Grade 3 Science Curriculum Standards

Written by Joanne Harriman Sunday, 24 July 2011 19:54

Our new science curriculum is based on a multi-year review and analysis of the Curriculum Topic Study materials by our K-12 science curriculum team. The Benchmarks for Science Literacy form the basis for the benchmarks that are set for each grade level. The bold-faced standards are the MDIRSS essential standards and the standards in regular font are supporting standards. Click on the green bold-faced MDIRSS essential standards to see the unpacked version, list of resources, and corresponding performance rubric for that standard.

Scientific & Engineering Practices

Ask questions (for science) and define problems (for engineering)

Develop and use models

Plan and carry out investigations

Analyze and interpret data

Use mathematics and computational thinking

Construct explanations (for science) and design solutions (for engineering)

Engage in argument from evidence

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information

Crosscutting Concepts

Understand that measuring instruments can be used to gather accurate information for making scientific comparisons of objects and events for designing and constructing things that will work properly.

The Nature of Science

A. The Scientific Worldview

1A.E2. Science is a process of trying to figure out how the world works by making careful observations and trying to make sense of those observations.

C. The Scientific Enterprise

1C.E1. Science is an adventure that people everywhere can take part in, as they have for many centuries.
1C.E2. Clear communication is an essential part of doing science. It enables scientists to inform others about their work, expose their ideas to criticism by other scientists, and stay informed about scientific discoveries around the world.
1C.E3. Doing science involves many different kinds of work and engages men and women of all ages and backgrounds.

The Nature of Technology

A. Technology and Science

3A.E1. Throughout all of history, people everywhere have invented and used tools. Most tools of today are different from those of the past but many are modifications of very ancient tools.

3A.E2. Technology enables scientists and others to observe things that are too small or too far away to be seen otherwise and to study the motion of objects that are moving very rapidly or are hardly moving at all.

C. Issues in Technology

3C.E1a. Technology has been part of life on the earth since the advent of the human species.

3C.E1c. The technology available to people greatly influences what their lives are like.

3C.E3. Transportation, communications, nutrition, sanitation, health care, entertainment, and other technologies give large numbers of people today the goods and services that once were luxuries enjoyed only by the wealthy. These benefits are not equally available to everyone.

The Physical Setting

A. The Universe

4A.E1. Examine the patterns of stars in the sky stay the same, although they appear to move across the sky nightly, and different stars can be seen in different seasons.

4A.E2. Telescopes magnify the appearance of some distant objects in the sky, including the moon and the planets. The number of stars that can be seen through telescopes is dramatically greater than can be seen by the unaided eye.

4A.E4. Illustrate the earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and the moon orbits around the earth.

4A.E5. Stars are like the sun, some being smaller and some larger, but so far away that they look like points of light.

4A.E6. A large light source at a great distance looks like a small light source that is much closer.

B. The Earth

4B.E2a. The earth is approximately spherical in shape. Like the earth, the sun and planets are spheres.

4B.E2bc. Recognize the rotation of the earth on its axis every 24 hours produces the night-and- day cycle. To people on earth, this turning of the planet makes it seem as though the sun, moon, planets, and stars are orbiting the earth once a day.

4B.E5. Describe how the weather is always changing and can be described by measurable quantities such as temperature, wind direction and speed, and precipitation. Large masses of air with certain properties move across the surface of the earth. The movement and interaction of these air masses is used to forecast the weather.

C. Processes that Shape the Earth

4C.E1. Understand that waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape the earth's land surface by explaining how they erode rock and soil in some areas and deposit them in other areas, sometimes in seasonal layers.

4C.E2. Explain that rock is composed of different combinations of minerals. Explain that smaller rocks come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock and larger rocks. Soil is made partly from weathered rock, partly from plant remains—and also contains many living organisms.

D. The Structure of Matter

4D.E3. Materials may be composed of parts that are too small to be seen without magnification.

4D.E4a Recognize when a new material is made by combining two or more materials, it has properties that are different from the original materials.

4D.E6. Demonstrate that all materials have certain physical properties, such as strength, hardness, flexibility, durability, resistance to water and fire, and ease of conducting heat.

4D.E7. Collections of pieces (powders, marbles, sugar cubes, or wooden blocks) may have properties that the individual pieces do not.

G. Forces of Nature

4G.E2. Without touching them, a magnet pulls on all things made of iron and either pushes or pulls on other magnets.

4G.E3. Demonstrate that without touching them, an object that has been electrically charged pulls on all other uncharged objects and may either push or pull other charged objects.

