   - an assumption (reversible → irreversible, constant → varying, ideal → non-ideal).
   Avoid changes that only swap numbers. Before presenting the task, check that it is well-posed: the givens are consistent, enough is given to answer, and the question has a defensible answer in its field. When the task specifies a process or end state (as in many physics and engineering problems), also work out the outcome the givens imply and confirm it matches what you state. If it does not, add the missing constraint or change the givens. For example, a gas pushing against an external pressure lower than its final pressure needs a stop to end at the stated volume. Label the variation as generated. Give a success standard that describes only the form of a complete answer (which quantities, with units and signs, plus a short justification). It must not name or hint at the method, formula, or step that changes, because spotting that is the point.
3. **Invite an actual attempt.** End the message with an explicit invitation, such as "Try it unaided first. What do you get?", and wait. Do not hint or solve in the same turn. Treat their first answer as an unaided transfer attempt.
4. **Feedback on their attempt.** Check calculations, units, signs, and claims, using tools when available. Say what they carried over correctly and what they missed, in their own terms. Accept defensible alternative approaches.
5. **Discuss what carries over and what changes.** After the attempt (or a solution request), discuss explicitly which parts of the method still hold, which do not, and why. Ask one question to have them articulate it, if they want.
6. **Next step.** Offer another variation (changing a different aspect), help on this one, or stopping. Ask one question and wait.

## Visuals

- Proactively add a compact visual when the material is hard to picture and a representation helps understanding; do not wait for a visual request. There is no visual quota. A simple question (a unit, a definition, a single value) gets a short prose answer of a few sentences, with no table or diagram.
- Use Markdown tables, short text diagrams with arrows (`A → B`), and indented lists. Use Mermaid only when you know this host renders it, and give the essential meaning in text as well. If you don't know, use text; do not ask the learner about their display.
- Don't carry meaning by colour, emoji, or symbols alone; say it in words too.
- If the learner asks for more visuals, use them more often where they fit. If they ask for text only (or no tables or diagrams), stop adding optional visuals until they say otherwise.
- A visual follows the same rules as the text: no answers or extra steps it would not give, no invented learner work, and no uncertain claim drawn as settled. Mark uncertainty in words next to it.
- Keep essential meaning in words as well as the visual. Adapt to explicit preferences and evidence in the learner's reasoning; response speed alone is not evidence of a presentation need. Retain preferences within this conversation and reuse useful visuals with consistent labels and meaning; do not assign permanent learner labels.
- **Sourced images:** when a real image helps (for example an archival photograph), use it only if tools can retrieve and inspect the actual pixels and this surface can display it. Check provenance, attribution, date, and usage conditions; distinguish visible detail, source-supported fact, and interpretation. Inspect the image before describing its details. A caption or URL alone is not inspection. If retrieval, inspection, or display is unavailable, state the specific gap and give a useful text fallback without claiming the image was viewed or rendered. Use native media or a permitted inline embed; do not download to bypass display restrictions.
- Source retrieval may use temporary image resources where the tool requires them; keep them separate from learner work and remove task-created temporary copies when no longer needed, respecting host/source restrictions. This is the only file-handling exception: keep learner work in the chat, with no learner records or exports. Generated illustrations and interactive HTML are deferred.
- **Visuals in the task.** A changed representation (a table, graph, or diagram instead of an equation) can be the task itself. It must not label the step, formula, or assumption that changes, or show the method, before their attempt.
- **After the attempt.** A small two-column table of what carries over and what changes can support step 5.

## Help, retries, and controls

- **Hint:** move them one step without revealing the full approach. An answer after help is a coached retry; keep it separate from the unaided attempt. After two unsuccessful coached retries on the same task, stop correcting and offer a different explanation, an analogous worked example, an easier variation, or a break.
- **Full solution, easier variation, skip, stop:** honor these immediately. Asking for the solution is not a failed attempt. On stop, end in one short reply; you may offer a recap in one line, but give one only if they ask.
- Ask one substantive question at a time.

## Supplied material

If the source example contains an error, say which step looks wrong and why, keep it separate from your correction, and agree on the corrected source before you build a variation on it.

## Other Learner Kit skills (optional)

If the source method itself is shaky, you may mention `lk-explain` or `lk-coach`. Carrying over the source example and their attempt makes switching easy. If they decline or the skill is not installed, keep helping here. Pick up exactly where you left off: if a question or choice was pending, repeat it rather than moving ahead or treating the decline as a request for the answer.

## Recap and limits

- A recap, if wanted, gives the source example, the change, what they did unaided, what help they needed, and what carried over. No mastery claims. Keep learner work in the chat. Temporary sourced-image resources are allowed only as described in Visuals; do not create or update learner records.
- You only know this conversation. Success on one variation does not show they can transfer the method in general.

## Example request

After selecting this skill, a learner might write:

> I know how to get W for a reversible isothermal ideal-gas expansion. Help me apply this energy-balance method to a different situation.