Education and Early Childhood Learning

• SCI.3.A.1

  Demonstrate an understanding of different First Nations, Métis, and Inuit ways of knowing, being, and doing by exploring Indigenous methods of observing and interpreting the world, applying scientific principles, and creating technologies within local traditional and contemporary contexts (e.g., wholistic, reciprocal, interconnected, and sustainable ways; land-based learning; outdoor learning; intersections with Western science).

• SCI.3.B.1

  Develop a sense of agency, identity, and belonging in science by

  • cultivating natural curiosity about the world
  • acquiring scientific skills and fostering scientific attitudes
  • building a personal connection to nature
  • establishing links between science concepts and personal experience
  • recognizing that everyone can contribute to science

Science, Technology, Society, and Environment (STSE) Contexts

• SCI.3.C.1

  Take class, group or personal action on a local, provincial, Canadian or global STSE (Science, technology, society and the environment) issue.

  Examples:

  • Examine playground structures and suggest improvements to make them more stable or safer.
  • Initiate zero-waste lunches or a zero-waste classroom/school.
  • Create a habitat or protect the habitat of organisms around the school.
  • Document the life cycle of an organism (butterfly, plant, frog) and suggest actions to protect a vulnerable stage.
  • Plan simple structures to help an organism withstand wind, rain, or temperature changes.

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Scientific Measurement

• SCI.3.C.2

  Measure using the appropriate techniques, tools, and units. (Bold indicates items introduced for the first time at this grade level.) Include the following:
  Tools: calendar, clock, thermometer, ruler, pan balance, balance, volumetric vessels, stopwatch
  Attributes: length, mass, volume, time, temperature
  Units: length (km, m, cm, mm), mass (kg, g), volume (L, mL), time (h, min, s), temperature (°C)
  Skills and understanding of scientific measurement: measure and estimate using standard SI tools and units

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Action and Practice

• SCI.3.C.3

  Apply a range of scientific, technological or engineering practices (e.g., asking questions, identifying problems, observing, experimenting, measuring, classifying, collecting and analyzing data, engaging in scientific debate and argumentation, communicating results, designing and building) in a manner that demonstrates respect and ensures personal safety and the safety of others.

  Examples:

  • Participate in learning experiences that include an Indigenous community member (e.g., Elder, Knowledge Holder, Knowledge Keeper) to share knowledge, experience, or teachings related to the curriculum.
  • Sort materials, including natural materials, for use in constructing structures according to one or more physical properties, such as strength, texture, colour, flexibility, and durability.
  • Record qualitative observations and quantitative measurements about the effects of non-contact (e.g., gravitational and magnetic) forces that act from a distance to cause objects to move, change direction, or stay in place.
  • Develop models to show that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles, although all have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common.
  • Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
  • Follow given safety procedures and roles, and explain why they are needed.

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Scientific Instruments

• SCI.3.C.4

  Use various materials and scientific equipment appropriately, competently, and safely while carrying out various scientific practices.

  Examples: magnifying glass, craft and recycled materials, classroom materials, nature materials, charts, safety procedures

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Careers, Hobbies, and Activities

• SCI.3.C.5

  Make connections between scientific ideas and a range of careers, hobbies and activities.

  Examples: physiotherapist, medical professional, electrician, geoscientist teacher, entomologist, farmer, model building, amateur astronomy, electronics hobbies, planting and gardening, Indigenous teachings related to water and life, wildlife photography, gymnastics, archery, track and field events

Purpose: Science is about finding the cause or causes of phenomena in the natural world.

• SCI.3.D.1

  Demonstrate the understanding that science attempts to develop explanations for phenomena in nature.

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Method: Scientific explanations, theories, and models are those that best fit the evidence available at a particular time.

• SCI.3.D.2

  Demonstrate the understanding that developing scientific explanations involves systematically collecting data through observations and measurements or using data from other sources.

• SCI.3.D.3

  Demonstrate the understanding that a hypothesis is a prediction about what is happening, or what might happen, based upon theory, research, past experience, observations, or other evidence.

