Grade 3 Science Alabama standards Standards

Cause and Effect

Natural Hazard Solutions

Earth and Human Activity

Systems and System Models

Climate

Patterns

Weather

Earth’s Systems

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Human Impact

Cause and Effect

Biodiversity

Energy and Matter

Biodiversity

Systems and System Models

Biodiversity

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Fossil Evidence

Unity and Diversity

Cause and Effect

Inherited Traits and Environmental Impact

Patterns

Inherited Traits and Environmental Impact

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

Stability and Change

Growth and Development

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Systems and System Models

Non-Contact Forces

Cause and Effect

Non-Contact Forces

Patterns

Changes in Motion

Cause and Effect

Changes in Motion

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Design Thinking

Human/Computer Partnerships

Innovative Designer

Systems

Data

Computing Analyst

Collaborative Research

Digital Tools

Communication

Global Collaborator

Impact of Computing

Safety, Privacy, and Security

Citizen of a Digital Culture

Programming and Development

Algorithms

Abstraction

Computational Thinker

Conduct investigations to explain the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces exerted on an object, varying the size, number, and direction of the forces.

Use numbers or letters to represent information in another form. Examples: Secret codes/encryption, Roman numerals, or abbreviations.

Make a claim from evidence that an organism's likelihood of survival depends upon access to sufficient resources in its habitat, including sunlight, air, water, food, and shelter.

Describe ways web advertising collects personal information. Examples: Search ads, b

Construct explanations of how forming groups helps some organisms survive.

Identify resources in the community that offer technology access. Examples: Libraries, community centers, restaurants, education programs, schools, or hardware/software donation programs.

Obtain and communicate information regarding the impact of existing solutions on plant and animal populations when environmental changes occur.

Identify and discuss ways that access to technology helps empower individuals and groups. Examples: Gives access to information; provides the ability to communicate with others around the world; enables people to buy and sell things.

Represent data in tables or graphical displays to reveal typical weather patterns during a particular season.

Communicate key ideas and details collaboratively in a way that informs, persuades, and/or entertains, using digital tools. Example: Create a digital presentation to persuade school administrators to allow additional time for lunch.

Use information from a variety of sources to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Type 15 words per minute with 95% accuracy using appropriate keyboarding techniques.

Obtain and communicate information on the effectiveness of existing solutions designed to reduce the impact of weather-related hazards.

Describe local, networked, and online or cloud environments.

Conduct basic keyword searches to produce valid, appropriate results, and evaluate results for accuracy, relevance, and appropriateness. Examples: Use search techniques, check for credibility and validity.

Describe examples of data sets or databases from everyday life. Examples: Library catalogs, school records, telephone directories, or contact lists.

Identify a broad range of digital devices, the services they provide, and appropriate uses for them. Examples: Computers, smartphones, tablets, robots, e-textiles, driving directions apps that access remote map services, digital personal assistants that access remote information services.

Describe the differences between hardware and software.

Observe and measure an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern of motion can be used to predict future motion.

Analyze a given list of sub-problems while addressing a larger problem. Example: Problem - making a peanut butter sandwich; sub-problem - opening jar, finding a knife, getting the bread. Problem - design and share a brochure; sub-problem - selecting font, choosing layout.

Compare and contrast human and computer performance on similar tasks to understand which is better suited to the task. Examples: Sorting alphabetically, finding a path across a cluttered room.

Explain advantages and limitations of technology. Example: A spell-checker can check thousands of words faster than a human could look them up; however, a spell-checker might not know whether underserved is correct or if the author’s intent was to type undeserved.

Discuss the design process and use digital tools to illustrate potential solutions.

Implement the design process to solve a simple problem. Examples: Uneven table leg, noise in the cafeteria, tallying the collection of food drive donations.

Conduct investigations to determine cause and effect relationships between objects not in contact with one another, including magnetic and electrostatic forces.

Explain that different solutions exist for the same problem or sub-problem. Example: Multiple paths exist to get home from school; one may be a shorter distance while one may encounter less traffic.

