For 3rd Grade STEM+ Special, the NGSS Standard focus is Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions.

This is one of the 3rd Grade Physical Science Standards and we have been having fun experimenting with the concepts of Force and Motion. Hopefully 3rd Graders will be able to share and explain words like force, balanced force, unbalanced force, magnet, magnetic force, push, pull, repel, and more!

The specific standards are: 

PS2.A: Forces and Motion

•  Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction of motion. (Boundary: Qualitative and conceptual, but not quantitative addition of forces are used at this level.) (3-PS2-1)

•  The patterns of an object’s motion in various situations can be observed and measured; when that past motion exhibits a regular pattern, future motion can be predicted from it. (Boundary: Technical terms, such as magnitude, velocity, momentum, and vector quantity, are not introduced at this level, but the concept that some quantities need both size and direction to be described is developed.) (3-PS2-2)

PS2.B: Types of Interactions

•  Objects in contact exert forces on each other. (3-PS2-1)

•  Electric, and magnetic forces between a pair of objects do not require that the objects be in contact. The sizes of the forces in each situation depend on the properties of the objects and their distances apart and, for forces between two magnets, on their orientation relative to each other. (3-PS2-3),(3-PS2-4)