🧲Grade 3 Science Investigators

This is the year science stops being 'nature study' and starts being method. The organising idea is the fair test: change one variable, measure one outcome, hold everything else steady. Once a child genuinely understands that, they can design their own investigations for the rest of their education.

The ramp-and-friction investigation in unit one is repeated three times across the year with different materials, so children see their own planning improve rather than just being told it should.

What your child will be able to do

By the end of this course, a learner working at the expected pace will be able to:

• Plan a fair test, identifying what to change, measure and keep the same
• Explain how light travels, reflects and makes shadows
• Relate pitch and volume to the properties of a vibrating object
• Group rocks by their properties and describe how fossils form
• Name the main bones and muscle groups and explain their function

How the course is structured

Grade 3 Science Investigators is organised into 5 units covering 72 lessons in total, designed to run across 32 weeks at roughly 2 hours a week. The unit outline below shows 20 representative lessons.

Forces and magnets

• Contact and non-contact forces
• Friction on different surfaces (a ramp test)
• Magnetic poles: attract and repel
• Predicting magnetic materials

Light and shadow

• Light sources and reflection
• How shadows form and change
• Investigating shadow length
• Protecting our eyes from the sun

Sound

• Vibrations and how sound travels
• Pitch: string, ruler and bottle experiments
• Volume and distance
• Building a string telephone

Rocks and soils

• Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic
• Testing rock hardness and permeability
• How fossils form
• What soil is made of

Animals including humans

• The skeleton and its jobs
• Muscles working in pairs
• Nutrition and food groups
• Keeping a healthy body

How it is taught

Every investigation is planned on paper before anything is touched, using a three-column sheet: change / measure / keep the same. Results are always graphed, even when the graph is simple, because reading your own data is part of the skill.

What is included

• 72 lessons with 20 filmed fair tests
• Investigation planning sheets and results tables
• Printable rock and bone identification charts
• 18 quizzes and two extended investigation write-ups

Who this course suits

This course sits in the Grade 3 track and follows a oxford-aligned sequence. It suits families who want a complete, sequenced science year rather than a set of loose practice activities, and it assumes no teaching experience — every lesson includes a short method note for the adult. If your child is comfortably ahead or behind the intermediate level described here, use the placement check in lesson one and start at the recommended point instead of lesson one.