THIRD GRADE • 2026-2027
Science: Questions, Evidence and Discovery
Open any unit to see the big ideas, lesson topics, vocabulary, hands-on thinking, and simple ways families can connect with the learning at home.
MPS PACING
September 16-30, 2026Unit 1: Engineering
How can we define a problem and improve a solution?
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What students will learn
Students learn that engineers begin with a clear problem, work within limits, test ideas, and improve solutions using evidence.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: How Do We Define a Problem?Students identify a need, ask useful questions, and describe the criteria for success and the limits a design must follow. Their design challenge centers on keeping plants watered during a school break.
- Lesson 3: How Do We Test and Improve a Solution?Students plan fair tests, study what works and what fails, and suggest improvements that increase benefits or reduce risks. They connect this thinking to real engineering examples.
Science skills
Asking questions; identifying criteria and constraints; planning fair tests; observing failure points; using evidence to improve a design.
Words students may use
criteria, constraint, design, engineer, engineering
Try this at home
Ask your child to point out something designed to solve a problem. What does it need to do, and what limits did its designer have?
Standards represented
3-5-ETS1-1 and 3-5-ETS1-3
MPS PACING
November 1-30, 2026Unit 7: Weather and Patterns
How do weather data and patterns help people prepare?
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What students will learn
Students collect and interpret weather information, notice patterns across time and place, make predictions, and explore ways people reduce the effects of severe weather.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: How Is Weather Measured?Students use weather observations and tools to understand temperature, wind, and precipitation, then use the information to make practical choices.
- Lesson 2: How Can We Predict Weather?Students analyze weather data from different times and locations, identify patterns, and use those patterns to make reasonable predictions.
- Lesson 3: What Are Some Severe Weather Impacts?Students identify weather hazards, examine the damage they may cause, and explore engineered features that help protect people and places.
- Lesson 4: What Are Some Types of Climates?Students compare climate patterns in regions around the world and consider how animals are suited to the places where they live.
Science skills
Reading tables and graphs; using weather tools; comparing locations and seasons; predicting conditions; evaluating weather-safety designs.
Words students may use
weather, atmosphere, precipitation, rain gauge, wind vane, thermometer, hazard, climate
Try this at home
Look at a weekly forecast together. Ask your child what pattern they notice and how that information could help your family prepare.
Standards represented
3-ESS2-1, 3-ESS2-2 and 3-ESS3-1
MPS PACING
January 4-31, 2027Unit 2 & 3: Forces & Motion
How do forces change the way objects move?
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What students will learn
Students investigate pushes, pulls, magnets, speed, direction, and repeating motion. They use observations to explain cause and effect and predict what may happen next.
Lessons at a glance
- Unit 2, Lesson 1: What Are Forces?Students explore force as a push or pull and investigate how the strength and direction of a force can change an object's motion.
- Unit 2, Lesson 3: What Forces Act from a Distance?Students investigate magnetism and static electricity as forces that can affect objects without touching them.
- Unit 3, Lesson 1: What Is Motion?Students describe an object's position and speed and explain how unbalanced forces can make it speed up, slow down, or change direction.
- Unit 3, Lesson 2: What Are Some Patterns in Motion?Students observe repeating motion, investigate a pendulum, and use patterns to predict future motion.
Science skills
Planning investigations; measuring motion; comparing balanced and unbalanced forces; recognizing forces that act at a distance; finding predictable patterns.
Words students may use
force, balanced forces, unbalanced forces, gravity, net force, magnet, position, patterns of motion
Try this at home
Try rolling the same object with a gentle push and a stronger push. Ask what changed and what evidence supports the answer.
Standards represented
3-PS2-1, 3-PS2-2, 3-PS2-3 and 3-PS2-4
MPS PACING
March 1-31, 2027Unit 4 & 5: Life Cycles and Environmental Change
How do traits, life cycles, and environments affect living things?
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What students will learn
Students study how living things grow, inherit traits, survive in habitats, and respond when environments change.
Lessons at a glance
- Unit 4, Lesson 2: What Are Some Animal Life Cycles?Students compare the stages of different animal life cycles and use models to show patterns of birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
- Unit 4, Lesson 3: What Are Inherited Plant and Animal Traits?Students study similarities and differences among related organisms and use patterns as evidence of inherited traits.
- Unit 5, Lesson 2: What Are Adaptations?Students examine how features such as camouflage or feeding structures can help an organism survive and reproduce.
- Unit 5, Lesson 4: What Happens When Environments Change?Students consider how environmental changes affect populations and evaluate possible solutions to problems caused by human activity.
Science skills
Developing models; recognizing life-cycle patterns; interpreting trait data; explaining adaptations; making evidence-based claims about survival and environmental change.
Words students may use
metamorphosis, pupa, organism, trait, adapt, habitat, camouflage, mimicry, population
Try this at home
Choose a familiar animal and ask: What traits help it survive? Which traits came from its parents, and which behaviors did it learn?
Standards represented
3-LS1-1, 3-LS3-1, 3-LS4-3 and 3-LS4-4
MPS PACING
May 1-31, 2027Unit 5 & 6: Organisms Success and Fossils
What can living things and fossils teach us about survival and the past?
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What students will learn
Students explain how traits and group behaviors support survival, then use fossils as evidence of organisms and environments from long ago.
Lessons at a glance
- Unit 5, Lesson 3: How Can Organisms Succeed in Their Environments?Students use evidence to explain how individual traits or group behavior may improve an organism's chance of surviving and reproducing.
- Unit 6, Lesson 1: What Is a Fossil?Students examine fossil evidence, identify different kinds of fossils, and infer information about organisms that lived long ago.
- Unit 6, Lesson 2: What Do Fossils Tell Us About the Past?Students analyze fossils to identify organisms and reconstruct features of the environments in which those organisms once lived. This lesson is projected for two weeks.
Science skills
Constructing arguments; comparing survival advantages; observing fossil features; interpreting evidence; inferring past organisms and environments.
Words students may use
adaptation, fossil, extinct, aquatic, terrestrial
Try this at home
When you see a rock, shell, footprint, or fossil image, ask your child what clues it gives and what can be inferred from those clues.
Standards represented
3-LS2-1, 3-LS3-2 and 3-LS4-1