Montague Township School District
Science Curriculum Guide
Grade 3
2025-2026
Brooke Senesac · Emily Weiss
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Description
This Grade 3 science curriculum spans 100 days and progresses from physical science through life science and ecology. Students begin with observations of weather patterns and data representation, then investigate how forces affect motion in both mechanical and electromagnetic contexts. The curriculum shifts to life science in the middle units, where students examine inherited traits, life cycles, and organism variation. By year's end, students develop understanding of ecosystems and environmental change, analyzing how organisms interact with habitats and respond to environmental shifts over time. Throughout the year, students use evidence, data interpretation, and pattern recognition to support claims and solve design problems. The curriculum emphasizes cause-and-effect relationships as a unifying analytical framework.
Big Ideas
- Patterns exist in weather, motion, and organism behavior and can be observed, measured, recorded, and used to make predictions.
- Forces and interactions—whether mechanical, magnetic, electrical, or biological—have both strength and direction and cause observable changes.
- Organisms inherit traits from parents and vary within species; environments influence how traits are expressed and which organisms survive.
- Living systems depend on the interaction between organisms and their environments; changes in one part affect the whole system.
- Evidence from multiple sources—including observations, data, and fossils—allows us to understand change over time and design solutions to problems.
Essential Questions
- How do we use data and evidence to understand patterns in the natural world?
- How do forces and interactions shape objects, organisms, and systems?
- How are traits passed from parents to offspring, and how do environments influence their expression?
- How do organisms depend on their habitats and respond to environmental change?
- How can understanding the past help us solve present-day problems?
Core Textbook
Life Sciences — Inquisitive
Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
Earth and Space Sciences
Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Students read informational texts and cite textual evidence to demonstrate understanding of science concepts across all units. They ask and answer questions about weather, forces, traits, life cycles, ecosystems, and environmental change using content-specific texts. Students write opinion pieces, informative and explanatory texts, and conduct short research projects to build knowledge about science topics. They also report orally on topics with appropriate facts and descriptive details, and use information from illustrations, maps, and photographs to support scientific understanding.
Students apply mathematical reasoning and tools across science units to collect, represent, and analyze data. They measure liquid volumes and masses using standard units, draw scaled picture graphs and bar graphs to represent data sets, generate measurement data using rulers and display results on line plots, and reason abstractly and quantitatively when analyzing patterns and cause-and-effect relationships in investigations. Students also use operations and algebraic thinking when comparing and solving problems based on scientific data.
Assessment throughout the year relies on data analysis, evidence-based reasoning, and constructed explanations. Students represent and interpret data in tables and graphs, conduct investigations with observations and measurements, and make claims supported by evidence. Design problems appear across units, requiring students to define problems with constraints and evaluate solution merit. Pattern recognition and cause-and-effect analysis serve as ongoing assessment practices, with students using these skills to make predictions and explanations. Models and arguments constructed by students demonstrate understanding of complex systems and life processes.
| Unit | Formative | Summative | Benchmark | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Weather and Climate | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 02Force and Motion | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 03Electrical and Magnetic Forces | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 04Traits | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 05Continuing the Cycle | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 06Organisms and the Environment | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 07Using Evidence to Understand Change in Environments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 7/7 | 7/7 | 2/2 | 7/7 |
| Unit | IEP | 504 | MLL | At-Risk | Gifted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Weather and Climate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02Force and Motion | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 03Electrical and Magnetic Forces | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 04Traits | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 05Continuing the Cycle | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 06Organisms and the Environment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 07Using Evidence to Understand Change in Environments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 7/7 | 7/7 | 7/7 | 7/7 | 7/7 |