Apply scientific ideas about magnetic interactions to solve a problem using the engineering design process.

Examine logical reasoning to predict outcomes of an algorithm.

Develop and use models to compare the diverse life cycles of organisms other than humans, including birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Create an algorithm to solve a problem as a collaborative team. Examples: Move a character/robot/person through a maze. List steps to build a sandwich.

Use data to provide evidence that plants and animals have observable traits inherited from parents and that variations of these traits exist in groups of similar organisms.

Describe the function of a flowchart.

Use evidence to support a claim that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Test and debug a given program in a block-based visual programming environment using arithmetic operators, conditionals, and repetition in programs, in collaboration with others. Examples: Sequencing cards for unplugged activities, online coding practice.

Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the existence of organisms and information about the environments in which they lived.

Describe how to use proper ergonomics when using devices. Examples: Body position, lighting, positioning of equipment, taking breaks.

Construct an explanation from evidence of how variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Identify the proper use and operation of security technologies. Examples: Passwords, virus protection software, spam filters, pop-up blockers.

Earth and Human Activity

Earth’s Systems

Unity and Diversity

Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Identify the effect of a force (e.g., push, pull, gravity) applied to an object.

Recognize that living things have specific needs (water, light, temperature, food, shelter) to live and grow in an environment.

Identify common animals that group in their environment as a method of survival.

Predict the effect of a simple change in the habitat of a plant or animal (e.g., lack of water, lack of plants).

Use a graph or pictograph to answer questions about the weather.

Identify differences in a region's climate (e.g., deserts, oceans).

Identify practices that keep people safe during severe weather.

Recognize motion patterns (e.g., straight, back and forth, zig-zag, fast, slow, falling, rolling).

Identify cause-and-effect relationships of magnetic interactions between two objects (opposite poles attract, similar poles repel).

Apply scientific ideas about magnets to solve a problem. (e.g., using a magnet to pick up an object, or using a magnet to push or pull an object).

Observe and recognize the major stages (birth, growth, reproduction, and death) in the life cycles of organisms other than humans (e.g., flowering plants, frogs, butterflies).

Recognize similarities between traits of plant and animal (other than human) parents and their offspring

Match a fossil to the organism from which it was formed.

Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)

Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)

Patterns: Similarities and differences in patterns can be used to sort, classify, communicate, and analyze simple rates of change for natural phenomena and designed products. Patterns of change can be used to make predictions. Patterns can be used as evidence to support an explanation

Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction: Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change. Events that occur together with regularity might or might not be a cause and effect relationship.

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: Natural objects and/or observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large or from very short to very long time periods. Standard units are used to measure and describe physical quantities such as weight, time, temperature, and volume.

Systems and System Models: A system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot. A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation: Matter is made of particles. Matter flows and cycles can be tracked in terms of the weight of the substances before and after a process occurs. The total weight of the substances does not change. This is what is meant by conservation of matter. Matter is transported into, out of, and within systems. Energy can be transferred in various ways; energy can be transferred between objects.

Structure and Function: Different materials have different substructures, which can sometimes be observed. Substructures have shapes and parts that serve functions.

Stability and Change: Change is measured in terms of differences over time and may occur at different rates. Some systems appear stable, but over long periods of time will eventually change.

Asking Questions and Defining Problems: Specifying qualitative relationships.

Developing and Using Models: Building and revising simple models; using models to represent events and design solutions

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations: Designing and conducting investigations with controlled variables; providing evidence to support explanations or design solutions

Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Introducing quantitative approaches to collecting data and conducting multiple trials of qualitative observations, using digital tools whenever possible.

Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking: Extending quantitative measurements to a variety of physical properties; using computation and mathematics to analyze data and compare alternative design solutions.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions: Using evidence in constructing explanations that specify variables, describing and predicting phenomena, and designing multiple solutions to design problems.

Engaging in Argument from Evidence: Critiquing the scientific explanations or solutions proposed by peers, citing relevant evidence about the natural and designed world(s).

Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information: Evaluating the merit and accuracy of ideas and methods.