In Year 3, our children enjoy hands-on, practical Science learning and we focus on the following working scientifically skills:
- asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
- setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
- making systematic and careful observations and taking accurate measurements
- gathering, recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways
- recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
- reporting on findings from enquiries
- using results to draw simple conclusions and make predictions
- identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
- using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions
Light
Intended outcomes for this unit:
- Children should be able to recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light.
- Children will notice that light is reflected from surfaces.
- They will recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes.
- Children will be able to recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object.
- Children will find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.
Rocks and fossils
Intended outcomes for this unit:
- Children will be able to compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties.
- They will be able to describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.
- Children will be able to recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
Forces and magnets
Intended outcomes for this unit:
- Children will be able to compare how things move on different surfaces.
- They will notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance.
- Children will be able to observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others.
- They will compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials.
- Children will be able to describe magnets as having two poles.
- Children will predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing
Plants
Intended outcomes for this unit:
- Children will be able to identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.
- They will explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant.
- Children will investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.
- They will explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
Animals including humans
Intended outcomes for this unit:
- Children will be able to identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat.
- They will identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.