AC9S3U02 Year 3 Science

AC9S3U02 – Year 3 Science: Earth and space sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Earth and space 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 the observable properties of soils, rocks and minerals and investigate why they are important Earth resources

Elaborations

• examining different soils from local areas and using magnifying glasses to observe their components, such as pebbles, sand or plant matter as well as living things such as earthworms and insects
• exploring the school grounds or a local area and observing or collecting different types of rocks and describing similarities or differences such as texture, colour, grain or crystal size
• recognising that minerals are the building blocks of rocks and that the different characteristics of rocks depend on the minerals they are made up of
• identifying rocks as key components of the built and natural environment and recognising uses of minerals such as gemstones in jewellery, graphite in pencils, and table salt in food
• investigating First Nations Australians’ knowledges of different rock and mineral types, and how they were used such as for stone blades, grindstones and pigments
• describing ways in which living things including humans depend on soils, such as for food, growing plants, providing habitat for organisms, and holding and cleaning water
• examining information on plant tags and exploring the vocabulary used to describe soils and different plant soil requirements

Show 1 more elaboration

• investigating which rocks or minerals are quarried or mined locally or regionally and how those resources are used

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.