• SCI.3.D.4

  Demonstrate the understanding that the data that scientists look for is guided by a theory or a hypothesis, and the evidence they find supports or refutes their predictions.

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Application: The knowledge produced by science is used in engineering and technologies to create products and processes.

• SCI.3.D.5

  Demonstrate the understanding that engineering is the application of scientific principles and approaches to solving problems, often resulting in new technology that furthers scientific discovery.

• SCI.3.D.6

  Demonstrate the understanding that when solving problems, there may be many possible solutions, each with associated implications, requiring both critical and creative thinking in choosing the best solution.

  Examples: functionality, sustainability, economic considerations, ethics, impacts on all organisms and all parts of the ecosystems

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Implication: Applications of science often have ethical, environmental, social, economic, and political implications.

• SCI.3.D.7

  Demonstrate the understanding that technologies may have both beneficial and detrimental social and environmental consequences.

These outcomes are organized according to the big ideas of science. They are not grouped to form prescriptive clusters or units. Teachers are encouraged to regroup, reorganize and reorder the learning outcomes in this strand according to themes or units that meet the needs of their classes and their teaching.

Outcomes relating to the big ideas of matter: All matter in the universe is made up of very small particles.

• SCI.3.E.1

  Demonstrate the understanding that there are many considerations that go into choosing materials for building structures.

  Examples: strength, flexibility, mass, environment, ease of use, costs, aesthetics, resource requirements, leaching, water protection

• SCI.3.E.2

  Demonstrate the understanding that building materials can be joined in various ways to maximize certain properties of structures.

  Examples: shape, strength, stability, height, flexibility, comfort, efficiency, cost

• SCI.3.E.3

  Demonstrate an understanding of similarities in shapes found in nature and human-made structures to provide strength and stability.

  Examples: honeycomb (hexagon), tunnels (cylinder), shells (arches), bridges (triangles)

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Outcomes relating to the big ideas of fields: Objects can affect other objects at a distance.

• SCI.3.E.4

  Demonstrate the understanding that there are contact and non-contact forces.

• SCI.3.E.5

  Demonstrate the understanding that objects can exert forces on other objects at a distance.

  Include the following: gravity, magnetism, static electrical force.

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Outcomes relating to the big ideas of force: Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.

• SCI.3.E.6

  Demonstrate the understanding that a force is a push, pull, or twist acting on an object.

• SCI.3.E.7

  Demonstrate the understanding that forces act on an object in a particular direction, which can be opposed by forces acting in the opposite direction.

  Include the following: balanced forces, unbalanced forces.

• SCI.3.E.8

  Demonstrate the understanding that an unbalanced force can make an object change its motion or deform its shape.

  Examples: applied force, friction, wind resistance, gravitational force, magnetic force

• SCI.3.E.9

  Demonstrate the understanding that the speed of an object is the distance it travels in a certain time span.

  Include the following: position, start, stop, speed up, slow down, constant speed, m/s, km/h.

• SCI.3.E.10

  Demonstrate an understanding of the principle of inertia.

  Include the following: matter.

• SCI.3.E.11

  Demonstrate the understanding that how quickly an object’s motion changes depends on the amount of force applied and the mass of the object.

  Include the following: mass, kilogram, force, speeding up, slowing down.

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Outcomes relating to the the big ideas of life science: Organisms are organized on a cellular basis and have a finite life span.

• SCI.3.E.12

  Demonstrate an understanding of the basic needs of organisms.

  Include the following: plants, animals, food, energy, water, air, adequate temperature range.

• SCI.3.E.13

  Demonstrate an understanding of the processes involved in the life cycles of most organisms.

  Include the following: reproducing, converting food to energy and energy into food, excreting, growing and developing, dying.

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Outcomes relating to the big ideas of evolution: The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.

• SCI.3.E.14

  Demonstrate the understanding that classification systems help science make sense of the large diversity of life on Earth.

  Examples: types of trees, types of dogs, types of apples