Grade 3 Science Curriculum

Grade 3 Course Description 

In third grade, students will formulate answers to questions such as: “How do organisms vary in their traits? How do internal and external structures support the survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction of plants and animals?How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different from current plants, animals, and environments? What happens to organisms when their environment changes? How do equal and unequal forces on an object affect the object? How can magnets be used?” Students are able to organize and use data to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season. By applying their understanding of weather-related hazards, students are able to make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of such hazards. Students are expected to develop an understanding of the similarities and differences of organisms’ life cycles. An understanding that organisms have different inherited traits, and that the environment can also affect the traits that an organism develops, is acquired by students at this level. In addition, students are able to construct an explanation using evidence for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing. Students are expected to develop an understanding of types of organisms that lived long ago and also about the nature of their environments. Third graders are expected to develop an understanding of the idea that when the environment changes some organisms survive and reproduce, some move to new locations, some move into the transformed environment, and some die. Students are able to determine the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object and the cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. They are then able to apply their understanding of magnetic interactions to define a simple design problem that can be solved with magnets. In the third grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade-appropriate proficiency in asking questions and defining problems; developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the core ideas. (From the NGSS)

Ecosystems: How Have Cockroaches Survived Millions of Years?

3-LS1-1 Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms. 

3-LS3-2 Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

PA Use evidence to compare characteristics inherited from parents, characteristics caused by the environment, and those resulting from both. 

PA Use evidence from fossil records to construct an explanation of the relationship between types of organisms living today and types of organisms that lived in the past. 

3-LS4-2 Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

4-LS1-2 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. 

4-LS1-2 Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses,process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

EC S4.B.2.2.1 Identify physical characteristics (e.g., height, hair color, eye color, attached earlobes, ability to roll tongue) that appear in both parents and could be passed onto offspring. 

EC S4.B.2.1.1 Identify characteristics for plant and animal survival in different environments (e.g., wetland, tundra, desert, prairie, deep ocean, forest).

EC S4.B.2.1.2 Explain how specific adaptations can help a living organism survive (e.g., protective coloration, mimicry, leaf sizes and shapes, ability to catch or retain water).

Ecosystems: Home Sweet Home

2-LS4-1 Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.

3-LS2-1 Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

3-LS4-3 Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. 

3-LS4-4 Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.* (also in STEM)

3-ESS2-1 Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

3-ESS2-2 Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. 

4-LS1-2 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. 

4-LS1-2 Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways. 

EC S4.B.1.1.1 Identify life processes of living things (e.g., growth, digestion, respiration).

EC S4.B.1.1.2 Compare similar functions of external characteristics of organisms (e.g., anatomical characteristics:  appendages, type of covering, body segments).

EC S4.B.1.1.4 Describe how different parts of a living thing work together to provide what the organism needs (e.g., parts of plants:  roots, stems, leaves).

EC S4.B.2.1.1 Identify characteristics for plant and animal survival in different environments (e.g., wetland, tundra, desert, prairie, deep ocean, forest).

EC S4.B.2.1.2 Explain how specific adaptations can help a living organism survive (e.g., protective coloration, mimicry, leaf sizes and shapes, ability to catch or retain water).

EC S4.B.3.2.1 Describe what happens to a living thing when its habitat is changed.

EC S4.B.3.2.2 Describe and predict how changes in the environment (e.g., fire, pollution, flood, building dams) can affect systems. 

EC S4.B.3.2.3 Explain and predict how changes in seasons affect plants, animals, or daily human life (e.g., food availability, shelter, mobility).

EC S4.D.1.3.4 Explain the role and relationship of a watershed or a wetland on water sources (e.g., water storage, groundwater recharge, water filtration, water source, water cycle).

EC S4.D.2.1.2 Identify weather patterns from data charts or graphs of the data (e.g., temperature, wind direction, wind speed, cloud types, precipitation).

Fantastic Force:  What Happens When Your Forces Are Unbalanced?

3-PS2-1 Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. 

3-PS2-2 Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

3-PS2-3 Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

3-PS2-4 Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.* (also in STEM)  

EC S4.C.3.1.1 Describe changes in motion caused by forces (e.g., magnetic, pushes or pulls, gravity, friction).

EC S4.C.3.1.2 Compare the relative movement of objects or describe types of motion that are evident (e.g., bouncing ball, moving in a straight line, back and forth, merry-go-round).

EC S4.C.3.1.3 Describe the position of an object by locating it relative to another object or a stationary background (e.g., geographic direction, left, up).