What does a student learn in StateMissouri,GradeGrade 3,SubjectScience?

Students predict and test what happens when water gets colder or warmer. They watch it freeze into ice, melt back to liquid, or disappear as vapor, then explain why each change happened.

Students learn what happens when two materials meet, such as mixing, dissolving, or one changing the other. The focus is on observing whether the change can be undone.

Heating and cooling can change matter in ways that can be undone (like melting ice) or ways that cannot (like burning wood). Students identify which kind of change happened and explain their thinking with evidence.

Objects can push or pull each other without touching, like how a magnet attracts a paper clip from across a table. Students learn to spot these invisible forces and predict what will happen when objects interact.

Students plan and run simple tests to find out how magnets or static electricity can push and pull objects without touching them. They look for patterns in what causes each effect.

Students look at real animals and plants in one habitat and explain, using evidence, why some thrive there, some struggle, and others cannot live there at all. The focus is on how a creature's body or habits make it a good fit or a poor one.

Plants and animals grow in predictable patterns. Students learn why organisms look like their parents, how living things change from birth to adulthood, and what they need to grow through each stage of life.

Students compare the life cycles of plants and animals by building a simple model, like a diagram or chart, that shows how each organism is born, grows, reproduces, and dies.

Students sort traits into two groups: ones passed down from parents (like eye color or leaf shape) and ones shaped by surroundings (like a plant growing taller in sunlight). They back up that sorting with evidence.

Offspring usually look like their parents, but small differences can appear. Students learn how those differences sometimes help an animal survive long enough to have young of its own.

Some animals in a group are faster, better camouflaged, or built differently than others. Students explain how those differences can help certain individuals survive longer and have more offspring.

Animals and plants develop features that help them survive in their environment. Students learn why some of those features get passed from parents to offspring and how they spread through a population over time.

Students explain why some animals thrive in a specific place while others struggle or can't survive at all, using real examples of body features or behaviors as their evidence.

Living things come in an enormous variety of species, and humans depend on that variety for food, medicine, and clean water. When species disappear, those resources can shrink.

Students look at a real problem, like a forest fire or flood changing a habitat, and explain in writing whether a proposed fix would actually help the plants and animals survive there.

Students record temperature, rainfall, and other weather data in tables and charts to show what weather a season typically brings, like cold and snowy winters or warm and rainy springs.

Students research and compare climates in different parts of the world, then put that information together to describe what the weather is typically like in each region across seasons.

Students explore how people use natural resources like soil, water, and sunlight, and what happens when those resources run low. They also look at how weather and other natural events affect communities.

Natural hazards are events like earthquakes, floods, and wildfires that can harm people and communities. Students learn what causes these events and how people prepare for them or reduce the damage they cause.

Students look at a real structure built to protect people from storms or floods, then explain in writing why it works well or where it falls short.

Students name a problem they want to solve, then set the rules for a good solution: what it must do, what materials are allowed, and how much time or money can be spent.

Students come up with more than one idea for solving a problem, then compare those ideas to figure out which one best fits the rules and limits they have to work within.

Students test a model or prototype, change one thing at a time, and look for what breaks or falls short. The goal is to find exactly what needs fixing before the next version is built.