The scientific skills of observation, measuring, and classification serve as focal points for the third grade.  Students learn to read and interpret simple tables and graphs, conduct safe investigations in which they collect and analyze data, and communicate the results. Third graders explore the properties and composition of rocks and soils and the interaction of forces and motion.  They also compare the life cycles of animals, classifications of animals according to their characteristics, descriptions of their habitat, and adaptations to their environment.  Students examine results of technology and explore careers in science as well as scientific contributions from a diversity of cultures.

Grade Three Indicators

Earth and Space Sciences

Earth Systems        

1.   Compare distinct properties of rocks (e.g., color, layering, texture).

2.   Observe and investigate that rocks are often found in layers.

3.   Describe that smaller rocks come from the breakdown of larger rocks through the actions of plants and weather.

a.   Describe the effects of wind, weather, glaciers, animals, plants, and gravity of the earth’s surface.

4.   Observe and describe the composition of soil (e.g., small pieces of rock and decomposed pieces of plants and animals, and products of plants and animals).

5.   Investigate the properties of soil (e.g., color, texture, capacity to retain water, ability to support plant growth).

6.   Investigate that soils are often found in layers and can be different from place to place.

Life Sciences

Heredity        

1.   Compare the life cycles of different animals including birth to adulthood, reproduction and death (e.g., egg-tadpole-frog, egg-caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly).

Diversity and Interdependence of  Life    

2.   Relate animal structures to their specific survival functions (e.g., obtaining food, escaping or hiding from enemies).

3.   Classify animals according to their characteristics (e.g., body coverings and body structure).

4.    Use examples to explain that extinct organisms may resemble organisms that are alive today.

5.    Observe and explore how fossils provide evidence about animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.

6.   Describe how changes in an organism’s habitat are sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful.

a.  Explore how basic needs change according to changes in the ecosystem.

b.  Identify issues that affect the food chain at all levels.

Physical Sciences       

Forces and Motion        

1.   Describe an objects position by locating it relative to another object or the background.

2.   Describe an objects motion by tracing and measuring its position over time.

3.   Identify contact/noncontact forces that affect motion of an object (e.g., gravity, magnetism, collision).

4.   Predict the changes when an object experiences a force (e.g., a push or pull, weight, friction).

Science and Technology

Understanding  Technology      

1.   Describe how technology can extend human abilities (e.g., to move things, to extend senses).

2.   Describe ways that using technology can have helpful and/or harmful results.

3.   Investigate ways that the results of technology may affect the individual, family and community.

Abilities To Do Technological Design      

4.   Use a simple design process to solve a problem (e.g., identify a problem,     identify possible solutions, design a solution).

5.   Describe possible solutions to a design problem (e.g., how to hold down   paper in the wind).

Scientific Inquiry

Doing Scientific Inquiry       

1.   Select the appropriate tools and use relevant safety procedures to measure and record length and weight in metric and English units.

2.   Discuss observations and measurements made by other people.

3.      Read and interpret simple tables and graphs produced by self/others.

4.      Identify and apply science safety procedures.

5.      Record and organize observations (e.g., journals, charts, tables).

6.      Communicate scientific findings to others through a variety of methods (e.g., pictures, written, oral and recorded observations).

Scientific Ways of Knowing

Nature of Science Ethical Practices      

1.   Describe different kinds of investigations that scientists use depending on the questions they are trying to answer.

2.   Keep records of investigations and observations and do not change the records that are different from someone else’s work.        

Science and Society       

3. Explore through stories how men and women have contributed to the              development of science.

4.   4. Identify various careers in science.

5.   Discuss how both men and women find science rewarding as a career and in their everyday lives.

Grades 3-5 Benchmarks

By the end of the 3-5 program:

Earth and Space Sciences

A.   Explain the characteristics, cycles and patterns involving Earth and its place in the Solar System.

B.    Summarize the processes that shape Earth’s surface and describe evidence of those processes.

C.   Describe Earth’s resources including rocks, soil, water, air, animals and plants and the ways in which they can be conserved.

D.  Analyze weather changes that occur over a period of time.

Life Sciences

A.    Differentiate between the life cycles of different plants and animals.

B.    Analyze plant and animal structures and functions needed for survival and describe the flow of energy through a system that all organisms use to survive.

C.   Compare changes in an organism’s ecosystem/habitat that affect its survival.

Physical Sciences

A.   Compare the characteristics of simple physical and chemical changes.

B.    Identify and describe the physical properties of matter in its various states.

C.   Describe the forces that directly affect objects and their motion.

D.   Summarize the way changes in temperature can be produced and thermal energy transferred.

E.   Trace how electrical energy flows through a simple electrical circuit and describe how the electrical energy can produce thermal energy, light, sound and magnetic forces.

F.    Describe the properties of light and sound energy.

G.   Compare the characteristics of simple physical and chemical changes.

H.   Identify and describe the physical properties of matter in its various states.

I.     Describe the forces that directly affect objects and their motion.

J.    Summarize the way changes in temperature can be produced and thermal energy transferred.

K.    Trace how electrical energy flows through a simple electrical circuit and describe how the electrical energy can produce thermal energy, light, sound and magnetic forces.

L.     Describe the properties of light and sound energy.

Science and Technology

A.    Describe how technology affects human life.

B.     Describe and illustrate the design process.

Scientific Inquiry

A.    Use appropriate instruments safely to observe, measure and collect data when conducting a scientific investigation.

B.     Organize and evaluate observations, measurements and other data to formulate inferences and conclusions.

C.    Develop, design and safely conduct scientific investigations and communicate the results.

Scientific Ways of Knowing

A.    Distinguish between fact and opinion and explain how ideas and conclusions change as new knowledge is gained.

B.    Describe different types of investigations and use results and data from investigations to provide the evidence to support explanations and conclusions.

C.    Explain the importance of keeping records of observations and investigations that are accurate and understandable.

D.    Explain that men and women of diverse countries and cultures participate in careers in all fields of science.