Third Grade: Ecosystems
Talking Science Through Texts > Third Grade > Ecosystems
Driving Questions: How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different from current plants, animals, and environments? What happens to organisms when their environment changes?
Third Grade Crosscutting Concepts
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Scale, Proportion, Quantity
Observable phenomena exist from very short to very long time periods.
Cause and Effect
Events have causes that generate observable patterns.
Systems and System Models
A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.
Talking Science: Crosscutting Concepts to Support Comprehension
Crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. As such, they are a way of linking the different domains of science. They include patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; energy and matter; structure and function; and stability and change. The Framework emphasizes that these concepts need to be made explicit for students because they provide an organizational schema for interrelating knowledge from various science fields into a coherent and scientifically based view of the world.
Suggested Read Aloud Texts
Choose a text to view its read aloud guide.
A Weed is a Flower
Redwoods
Spring After Spring
Animal Friends, Animal Families
Talking Science: Formative Assessment Probes
Extend the discussion of these books using the suggested prompts from the Uncovering Student Ideas in Science Series from Page Keeley and NSTA.
- 3-LS2-1
- No Related Probes for LS2.D
- 3-LS4-1
- #22 Mountaintop Fossil (USI Vol2) p. 165
- #17 Is it a Fossil? (USI EES) p. 91
- 3-LS4-3
- #19 Habitat Change (USI Vol2) p. 143
- 3-LS4-4
- #19 Habitat Change (USI Vol2) p. 143
- #17 No More Plants (USI LSV1) p. 103
- #18 Changing Environment (USI LSV1) p. 109