Mystery Science 3rd Grade
At Mystery Science, our mission is to help children stay curious. Young children love to ask questions. They’re naturally curious about the world: “Why does it get cold in the winter?” “Why do we need to cook our food?” “Why are flowers so colorful?” The sad fact is, by the time most children reach middle or high school, they've lost this curiosity. Every scientific conclusion began as a mystery. Someone wondered something about the world, and they set out to investigate it. At Mystery Science, we believe that if you take a child’s questions seriously and help them to investigate, their natural curiosity will develop into a scientific perspective on the world. This ability to think scientifically is fundamental to any career or subject a child chooses to pursue as an adult. It's the ability to look at a question or problem, systematically investigate and collect evidence, and come to an independent conclusion. This is why our mission is to help children stay curious. We believe teachers and parents deserve better resources to help children investigate the mysteries of this endlessly fascinating world!
Power of Flowers: This unit develops the idea that by studying how plants reproduce and pass on their traits, we human beings have figured out how to make food plants even more useful to us. Students first discover how plants reproduce by exploring the process of pollination and fruiting. Then students are introduced to the process of plant domestication (selection of traits based on inheritance and variation).
Animals Through Time: In this unit students will develop an appreciation for how animals and the places they live (their habitats) are not constant—they have changed over time. Fossils give us a window to the animals and habitats of the past. Selective breeding shows us not only how some animals of the past became domesticated, but allows us to imagine how they might look in the future.
Invisible Forces: This introductory forces unit will give students a new understanding of the invisible pushes and pulls that operate in the world around them. They will realize that understanding forces will let them do surprising things — from building a sturdy bridge from paper to using the pull of a rubber band to send a cardboard “hopper” flying. What students learn in this unit will connect to the world around them, leading them to think about such things as the force of friction as they slide down a playground slide or the the invisible force that makes magnets cling to the refrigerator. Hands-on activities focus on engineering, investigation, and discovery.
Stormy Skies: This unit develops the idea that by paying careful attention to clouds, wind, and other weather clues around us, we can predict the daily weather and make sense of why places on earth look and feel the way they do.
