Grade 03 Science - EC: S3.A.2.1.3
Grade 03 Science - EC: S3.A.2.1.3
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Grade Levels
3rd Grade
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Define variable.
- What is the difference between an independent and dependent variable?
- You want to see what makes a plant grow. Predict what variables might change the growth in plants.
- Pretend that you are designing a plant experiment to see what makes a plant grow. Infer why it is important to change only one variable.
- Sarah wants to see if water temperature affects plants. She waters Plant A with water that is 72 degrees and Plant B with water that is 52 degrees. She keeps Plant A by the window, and keeps Plant B away from the window. Critique Sarah’s experiment.
- Bianca is doing the same experiment as Sarah and decides to keep both plants on the windowsill. She waters Plant A with 72 degrees water and Plant B with 52 degrees water. She tracks their height every day to see which plant grows taller. Compare Bianca’s experiment to Sarah’s. Draw conclusions to figure out which variable is the independent variable, and which is the dependent.
Answer Key/Rubric
- A variable is defined as something that can be changed during an experiment.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- An independent variable is the variable changed during the experiment.
- A dependent variable changes based on the independent variable.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- Water
- Sunlight
- Soil
- Environment
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- If you changed too many variables, then we would not know what variable affected the plant.
- It is important to only focus on one variable, like sunlight or water, so we can see how that one variable affects the plant.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- Sarah should have kept both plants in the same location because the amount of sunlight could affect the way the plants grow.
- Sarah changed too many variables in the experiment.
- If Sarah wants to test how the temperature of the water affects plants, everything else must be the same to get the best results.
- Acceptable responses may include, but are not limited to:
- Bianca’s experiment is more reliable
- Bianca only changed one variable, so it is better than Sarah who changed two variables
- The independent variable is the water temperature.
- The dependent variable is the height of the plants.
