AC9S3H01 Year 3 Science

AC9S3H01 – Year 3 Science: Nature and development of science

Strand

Science as a human endeavour

Substrand

Nature and development of science

This Content Descriptor from Year 3 Science provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

examine how people use data to develop scientific explanations

Elaborations

• investigating the stories of people who used multiple observations to develop scientific explanations, such as 17th-century entomologist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian, who was the first to record the nature of metamorphosis
• exploring how farmers use soil tests to monitor and manage the health of farms
• investigate how 18th-century physicists such as Jean Ingenhousz and Sir Benjamin Thompson collected data on conduction of heat to determine the best conductors or insulators
• exploring age-appropriate science reports and journal articles and identifying where in the text the author has included data, findings or explanations
• viewing a documentary or webinar and observing how scientists and researchers share their data and explanations

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 3 ASSCIY3

Year 3 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 3 students classify and compare living and non-living things and different life cycles. They describe the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals and describe their importance as resources. They identify sources of heat energy and examples of heat transfer and explain changes in the temperature of objects. They classify solids and liquids based on observable properties and describe how to cause a change of state. They describe how people use data to develop explanations. They identify solutions that use scientific explanations. Students pose questions to explore patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations. They use scaffolds to plan safe investigations and fair tests. They use familiar classroom instruments to make measurements. They organise data and information using provided scaffolds and identify patterns and relationships. They compare their findings with those of others, explain how they kept their investigation fair, identify further questions and draw conclusions. They communicate ideas and findings for an identified purpose, including using scientific vocabulary when appropriate.