Grade 3

Embedded Inquiry

Embedded Technology & Engineering

Life Science

Earth and Space Science

Physical Science

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Standard 1 - Cells

Standard 2 - Interdependence

Standard 3 - Flow of Matter and Energy

Standard 4 - Heredity

Standard 5 - Biodiversity and Change

Standard 6 - The Universe

Standard 7 – The Earth

Standard 8 - The Atmosphere

Standard 9 - Matter

Standard 10 - Energy

Standard 11 - Motion

Standard 12 - Forces in Nature

Explore different scientific phenomena by asking questions, making logical predictions, planning investigations, and recording data.

Select and use appropriate tools and simple equipment to conduct an investigation.

Organize data into appropriate tables, graphs, drawings, or diagrams.

Identify and interpret simple patterns of evidence to communicate the findings of multiple investigations.

Recognize that people may interpret the same results in different ways.

Compare the results of an investigation with what scientists already accept about this question.

Identify specific investigations that could be used to answer a particular question and identify reasons for this choice.

Identify tools needed to investigate specific questions.

Maintain a science notebook that includes observations, data, diagrams, and explanations.

Analyze and communicate findings from multiple investigations of similar phenomena to reach a conclusion.

Select an investigation that could be used to answer a specific question.

Describe how tools, technology, and inventions help to answer questions and solve problems.

Recognize that new tools, technology, and inventions are always being developed.

Identify appropriate materials, tools, and machines that can extend or enhance the ability to solve a specified problem.

Recognize the connection between scientific advances, new knowledge, and the availability of new tools and technologies.

Apply a creative design strategy to solve a particular problem generated by societal needs and wants.

Explain how different inventions and technologies impact people and other living organisms.

Design a tool or a process that addresses an identified problem caused by human activity.

Determine criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of a solution to a specified problem.

Evaluate an invention that solves a problem and determine ways to improve the design.

Select a tool, technology, or invention that was used to solve a human problem.

Recognize the connection between a scientific advance and the development of a new tool or technology.

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Grade Level Expectations

Checks for Understanding

State Performance Indicators

Use magnifiers to make observations of specific plant and body parts and describe their functions.

Use a magnifier to investigate and describe the function of root hairs, stem cross sections, and leaf veins.

Use a magnifier to investigate and describe the function of skin pores, hair follicles, finger nails, veins, and cuticles, etc.

Identify specific parts of a plant and describe their function.

Categorize things as living or non-living.

Explain how organisms with similar needs compete with one another for resources.

Use a T-Chart to compare and contrast the characteristics of living and nonliving things.

Label a drawing of an environment to illustrate interrelationships among plants and animals.

Construct a diagram to demonstrate how plants, animals, and the environment interact to provide basic life requirements

Distinguish between living and non-living things.

Determine how plants and animals compete for resources such as food, space, water, air, and shelter.

Describe how animals use food to obtain energy and materials for growth and repair.

Label a diagram to illustrate the food relationships that exist between plant and animals.

Create a chart to show how plants and animals satisfy their energy requirements.

Identify structures used by different plants and animals to meet their basic energy requirements.

Use a piece of text to obtain basic information about how plants and animals obtain food.

Identify the basic needs of plants and animals.

Recognize that animals obtain their food by eating plants and other animals.

Identify the different life stages through which plants and animals pass.

Recognize common human characteristics that are transmitted from parents to offspring.

Sequence diagrams that illustrate various stages in the development of an organism.

Create a timeline to depict the changes that occur during an organism's life cycle.

Differentiate among the stages in the life cycle of a butterfly, mealworm, frog, and plant.

Draw conclusions about the similarities and differences between parents and their offspring

Make a list of human characteristics that are transmitted from parents to their offspring.

Select an illustration that shows how an organism changes as it develops.

Distinguish between characteristics that are transmitted from parents to offspring and those that are not.

Explore the relationship between an organism's characteristics and its ability to survive in a particular environment.

