3rd grade Science
12 units matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
Focus areas
- States of matter, forces and mechanical energy
- The Sun, Earth, Moon and planets
- Weather, soil, fast changes to Earth and natural resources
- Food chains, fossils, life cycles and survival
Units
Unit 1
Matter & Particles
All matter is made of tiny particles. How particles are arranged in solids, liquids and gases, and how heating and cooling cause melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation.
TEKS student expectation: 3.6(B); 3.6(C) · solids, liquids and gases, and changes of state from heating and cooling
Unit 2
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.
TEKS student expectation: 3.7(A) · contact forces and forces at a distance such as magnetism and gravity
Unit 3
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.
TEKS student expectation: 3.7(B); 3.8(B) · how pushes and pulls change motion, and how speed relates to mechanical energy
Unit 4
How Plants Grow & Change
From seed to flower and back to seed, how seeds travel, how plants react to light and seasons, and how they use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food and release oxygen.
TEKS student expectation: 3.13(B) · the life cycles of flowering plants such as beans
Unit 5
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.
TEKS student expectation: 3.13(B) · comparing the life cycles of plants and animals
Unit 6
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.
TEKS student expectation: 3.13(A) · how animals' external structures and functions help them survive
Unit 7
Food Chains & Webs
Producers, consumers and decomposers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, how energy moves along a food chain, and why a food web is a more complete picture.
TEKS student expectation: 3.12(B) · the flow of energy in a food chain, and what happens when one link is removed
Unit 8
Animal Survival
Body features (thick fur, webbed feet, shells, camouflage) and behaviors (hibernating, migrating, storing food) that help animals survive.
TEKS student expectation: 3.12(A); 3.13(A) · migration and hibernation as responses to the seasons, and structures that help animals survive
Unit 9
Texas Fossils
Practices how fossils form and what they show about past living things and environments, with common Texas fossils: dinosaur tracks along the Paluxy River, ammonites and other sea shells from when an ocean covered much of Texas, petrified wood, and mammoth bones at Waco.
TEKS student expectation: 3.12(D) · fossils as evidence of past living things and environments, including common Texas fossils
Unit 10
Sun, Earth, Moon & Planets
Practices that Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits Earth, how long those orbits take, and the order of the eight planets from the Sun.
TEKS student expectation: 3.9(A); 3.9(B) · the orbits of Earth and the Moon, and the order of the planets from the Sun
Unit 11
Weather, Soil & Sudden Changes
Practices comparing weather in different places on the same day (temperature, wind direction, precipitation), how sand and clay form from weathered rock and how decomposed plants and animals add to soil, and rapid changes to Earth's surface such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.
TEKS student expectation: 3.10(A); 3.10(B); 3.10(C) · comparing weather in different places, how soils form, and rapid changes to Earth's surface
Unit 12
Resources, Floods & Droughts
Practices how people use natural resources to build, farm, travel and make products, why conservation matters, ways to reduce, reuse and recycle, and how natural changes such as floods and droughts help some living things and harm others.
TEKS student expectation: 3.11(A); 3.11(B); 3.11(C); 3.12(C) · using and conserving natural resources, and how floods and droughts affect living things
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