The Living Environment

F. Evolution of Life

5F.E2. Compare Fossils to one another and to living organisms according to their similarities and differences. Some organisms that lived long ago are similar to existing organisms, but some are quite different.

The Human Organism

A. Human Identity

6A.E3. Artifacts and preserved remains provide some evidence of the physical characteristics and possible behavior of human beings who lived a very long time ago.
6A.E4. Technology has helped people with disabilities survive and live more conventional lives.

D. Learning

6D.E1. Human beings have different interests, motivations, skills, and talents.

6D.E2. Human beings can use the memory of their past experiences to make judgments about new situations.

6D.E3. Many skills can be practiced until they become automatic. If the right skills are practiced, performance may improve.

6D.E4. Human beings tend to repeat behaviors that feel good or have pleasant consequences and avoid behaviors that feel bad or have unpleasant consequences.

E. Physical Health

6E.E1c. As people grow up, the amounts and kinds of food and exercise needed by the body may change.

F. Mental Health

6F.E2. Often human beings don't understand why others act the way they do, and sometimes they don't understand their own behavior and feelings.

Human Society

A. Cultural Effects on Behavior

7A.E1. People can learn about others from direct experience, from the mass communications media, and from listening to other people talk about their work and their lives.

7A.E2. Sometimes people feel uncomfortable with people who dress, talk, or act very differently from them.

7A.E3. Different cultures have different patterns of behavior that are exhibited by people who grow up in those cultures.

B. Group Behavior

7B.E1. The way people act is often influenced by the groups to which they belong.
7B.E2. Different groups have different expectations for how their members should act. Sometimes rules are written down and strictly enforced, and sometimes the expectations are understood by observing how others behave.
7B.E3. When acting together, members of a group and even people in a crowd sometimes do and say things, good or bad, that they would not do or say on their own.
7B.E4. People join groups because they like to do certain things and they like to be with others who do those things.

E. Political and Economic Systems

7E.E1. People who live together in a group often reach an agreement about what each will contribute to the others in the group.

The Designed World

C. Energy Sources and Use

8C.E4. Some people try to reduce the amount of fuels they use in order to conserve resources, reduce pollution, or save money.

D. Communication

8D.E2. Communication involves coding and decoding information. In any language, both the sender and receiver have to know the same code, which means that secret codes can be used to keep communication private. 8D/E3 People have invented devices such as paper and ink, engraved plastic disks, and magnetic tapes for recording information. These devices enable great amounts of information to be stored, retrieved, and sent to other people or places.

8D.E4. Communication technologies make it possible to send and receive information more and more reliably, quickly, and cheaply over long distances.

E. Information Processing

8E.E1. Computers are controlled partly by how they are wired and partly by instructions called programs, which are entered in a computer's memory. Some instructions stay permanently in the machine, but most are coded on disks and are transferred into and out of the computer to suit the user.

8E.E2. Computers can be programmed to store, retrieve, and perform operations on information. These operations include mathematical calculations, word processing, diagram drawing, and modeling complex events.

8E.E3. Mistakes can occur when people enter programs or data into a computer. Computers themselves can make errors in information processing because of defects in their hardware or software.

Common Themes

B. Models

11B.E2. Geometric figures, number sequences, graphs, diagrams, sketches, number lines, maps, and oral and written descriptions can be used to represent objects, events, and processes in the real world.

11B.E3. A model of something is similar to, but not exactly like, the thing being modeled. Some models are physically similar to what they are representing, but others are not.

11B.E4. Models are very useful for communicating ideas about objects, events, and processes. When using a model to communicate about something, it is important to keep in mind how it is different from the thing being modeled.

C. Constancy and Change

11C.E1. Some features of things may stay the same even when other features change.

11C.E2a. Things change in steady, repetitive, or erratic ways—or sometimes in more than one way at the same time.

11C.E2b. Often the best way to tell which kinds of change are happening is to make a table or graph of measurements.

11C.E3. Some things, such as a person's age, change in only one direction.

11C.E4. Record that some things in nature have a repeating pattern, such as the day-night cycle, the phases of the moon, and seasons.

Habits of Mind

A. Values and Attitudes

12A.E1. Keep clear and accurate records of investigations and observations.

12A.E2. Offer reasons for claims and consider reasons suggested by others.

12A.E3. Records of observations are helpful when trying to recall those observations later.

B. Computation and Estimation

12B.E1. Make calculations when necessary to solve real-world problems and decide whether to make the calculation mentally, on paper, or with the help of a calculator or computer.

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