Third Grade Science Standards
Content Standard:
Performance Expectations:
Enabling Knowledge:
2-3 PS3A Heat, light, motion, electricity,
and sound are all forms of energy.
Use the word energy to explain
everyday activities (e.g., food gives
people energy to play games).
Give examples of different forms of
energy as observed in everyday life:
light, sound, and motion.
Explain how light, sound, and motion
are all energy.
Students will understand that energy
is the ability to do work: Work
means moving something, lifting
something, warming something,
lighting something. All these are a
few of the various types of work.
(Enduring Understanding: Energy
comes in different forms.)
Students will understand that energy
comes in many forms that we all
see, hear, feel, and use every day.
Students will understand that
electricity is hard to see, but we can
see the light created by a light bulb
and we can also feel the heat created
by that same light bulb, both come
from electricity.
2-3 ES1A Outdoor shadows are longest
during the morning and evening and
shortest during the middle of the day.
These changes in the length and
direction of an object’s shadow indicate
the changing position of the Earth, in
relationship to the Sun, during the day.
(Enduring Understanding: The Earth
and Moon have patterns of movement
that can be inferred by observing and
recording shadows cast by the Sun.)
Mark the position of shadows cast by a
stick over the course of a few hours,
and infer how the Sun has moved
during that time.
Observe that the length of shadows is
shortest at about noon, and infer that
this is because the Sun is highest in the
sky (but not directly overhead) at about
that time.
Explain how shadows could be used to
tell the time of day.
Students will understand that a
shadow is created (cast) when an
object blocks the light rays from the
Sun.
Students will understand that the
Earth is constantly rotating on its
axis, therefore, constantly changing
its position in relationship to the
Sun.
Students will understand that when
we look at the Sun in the early
morning and late evening we are at
the greatest distance from the Sun,
therefore longer shadows.
Sample Questions:
2-3 LS2A Ecosystems support all life on
the planet, including human life, by
providing food, fresh water, and
breathable air.
Identify at least four ways that
ecosystems support life (e.g., by
providing fresh water, generating
oxygen, removing toxic pollutants,
and providing sources of useful
materials).
(Enduring Understanding: Changes in
ecosystems affect living populations
and non-living elements of a defined
area.)
2-3 LS2B All ecosystems change over
time as a result of natural causes (e.g.,
storms, floods, volcanic eruptions, fire).
Some of these changes are beneficial for
the plants and animals, some are
harmful, and some have no effect.
(Enduring Understanding: Changes in
ecosystems affect living populations
and non-living elements of a defined
area.)
Students will understand that all
living things rely on the ecosystems
in which they live to supply food,
water, and air.
Students will understand that a
healthy ecosystem can easily
provide food, fresh water, and clean
air for living things.
Students will understand that a
damaged ecosystem may not be able
to provide all it living inhabitants
the essential things they need in
order to sustain a quality life.
Describe three or more of the changes
that occur in an ecosystem or model of
a natural ecosystem (e.g., aquarium,
terrarium) over time, as well as how
these changes may affect the plants and
animals living there.
Students will understand that
ecosystems usually change slowly
because of natural causes. Some
ecosystem changes can change in
just a few hours or days due to fire,
volcanic eruptions, hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods, storms, etc.
Students will understand that not
only are living organisms affected
by ecosystem change, non-living
elements can be drastically changed
also.
Students will understand that
changes can be positive, negative,
or create little change at all.
2-3 LS2C Some changes in ecosystems
occur slowly and others occur rapidly.
Changes can affect life forms, including
humans.
Explain the consequences of rapid
ecosystem change (e.g., flooding, wind
storms, snowfall, volcanic eruptions).
Explain the consequences of gradual
ecosystem change (e.g., gradual
increase or decrease in daily
temperatures, reduction or increase in
yearly rainfall).
Students will understand that rapid
changes usually will affect an
ecosystem negatively.
(Enduring Understanding: Changes in
ecosystems affect living populations
and non-living elements of a defined
area.)
2-3 LS2D Humans impact ecosystems in
both positive and negative ways.
Humans can help improve the health of
ecosystems so that they provide habitats
for plants and animals and resources for
humans over the long term. For example,
if people use fewer resources and recycle
waste, there will be fewer negative
impacts on natural systems.
