Year 3 Science

Working Scientifically in Year 3
 
  • Ask relevant questions and use different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
  • Set up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
  • Make systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, take accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers
  • Gather, record, classify and present data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
  • Record findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts and tables
  • Report on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions
  • Use results to draw simple conclusions, make predictions for new values, suggest improvements and raise further questions
  • Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple scientific ideas and processes
  • Use straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings
Animals Including Humans
  • 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.
  • Identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.
Light
  • Recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light.
  • Notice that light is reflected from surfaces.
  • Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes.
  • Recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by a solid object.
  • Find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.
Forces 
  • Compare how things move on different surfaces.
  • Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance.
  • Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others.
  • 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.
  • Describe magnets as having two poles.
  • Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.
Plants
  • Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.
  • 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.
  • Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants.
  • Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.
Rocks and Soils
  • Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties.
  • Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.
  • Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.