LIFE SCIENCE: Plants (Trees)

NOTES:

3a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize patterns and products of evolution, including genetic variation, specialization, adaptation, and natural selection.

Resources:  Tell Me, Tree by Gail Gibbons ISBN 0-316-30903-6; Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro ISBN 0-06-445126-7; How Do Trees Grow? By Sharon McConnell ISBN 0-8239-8136-1; How Leaves Change Color by Christine Figorito ISBN 0-8239-8154-1; Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklin M. Banley ISBN 0-06-445019-8; Cycles of Life Trees by Andres L. Ruiz ISBN 0-8069-9327-8; My First Field Guide Looking at Trees and Leaves ISBN 0-448-42517-3; The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry ISBN 0-15-202614-2; Peterson First Guides Trees by George Al Petrides ISBN 0-395-91183-4; Outside and Inside Trees by Sandra Markle ISBN 0-590-48952-6; Let’s Look at the Seasons Autumn Days by Ann Schweninger ISBN 0-14-054055-5; Ranger Rick’s Nature Scope by National Wildlife Federation ISBN 0-945051-43-3; Project Learning Tree (see Erica Sieberg – Lafayette Elementary School)

A.  Tuber – fleshy, rounded stem or root usually containing starchy matter – potato - arrowroot

B, C. Comparing leaves from different plants with each other, oak leaves with maple leaves with white pine needles

Get leaves – identify them – look at edges – list characteristics – develop your own key - Andrea Bryant

Students will be able to:

A.  Grow plants from cuttings, bulbs, tubers, etc. and compare them to the parent plant

B.  Examine parts of plants of the same species, recognize variations, and construct graphs and charts showing the variation in one or more attributes or characteristics

C.  Collect leaves and/or seeds of plants, various insects, or observe birds, and identify the organisms using simple classification keys

3b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand fundamental structures, functions, and mechanisms of inheritance found in microorganisms, fungi, protists, plants, and animals

Resources:  www.protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/Protist_menuE.html;

 
 A. Some is covered in health curriculum.  ie. All trees have…; all plants have… etc.

 B.  If leaves didn’t fall off… What would happen to other organisms? What would be the effect on the tree?

 C.  Diagram a tree…;

 D, E.  Ex.:  Effects of wind, lack of sun, poor soil

Students will be able to:

A.  Identify structures of some common organisms (e.g., parts of a plant, major organs in the human body)

B.  Explain how certain structures are related to the successful survival of that organism (e.g., fish are streamlined, carnivores have sharp teeth)

C.  Identify major internal systems of plants and associate them with their function (e.g., plant roots and water intake)

D.  Examine the needs of several organisms and determine how the conditions of a particular habitat can limit the kinds of organisms living there

E.  Identify and discuss environmental issues, which are important at home and school.

3c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that organisms are linked to one another and to their physical setting by the transfer and transformation of matter and energy to maintain a dynamic equilibrium.

A.  CO2 and photosynthesis Activity
A.  Project Learning Tree page 86 experiment showing a plant making oxygen (see Erica Sieberg – Lafayette Elem.)

C.  About living things – trees/plants live, die, decompose, seeds grow into new plants/trees; worm growing

Note:  See 5a. for an additional tree activity that ties in with States of Matter.

 Students will be able to:

A.  Demonstrate an introductory knowledge of photosynthesis, i.e., green plants make their own food using sunlight, water, and air

B.  Place common plants and animals in simple food chains

C.  Show evidence that substances may change form and move from place to place, but that they never appear out of nowhere and never just disappear (e.g., composting investigation)

EARTH SCIENCE: Solar System

NOTES:

4a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that the Earth is a unique member of our solar system, located in a galaxy, within the universe.

The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn M. Branley ISBN 0-06-445065-1; All About the Moon by Wes Lipschultz; The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons; Web sites:  www.windows.ucar.edu;

Four models for this- from Paul

Videos, NASA, Internet research, “Named” space probes

Night sky software; planetarium visit, make your own planetarium

E.  Pass the Globe Activity; angle of sun’s rays model

 
Delta Kit and book - Systems in the Sky

Students will be able to:

A.  Demonstrate the size and spatial relationships of the Earth, moon, and sun using drawings and/or models

B.  Describe how astronauts and space vehicles increase our knowledge of the solar system

C.  Compare and contrast important features of the Earth, sun and moon

D.  Observe and describe the motion of the sun, moon and stars from the perspective of the Earth

E.  Explain how the earth's relationship to the sun causes night, day, and the seasons

F.  State the type of information which can be gathered by the use of scientific instruments such as telescopes, satellites, etc.

