Science and Technology

In this unit you will learn how plants grow, change and survive. You will find out what plants need (air, water, light, heat, nutrients and space) and what can threaten them. You will learn how each plant part (root, stem, leaf, flower, stamen, pistil, seed, cone and fruit) helps a plant survive, follow plant life cycles from seed to seed, and discover how plants make their own food from sunlight through photosynthesis. You will see how plants adapt and react to their environment and to Ontario's changing seasons, and how plants and animals, including people, depend on each other. You will learn how people around the world, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit, use plants for food, shelter, medicine and clothing, explore locally grown food, and find ways to protect native plants and their habitats.

Remember from Grade 1: you learned the basic needs of living things and the main parts of plants. In Grade 2 you studied animal life cycles and adaptations. Grade 3 builds on both.

Along the way you will work like a scientist, engineer and coder: doing fair tests with light and water, keeping a bean diary, measuring growth in centimetres, coding and debugging a life cycle, and designing a self-watering planter.

Curriculum expectations covered: B1.1, B1.2, B1.3, B2.1, B2.2, B2.3, B2.4, B2.5, B2.6, B2.7, B2.8, with STEM skills A1.1, A1.2, A1.3, A1.4, A1.5, A2.1, A2.2, A3.1, A3.3 (Ontario Science and Technology, Grade 3, 2022).

In this unit you will become a force detective! A force is a push or a pull. You will learn the difference between contact forces (forces that need touching, like a push from your hand, friction and buoyancy) and non-contact forces (forces that work across a gap: gravity, magnetism and static electricity). You will find many ways to exert a force (push, pull, squeeze, stretch, twist, bend, throw, kick), and you will measure how forces make things start, stop, change direction, speed up, slow down or change shape, and how a bigger force makes a bigger change. You will even code a push game.

Then you will spot forces in your daily life, including clever technologies made by First Nations and Inuit peoples, like the qamutik sled and snowshoes. You will study forces of nature (wind, water, ice, snow) and how people can reduce the damage they cause, and you will learn how safety devices like seatbelts and helmets protect us, then design your own.

Remember from Grade 2: you learned that pushes and pulls are forces that change an object's position, and how simple machines make work easier. Grade 3 goes deeper into the different kinds of forces and what they do. Every lesson has hands-on activities using things from home, lots of practice and a short quiz.

Curriculum expectations covered: C1.1, C1.2, C2.1, C2.2, C2.3, C2.4 (Ontario Science and Technology, Grade 3, 2022), with STEM skills and connections from Strand A (A1.1, A1.2, A1.3, A1.4, A1.5, A2.1, A2.2, A3.1, A3.3).

In this unit you will think like a structural engineer! You will learn that a structure is a supporting framework that holds a load, find structures in nature and in your community, and see how a structure's form (shape) fits its function (job). You will find out how forces like gravity, wind and snow push and pull on structures, and how engineers make structures strong (able to hold a load) and stable (able to stay steady, balanced, afloat and in place). You will meet struts and ties, test materials, and learn how First Nations, Métis and Inuit builders chose materials from the land. You will compare structures built by animals and by people, assess their effects on communities and the environment, and finally design, build, test and improve your own tower.

Every lesson has a hands-on activity using things from home, practice questions and a short quiz.

Curriculum expectations covered: D1.1, D1.2, D2.1 to D2.7 (Ontario Science and Technology, Grade 3, 2022), with STEM skills from Strand A (A1.1 to A1.5, A3.1, A3.3).

In this unit you will become a soil scientist! You will discover that soil is a mixture of bits of rock, humus, water, air and living things, and you will meet the earthworms, fungi and tiny bacteria that keep soil healthy. You will compare sand, silt, clay and loam with real tests, travel around Ontario to see which soils grow which foods (including the Three Sisters grown by the Haudenosaunee and other First Nations), and find out why soil matters so much for people and the environment.

Then you will investigate what can harm soil: erosion by water, wind, ice and gravity, substances like road salt and oil, and human activities like paving and compaction. You will learn how people heal soil (like the true story of Sudbury's regreening), the strategies Ontario farmers and families use to keep soil healthy, and how to turn food scraps into compost. Along the way you will do fair tests, research, an engineering design challenge, and a little coding.

Remember from earlier grades: in Grade 1 you sorted food scraps into the green bin, and in Grade 2 you learned that earthworms help make soil rich and that plant roots hold soil. Every lesson has a hands-on activity using things from home, practice questions and a short quiz.

Curriculum expectations covered: E1.1, E1.2, E2.1 to E2.6 (Ontario Science and Technology, Grade 3, 2022), with STEM skills from Strand A (A1.1 to A1.5, A2.1, A2.2, A3.1 to A3.3).