Students will understand that
ecosystems usually change slowly
because of natural causes. Some
ecosystem changes can change in
just a few hours or days due to fire,
volcanic eruptions, hurricanes,
tornadoes, floods, storms, etc.
Students will understand that slow
changes are easier to deal with, but
can also have negative effects if
they continue.
Describe a change that humans are
making in a particular ecosystem and
predict how that change could harm or
improve conditions for a given type of
plant or animal.
Propose a plan to protect or improve an
ecosystem.
Students will understand that
humans usually have the biggest
impact on an ecosystem both
positively and negatively.
Students will understand that
humans can restore an ecosystem
back to a healthy state if it has been
damaged.
Students will understand that most
ecosystems are affected by human
intervention.
(Enduring Understanding: Changes in
ecosystems affect living populations
and non-living elements of a defined
area.)
2-3 LS3A There are variations among
the same kinds of plants and animals.
Give examples of variations among
individuals of the same kinds of plants
and animals within a population (e.g.,
tall and short pine trees, black cats and
white cats, people with blue eyes or
brown eyes, with freckles or without).
(Enduring Understanding: Plants and
animals vary from one another and
their parents. These differences serve
as the basis for natural selection.)
2-3 LS3B The offspring of a plant or
animal closely resembles its parents, but
close inspection reveals differences.
(Enduring Understanding: Plants and
animals vary from one another and
their parents. These differences serve
as the basis for natural selection.)
Students will understand that plants
and animals that are in the same
family can be much different
externally. An adult tiger can
weight 660 lbs, be 9and ½ feet long,
and 3 and ½ feet tall, whereas, a
small house cat can weight 5 lbs, be
1 and ½ feet long and ½ foot high.
Students will understand that these
types of differences occur among all
living organisms of similar origin.
Compare the offspring of a plant or
animal with its parents, listing features
that are similar and that are different.
Students will understand that plants
and animals create offspring and
that offspring may be very similar in
many ways, but upon close
inspection, there are differences.
Students will understand that strong
features of plants and animals are
passed on to their offspring.
2-3 LS3C Sometimes differences in
characteristics give individual plants or
animals an advantage in surviving and
reproducing.
Predict how differences in
characteristics might help one
individual survive better than
another (e.g., animals that are stronger
or faster, plants or animals that blend
into the background, plants that grow
taller or that need less water to
survive).
(Enduring Understanding: Plants and
animals vary from one another and
their parents. These differences serve
as the basis for natural selection.)
2-3 LS3D Fossils are often similar to
parts of plants or animals that live today.
(Enduring Understanding: Plants and
animals vary from one another and
their parents. These differences serve
as the basis for natural selection.)
Students will understand that plants
and animals can have characteristics
that allow it to survive when others
of the same species may not.
Students will understand that these
characteristics are passed on to
offspring by their parents because
they are stronger and help the
species to continue.
Students will understand that if one
individual in a group of offspring
has a special characteristic that can
help it survive adversity, that
characteristic will be passed on to
the next generation.
Observe fossils and compare them to
similar plants or animals that live today
(e.g., compare a fossil fern with a
similar fern that grows today, a
dinosaur leg bone with the leg bone of
a reptile that lives today, a mastodon
and an elephant).
Students will understand that all
fossils are parts of living organisms
from long ago.
Students will understand that
fossilized plants and animals from
long ago are very similar to plants
and animals of today. (Leaves,
bones, and other living parts that are
fossilized look the same as other
living plants and animals of today,
maybe just bigger or smaller.)
2-3 LS3E Some fossils are very different
from plants and animals that live today.
(Enduring Understanding: Plants and
animals vary from one another and
their parents. These differences serve
as the basis for natural selection.)
Conclude from fossil evidence that
once there were species on Earth that
are no longer alive (e.g., T-Rex,
trilobites).
Given pictures of animals that are
extinct (e.g., dinosaurs, mammoths),
describe how these animals are
different from animals that live today.
Students will understand that
although parts of plants and animals
of the past have very similar
structures that are basically the
same, they may have other
characteristics or structures that are
very different from today’s plants
and animals.
Students will understand that these
plants and animals may no longer be
around at all, they have become
extinct. (no longer exist)