G.  Relate observed weather conditions to different climates and seasons

H.  Conduct simple experiments to explain how shadows change with changes in the position of the sun or other light sources

PHYSICAL SCIENCE: States of Matter

NOTES:

5a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to distinguish among materials by utilizing observable properties.

 Resources:  Solid, Liquid, Gas: What is Matter? By Erica Smith (Rosen Real Readers) ISBN 0-8239-8234-3; Kit DSM-3 States of Matter (Delta Education); Changes Teacher’s Guide (National Science Resources Center, Science and Technology for Children) ISBN 0-89278-629-9; The Usborne Internet –Linked Library of Science Mixtures and compounds ISBN 0-7945-0082-X;

Web site:  www.phys.lsu.edu/dept/opps/Download/
(open “mixing matter” folders – There is a great deal of information within this folder.)
Note:  See 3c for additional activities for CO2 gas experiments.

A.  Not Solutions

B.  Hardness of Wood Continuum

C.  See “Keying Out Trees” from Ranger Rick’s Nature Scope pages 20 and 21.

Students will be able to:

A.  Inspect, using hand lens or microscopes, substances composed of large numbers of small particles, including homogeneous and heterogeneous materials (e.g., salt, sugar, powdered drink mixes, sawdust, beach sand)

B.  Arrange a collection of materials along a continuum (e.g., hardness, density, flexibility, sweetness)

C.  Sort materials according to a given property or attribute (e.g., acids/bases, plant/animal, natural/man-made)

5b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand that matter is composed of dynamic interactive units or particles and that all the properties and changes in matter can be explained in terms of the forces involved in the interactions of these units

 
A.  Beaker full of snow – measure temperature every so often and record and graph

B.  Melt an ice cube in a closed container – mass before and after melting

Students will be able to:

A.  Describe characteristics of matter that are common to solids, liquids, and gases, and characteristics that distinguish them as different phases of matter

B.  Carry out an experiment to show that mass is conserved in a change of state (melting ice cube, Kool-Aid and water)

C.  Explore the physical properties of different household substances and substances in nature.

5g. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing understanding that heat is the product of many natural processes

Students will be able to:

A.  Explore how heat is related to changes in state from solid to liquid to gas

5c. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to understand the relationship among different types of forms and energy.

Students will be able to:

A.  Measure how the temperature of hot and cold water changes when placed in containers of different materials (e.g., aluminum can, paper cup, Styrofoam, glass, thermos)

B.  Measures temperatures before and after a closed bottle of hot water is immersed in a larger container of cooler water and suggest how the changes happened

C.  Investigate different stages in the water cycle (melting, freezing, evaporation, condensation)

UNIFYING THEMES AND CONCEPTS

NOTES:

6a. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate an increasing ability to recognize parts of any object or system, and understand how the parts interrelate in the operation of that object or system.

 
Students will be able to:

A.  Explain, using charts, pictures and models, an important earth, physical or life science system (e.g., solar system, home heating system, ecosystem)

6b. Curriculum Standard: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of stability and change and will be able to identify and explain change in terms of cause and effect.

Students will be able to:

A.  Conduct an experiment that documents change that is steady, repetitive, or irregular using measurement and graphing (e.g., measure changes in growth of a corn plant stem over periods of days, weeks, and months; position of the moon in the sky during a period of two months; monitor weather conditions; length of hair)

B.  Recognize that some changes are so fast that they are hard to see or measure (e.g., use commercial or student-created video images run in slow motion; a toy car rolling down a ramp; one swing of a pendulum)

C.  Identify and explore conditions that cause things to change more quickly or more slowly

D.  Give several examples of steps that one can take to speed up or slow down change

6c. Curriculum Standard: Students will understand the meaning of models, their appropriate use and limitations, and how models can help them in understanding the natural world.

Students will be able to:

A.  Create a model for physical object they can't see (e.g., the contents of a sealed box)

B.  Represent a familiar object, event, or process using different media and describe how accurate that representation is (e.g., represent a school bus ride using sound, drawing, painting, sculpting, mime)

C.  Discuss how to change a physical model to make it more realistic

6d. Curriculum Standard: Students will increasingly quantify their interactions with phenomena in the natural world, use these results to understand differences of scale in objects and systems, and determine how changes in scale affect various properties of these objects and systems.

 
C. Idea:  Use GPS units to map out an area such as a playground.

Students will be able to:

A.  Compare speeds, sizes, and distances as fractions and multiples of one another

B.  Discuss ways to measure size and mass of objects that are either very small or very large, very light or very heavy

C.  Map a small area (e.g., classroom, playground, home)

Instructional Resources for Grade 3

Resource

Location

Notes

Astronomy by Janice VanCleave's

Project Learning Tree  (Environmental Education Activity Guide K-12)

Terms of Grade 3

Term:

Definition