Greenwich Public Schools Science Curriculum Objectives Grade 3
THE NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY, LITERACY AND NUMERACY Scientific Inquiry: Scientific Literacy: Connecticut State Standards for Grades 3, 4, 5 Scientific inquiry is a thoughtful and coordinated attempt to search out, describe, explain and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy includes speaking, listening, presenting, interpreting, reading and writing about science Scientific Numeracy: Mathematics provides useful tools for the description, analysis and presentation of scientific data and ideas. Enduring Understanding: Scientific inquiry is the process that scientists follow to find answers to questions about the natural world. Scientific inquiry includes asking questions, recording observations, making predictions and communicating ideas and theories that help explain the world around us. Essential Question: How is scientific knowledge created and communicated? Students will 1. Make observations and ask questions about objects, organisms and the environment. 2. Seek relevant information in books, magazines and electronic sources of information. 3. Design and conduct simple investigations. 4. Employ simple equipment and measuring tools to gather data and extend the senses. 5. Use data to construct reasonable explanations. 6. Analyze, critique and communicate investigations using words, graphs and drawings. 7. Read and write a variety of fiction and non-fiction science-related texts. 8. Search the web and locate relevant science information. 9. Use measurement tools and standard units (e.g., centimeters, meters, grams, kilograms) to describe objects and materials. 10. Use mathematics to analyze, interpret and present data.
Third Grade Science Objectives PLANTS Connecticut State Content Standard 3.2: Organisms can survive and reproduce only in environments that meet their basic needs. Enduring Understandings: All organisms depend on the living and nonliving features of the environment for survival. Plants depend on their environment to survive and reproduce, and organisms depend on plants for survival. Essential Questions: 1. How would you be affected if plants did not make their own food? 2. How are plants designed to ensure survival? Student will 1. Explain the interdependence of plants and other organisms (including people) (Connecticut Expected Performance B-10). 2. Explain how all food energy can be traced back to plants (Connecticut Expected Performance B-10). 3. Identify and describes the parts and functions of a seed (seed coat, cotyledon, embryo). 4. Identify and describes the parts and functions of a plant (roots, stem leaves). 5. Describe the life cycle of plants (germination, maturation, reproduction, death). 6. Identify and describes the parts and functions of a flower (petal, pollen, anther, stigma). 7. Explain how pollination occurs. 8. Explain the conditions needed for plants to grow (Connecticut Expected Performance B-11)
9. Identify reasons why soil is important to plants (nutrients, anchoring). 10. Predict how given variables (climate, soil, pollution, seasons, water, light, temperature) will affect the growth of plants (Connecticut Expected Performance B-3, B-4, B-11) Worth Being Familiar With: 1. Understand that a botanist is a scientist that studies plants. 2. Explain why plants produce so many seeds. 3. Describe ways that plants can reproduce without using seeds (cuttings, bulbs).
Third Grade Science Objectives HUMAN ANATOMY - Nervous System and Senses Connecticut State Content Standard 5.2: Perceiving and responding to information about the environment is critical to the survival of organisms. Enduring Understanding: Perceiving and responding to information about the environment is critical to the survival of organisms. Essential Question: How do we use our senses to explore the world around us? Students will 1. Describe how the nervous system is responsible for recognizing and responding to messages from the environment through our senses (Connecticut Expected Performance B-21). 2. Identify and describes the function of the nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves) 3. Differentiate between voluntary and involuntary muscles. 4. Recognize that the skin senses pressure, temperature, and pain. 5. Describe the outer, middle, and inner ear and their functions. 6. Identify and describes the major function of the lens, cornea, and pupil of the eye. 7. Describe how a human eye and a camera are similar (Connecticut Expected Performance B-25). 8. Name the four areas of the tongue and the taste that each senses (sweet, sour, salty, bitter). 9. Recognize that the nose senses smell and affects taste.
Worth Being Familiar With: 1. Interrelated body systems (skeletal, respiratory, muscular, circulatory, digestive) work together to ensure survival. 2. Recognizes that food provides the energy that the body needs for growth and repair.
Third Grade Science Objectives ROCKS AND MINERALS Connecticut State Content Standard 3.1: Materials have different properties that can be identified through the use of simple tests. Connecticut State Content Standard 3.3: Earth materials have different physical and chemical properties. Connecticut State Content Standard 3.4: Earth materials provide resources for all living things, but these resources are limited and should be conserved. Enduring Understanding: Earth materials have different physical and chemical properties. Essential Questions: 1. Are the rocks we use and see today the same rocks that were on Earth in the time of the dinosaurs? 2. Which mineral is most useful in your life? Student will 1. Describe how igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks are formed. 2. Classify rocks as igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic according to several physical characteristics (color, texture, traces of organisms, layering, particle size (Connecticut Expected Performance B-6). 3. Describe the rock cycle. 4. Describe the role of water in erosion and rock formation (Connecticut Expected Performance B-13). 5. Identify forces that shape the Earths features and the changes in landforms that result from erosion, floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes.
6. Recognizes that minerals differ in color, texture, smell, luster, transparency, hardness, shape and magnetism. 7. Recognizes that each mineral is composed of only one substance and that the one substance is the same in all samples of the mineral. 8. The properties of rocks and minerals determine how they are to be used (Connecticut Expected Performance B-5). 9. Identifies the uses of specific minerals (Connecticut Expected Performance B-5). 10. Describes how minerals can be conserved by reducing the quantities used, and by reusing and recycling materials rather than discarding them (Connecticut Expected Performance B-7). Worth Being Familiar With: 1. Describe the work that geologists do in studying rocks and minerals. 2. Describe how fossils are formed and explain that they can be used to gather information about ancient life in the past.
Third Grade Science Objectives CHEMISTRY Connecticut State Content Standard 3.1: Materials have different properties that can be identified through the use of simple tests. Enduring Understanding: Materials have different properties that can be identified through the use of simple tests. Essential Question: How can simple tests be used to identify matter? Students will 1. Recognize when a new material is made by combining two or more materials, the new material may have properties that are different from those of the original materials (size, shape, color). 2. Recognize that physical changes are changes in state or form and that no new material is made during a physical change. 3. Give examples of physical changes (breaking a piece of chalk) and chemical changes (burning paper, rusting). 4. Describe the physical and chemical changes observed during experiments. 5. Create and separates mixtures. 6. Recognize that chemical changes occur when substances interact to form new materials with properties that differ from those of the original substances. G:\SCIENCE\Science summer 05\Third Grade Science Objectives.all.doc Created on 7/20/2005 1:27 PM