3rd grade Science
12 units matched to the Alabama Course of Study.
Focus areas
- Forces and magnets, life cycles and traits, habitats, and weather and climate
- Science and engineering practices: investigating with fair tests
- Engineering design: solving real problems in Alabama and beyond
Units
Unit 1
Pushes, Pulls & Forces
Forces as pushes and pulls, contact and non-contact forces (gravity, magnetism, static electricity), friction, how bigger forces change motion more, and helmets and seat belts as safety devices.
Content standard: 3.1; 3.3 · balanced and unbalanced forces, and forces that act without touching
Unit 2
Speed & Motion
Practices speed as the distance an object travels in a certain time, inertia (objects keep doing what they are doing until a force acts), and how mass and force affect how quickly motion changes.
Content standard: 3.1; 3.2 · how forces change motion, and patterns that predict how things will move
Unit 3
Magnets and Static
Children explore how magnets attract and repel, which materials magnets pick up, and how static electricity works in everyday life. This is practice, not a report-card mark.
Content standard: 3.3 · magnetic and static electric forces between objects that are not touching
Unit 4
Magnet Inventions
Practices using what magnets do to solve simple design problems, such as a latch or a sorter, by setting criteria and constraints and running fair tests that change one thing at a time.
Content standard: 3.4 · solving a design problem with magnets
Unit 5
Life Cycles
Life cycles of butterflies, frogs and BC salmon, and how babies compare with their parents.
Content standard: 3.5 · comparing the life cycles of plants and animals: birth, growth, reproduction and death
Unit 6
Animal Life Cycles
Life cycles of butterflies, frogs, chickens and mammals, and how some animals change a lot while others look like small adults.
Content standard: 3.5 · life cycles of frogs, butterflies and other animals
Unit 7
Basic Needs & Life Cycles
Practices the basic needs of organisms (food, water, air, shelter) and the life cycles of plants and animals, including metamorphosis in butterflies and frogs.
Content standard: 3.5; 3.10 · life cycles, and the food, water, air and shelter living things need
Unit 8
Traits & Variation
Practices how plants and animals inherit traits from their parents, how traits vary within a family, and how the environment can change traits like size or health.
Content standard: 3.6; 3.7 · traits passed from parents, variation in a group, and how the environment changes traits
Unit 9
Surviving in a Habitat
Practices why some animals live in groups, how small differences in traits can help some individuals survive, and why some organisms do well in a habitat while others cannot survive there.
Content standard: 3.9; 3.10; 3.11 · how differences help some individuals survive, habitat resources, and living in groups
Unit 10
Weather Hazards & Solutions
Practices judging design solutions that reduce harm from weather hazards like floods, windstorms, lightning and snow, and solutions to problems when habitats change.
Content standard: 3.12; 3.15 · solutions that lessen the harm from weather hazards and environmental changes
Unit 11
Fossils & Long Ago
Your child uses fossils as evidence of organisms that lived long ago and of the environments they lived in, including Alabama's fossil whale.
Content standard: 3.8 · using fossils as evidence of past organisms and the environments they lived in
Unit 12
Weather & Climate
Your child reads weather data to find patterns in a season and compares climates in different regions of the world, including Alabama's.
Content standard: 3.13; 3.14 · showing seasonal weather data in tables and graphs, and describing climates in different regions
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