Classify organisms as thriving, threatened, endangered, or extinct.

Create representations of animals that have characteristics necessary to survive in a particular environment.

Investigate the connection between an organism's characteristics and its ability to survive in a specific environment.

Describe how environmental factors change over place and time.

Determine how changes in an environmental variable can affect plants and animals of an area.

Construct a diorama that shows plants and animals in an appropriate environment.

Identify evidence used to determine the previous existence of an organism.

Use a data chart or informational text to classify organisms as thriving, threatened, endangered, or extinct.

Investigate an organism's characteristics and evaluate how these features enable it to survive in a particular environment.

Investigate populations of different organisms and classify them as thriving, threatened, endangered, or extinct.

Match the organism with evidence of its prior existence.

Identify and compare the major components of the solar system.

Create a model of the solar system depicting the major components and their relative positions and sizes.

Use a table to compare and contrast the major solar system components.

Identify the major components of the solar system, i.e., sun, planets and moons.

Use information and illustrations to identify the earth's major landforms and water bodies.

Recognize that rocks can be composed of one or more minerals.

Distinguish between natural and manmade objects.

Design a simple investigation to demonstrate how earth materials can be conserved or recycled.

Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two different landforms or bodies of water.

Analyze the physical characteristics of different kinds of rocks.

Use a magnifier to observe, describe, and compare materials to determine if they are natural or manmade.

Design and evaluate a method for reusing or recycling classroom materials.

Create a web that demonstrates the link between basic human needs and the earth's resources.

Classify landforms and bodies of water according to their geological features and identify them on a map.

Describe how rocks can be classified according to their physical characteristics.

Identify an object as natural or manmade.

Determine methods for conserving natural resources.

Recognize that that there are a variety of atmospheric conditions that can be measured.

Use tools such as the barometer, thermometer, anemometer, and rain gauge to measure atmospheric conditions.

Identify cloud types associated with particular atmospheric conditions.

Predict the weather based on cloud observations.

Select appropriate tools used for collecting weather data that correspond to the atmospheric condition being measured.

Identify major cloud types and associate them with particular weather conditions.

Choose the correct tool for measuring a particular atmospheric condition.

Match major cloud types with specific atmospheric conditions.

Design a simple experiment to determine how the physical properties of matter can change over time and under different conditions.

Investigate different types of mixtures.

Describe different methods to separate mixtures.

Use physical properties to compare and contrast substances.

Compare and contrast events that demonstrate evaporation, crystallization, and melting.

Make predictions and conduct experiments about conditions needed to change the physical properties of particular substances.

Classify combinations of materials according to whether they have retained or lost their individual properties.

Investigate different ways to separate mixtures such as filtration, evaporation, settling, or using a sieve.

Describe a substance in terms of its physical properties.

Identify methods for separating different types of mixtures.

Investigate phenomena that produce heat.

Design and conduct an experiment to investigate the ability of different materials to conduct heat.

Associate the sun's energy with the melting of an ice cube placed in a window.

Investigate various materials to explore heat conduction.

Use an illustration to identify various sources of heat energy.

Classify materials according to their ability to conduct heat.

Explore how the direction of a moving object is affected by unbalanced forces.

Recognize the relationship between the mass of an object and the force needed to move it.

Investigate how the pitch and volume of a sound can be changed.

Plan an investigation to illustrate how changing the mass affects a balanced system.

Use a variety of materials to produce sounds of different pitch and volume.

Classify a variety of taped sounds according to their pitch and volume.

Identify how the direction of a moving object is changed by an applied force.

Demonstrate how changing the mass affects a balanced system.

Distinguish between pitch and volume.

Identify how sounds with different pitch and volume are produced.

Explore how magnets attract objects made of certain metals.

Experiment with magnets to determine how distance affects magnetic attraction.

Determine that only certain types of objects are attracted to magnets.

Recognize that magnets can move objects without touching them.

Identify objects that are attracted to magnets.