AC9S3U01 Year 3 Science

AC9S3U01 – Year 3 Science: Biological sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Biological sciences

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

compare characteristics of living and non-living things and examine the differences between the life cycles of plants and animals

Elaborations

• classifying a collection of objects as living, once living or non-living and explaining their reasoning
• observing and describing differences between metamorphic (such as butterflies, beetles or frogs) and non-metamorphic life cycles of animals, including humans
• comparing the physical characteristics of an animal such as a frog or moth with its activity at different stages of its life cycle
• representing stages of a plant or animal’s life cycle using drawings, digital photographs, graphic organisers or concrete materials
• investigating how First Nations Australians understand and utilise the life cycles of certain species

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.