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3rd grade · Science · Unit 4 of 10

Speed & Motion

Fast and slow, why things keep moving, and what changes how quickly motion changes.

What your child practices

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 3-PS2-1; 3-PS2-2 · how forces change motion and patterns that predict motion

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Speed is how far something travels in a certain time.
  2. Things keep doing what they are doing until a force acts on them.
  3. Friction slows things down. Rough grass has more friction than smooth ice.

Example: A runner goes 10 km in one hour. A walker goes 5 km. Who is faster? Both took one hour. 10 km is farther than 5 km. Answer: the runner

Speed & Motion in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 4 of 10 in 3rd grade Science, after Basic Needs & Life Cycles and before Traits & Variation.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Inertia means objects…

    • keep doing what they are doing until a force changes it
    • always speed up
    • always stop

  2. Question 2

    To make a toy car go faster, you should push…

    • harder
    • in the opposite direction
    • more softly

  3. Question 3

    Which would be a good way to compare the speed of two toy cars?

    • Weigh the track
    • Color them
    • Time how long each takes to go the same distance

  4. Question 4

    Which is easier to speed up with a push?

    • An empty cart
    • A full cart
    • A cart full of bricks

  5. Question 5

    Which unit could measure how far something travels?

    • seconds
    • kilograms
    • meters

  6. Question 6

    Two equal pushes are given to a small and a large box. The large box speeds up…

    • less
    • the same
    • more

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