Grade 3 Science Worksheets

Learning Objectives

• Explain the difference between a claim and evidence
• Use evidence to support a reasoning statement that answers a question
• Recognize patterns in observations over time and across comparisons+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Define behavioral adaptations and explain how they help organisms survive.
• Identify examples of behavioral adaptations triggered by temperature, light, or food availability.
• Compare how different organisms use behaviors such as migrating, hibernating, burrowing, and nesting to meet survival needs.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify the main stages in a life cycle model and describe their order.
• Explain how stage characteristics help an organism meet survival needs.
• Compare life cycle models by describing similarities (repeating pattern) and differences (stage length or transitions).+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Describe how water moves through soil using infiltration, percolation, capillary rise, and runoff
• Compare how soil texture and structure affect how quickly water spreads and drains
• Explain how slope can change surface runoff and water flow

Learning Objectives

• Understand how soil properties affect water retention, drainage, and aeration.
• Identify the differences among loam, clay, and sandy soils in terms of plant suitability.
• Explain how soil structure influences plant growth and nutrient uptake.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Observe and identify patterns in different types of motion.
• Use simple measurements to predict future movement of objects.
• Recognize common motion trends such as constant speed, acceleration, and deceleration.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Sort everyday materials using more than one property at a time.
• Use evidence from mass, volume, texture, and shape-keeping to compare materials.
• Explain how two different properties together can show how materials are distinct.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how climate summaries use long-term averages and ranges instead of daily observations.
• Interpret temperature and precipitation information presented in tables and graphs.
• Describe a region’s usual climate using evidence from a data representation.

Learning Objectives

• Identify how speed changes over time using distance measurements at regular intervals
• Explain the difference between constant speed and changing speed patterns
• Use a distance-over-time pattern to make predictions about future positions

Learning Objectives

• Describe how weathering, deposition, and organic matter help form soil
• Explain how physical, chemical, and biological processes break down rock
• Identify factors that influence the rate of soil formation and the development of fertile topsoil+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Explain how producers, prey, predators, and habitats are connected in a simple ecosystem.
• Describe how habitat conditions affect plant growth and animal survival.
• Use cause-and-effect reasoning to show how changes in one part of an ecosystem can affect other parts.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how balanced forces can keep an object’s motion the same
• Describe how unbalanced forces change an object’s motion
• Compare contact forces and the effect of net force on motion

Learning Objectives

• Explain how inherited traits help offspring resemble their parents within a species.
• Describe how inherited traits can show variation among offspring.
• Compare one visible trait across a family line and identify the pattern of resemblance.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the different layers, or horizons, of soil and their characteristics.
• Identify how processes like leaching and accumulation shape soil horizons.
• Recognize how landscape position affects soil development and fertility.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify common soil horizons and describe how they differ in color and texture
• Explain how water movement and soil processes affect soil layers over time
• Use landscape position and vegetation to predict which horizons may be thicker or more fertile+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify how intended function and load paths affect the strength of a simple structure
• Explain how support location and span limitation help prevent sagging and collapse
• Describe common failure modes such as buckling, tension fracture, and joint slippage

Learning Objectives

• Describe how different root systems (fibrous and taproot) help plants get water and nutrients.
• Explain how root hairs and mycorrhizal associations increase nutrient and water absorption.
• Compare how storage roots and specialized aerial roots help plants survive in different environments.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify common types of simple machines and describe what kind of change they make to force or direction.
• Explain how levers, pulleys, and inclined planes can make work easier.
• Match simple machine vocabulary words with correct definitions.

Learning Objectives

• Observe repeated motions and identify regular patterns in speed and direction.
• Use distance and time information to compare and predict future motion.
• Describe how ramps and surface friction can change motion over time.

Learning Objectives

• Identify whether an interaction is magnetic (at a distance) or a contact interaction (touching).
• Explain how magnet poles can cause attraction or repulsion.
• Describe how changing distance can affect the strength of magnetic attraction or repulsion.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify major seed dispersal strategies (wind, animals, water, and ballistic ejection) and describe how they work
• Explain how dispersal patterns help plant populations colonize new areas over generations
• Describe how seed shape and timing can match dispersal methods to improve seed establishment+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify living components of an ecosystem (producers, consumers, and decomposers).
• Describe how nonliving factors (sunlight, air, water, soil, temperature, moisture, and space) affect organisms.
• Explain how changes in one part of an ecosystem can affect other organisms.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how engineering design steps begin with a need or situation and lead to a workable goal.
• Identify how asking questions and defining the problem help guide a solution.
• Describe how proposed solutions must consider constraints such as size, time, and required function.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the first steps of the engineering design process: recognizing a need, asking questions, and defining a problem.
• Describe how engineers propose solutions using available materials and consider constraints such as size, time, and function.
• Use engineering design vocabulary (need, define, constraints, solution, function) to answer science questions.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how distance and elapsed time describe motion
• Calculate and compare speeds using consistent units
• Record motion results using clear numbers and short statements+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Use a two-step classification rule to group organisms based on observable traits.
• Identify which trait to check next when classifying an unknown organism.
• Explain how classification rules create clear categories for comparing organisms.

Learning Objectives

• Describe how plants and animals are connected in a simple ecosystem
• Explain how habitat conditions affect which organisms can survive
• Identify predator-prey relationships and how they depend on shared habitats+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Explain how predators depend on prey for food in an ecosystem.
• Describe how changes in prey numbers can affect predator survival.
• Identify how habitat and plant life support prey and shelter animals.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Understand the basic types of simple machines and their functions.
• Identify examples of levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wheels and axles, wedges, and screws.
• Explain how simple machines make work easier by changing force or direction.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Generate two or more solution ideas using simple sketches or models.
• Compare solutions using measurements and stated criteria.
• Explain trade-offs by citing evidence from a model or test.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the key steps in the engineering design process: ask, define, propose, and consider constraints
• Explain how asking questions and defining a problem guide solution ideas
• Describe how proposed solutions connect to available materials and real-world constraints

Learning Objectives

• Identify the basic resources plants need to live and grow.
• Identify the basic resources animals need for energy, respiration, and protection.
• Match plant and animal structures to the needs they help meet.

Learning Objectives

• Identify stewardship practices that protect soil fertility and reduce erosion
• Explain how riparian buffers, reforestation, and compost support soil function
• Compare how urban green spaces and surface sealing affect groundwater recharge

Learning Objectives

• Identify common types of loads on structures, including dead and live loads, and point and distributed loads
• Explain how compression, tension, bending, and shear forces affect beams, columns, and arches
• Match structural members to the main internal reactions they experience

Learning Objectives

• Explain that animal life cycles follow predictable stages from birth (or hatching) to adulthood
• Describe how animals change form and needs as they grow
• Connect life-cycle stages to how animals survive and reproduce+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify observable weather conditions such as temperature, precipitation, and wind.
• Describe how weather can change from day to day using measurements and everyday observations.
• Compare weather conditions across multiple days to notice patterns.

Learning Objectives

• Identify how classification rules use observable features to group organisms
• Use a given rule to place a new organism into the correct group
• Explain why classification creates clear categories and helps compare organisms

Learning Objectives

• Understand the different stages in an organism's life cycle.
• Identify key features and needs of organisms at each stage.
• Describe how growth and development change an organism over time.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Explain how soil pore size and structure affect water drainage and water retention
• Describe how aeration and oxygen supply help roots grow and take in nutrients
• Compare loam, clay, and sandy soils using trade-offs among retention, drainage, and root oxygen

Learning Objectives

• Identify key parts of soil and describe how they affect plant growth
• Compare sand, silt, and clay based on particle size and water behavior
• Explain how pore space, air, and organic matter affect soil aeration and nutrients

Learning Objectives

• Explain how friction is a resistive force that opposes motion between touching surfaces.
• Describe how surface texture and material pairings affect how easily objects slide or roll.
• Compare sliding versus rolling and predict which will slow down faster based on friction.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Describe how evaporation, condensation, freezing, and melting are part of the water cycle.
• Explain how temperature changes cause water to change between liquid, vapor, and solid.
• Identify the role of clouds and precipitation in returning water to Earth.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Explain how heating and cooling can change a material’s state (solid, liquid, gas).
• Describe observable properties that change during melting, freezing, evaporating, and condensing.
• Use evidence from state changes to argue that the material can remain the same even when its state changes.+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Represent daily weather observations using line and bar graphs and simple tables.
• Describe how temperature and precipitation patterns can change across weeks and seasons.
• Interpret how sunlight angle and Earth's tilt relate to seasonal temperature changes.

Learning Objectives

• Identify common external structures in plants and animals and explain how they help living things survive.
• Describe how internal structures (such as hearts and digestive tracts) support body functions.
• Use a model or drawing to show how structures are arranged and connected to body systems.

Learning Objectives

• Describe how weathering, erosion, and deposition change landforms over time
• Identify landform features such as stream channels, valleys, deltas, and hills and connect them to surface processes
• Explain how moving water, wind, and ice can transport soil and sediment+ Show more

Learning Objectives

• Identify criteria for success and explain how they can be tested using observable results.
• Recognize constraints and describe how they limit materials, time, or cost in a design problem.
• Sort statements into criteria or constraints and use both to evaluate and improve a solution.

Learning Objectives

• Explain how a net force can change an object’s speed and/or direction
• Use observations of motion to describe patterns of speeding up, slowing down, and turning
• Match key vocabulary (force, direction, speed, motion) to correct definitions