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Grade 3. Over the module’s 15 lessons, students explore variation of traits in individuals, patterns of life cycles, and how the environment can affect expression of traits. The module includes a teacher guide, 10 Student Activity Guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 3 times.

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Grade 3. Module Highlights: In 15 lessons spanning 18 class sessions, students explore variation of traits in individuals, patterns of life cycles, and how the environment can affect expression of traits. In the first focus question, students observe the variations in traits among individual Wisconsin Fast Plants®. They also complete a pedigree model for California condors. Students then analyze two generations of Wisconsin Fast Plants® to identify possible patterns of inheritance, while noting that not all traits can be explained this way. In the second focus question, students plan and carry out an investigation to determine how environmental factors can affect plant growth. They also explore climate regions and consider how climate can influence plant growth. In the third focus question, students investigate plant life cycles and analyze several animal life cycles to determine patterns. In the fourth focus question, students use information from a reading to learn about how variation in traits can affect reproductive success. Then, students analyze the results of a fair test about snapdragon flower color and determine that one color provides an advantage. Students also use mathematical skills to analyze how fur color affected the survival rate of mice. In the final focus question, students explore information about a research project involving Trinidadian guppies. They compare and contrast two field sites where the research occurred, then analyze and interpret data from the study. Students use this information to support a claim about whether a trait in the guppies is primarily a result of inheritance or an environmental factor.

This module includes a teacher guide, 10 Student Activity Guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 3 times.

Student Readers Available HERE

• 3-LS1-1: Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
• 3-LS3-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
• 3-LS3-2: Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
• 3-LS4-2: Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.
• 3-ESS2-2: Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms

• Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles.

LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits

• Many characteristics of organisms are inherited from their parents.
• Other characteristics result from individuals’ interactions with the environment, which can range from diet to learning. Many characteristics involve both inheritance and environment.

LS3.B: Variation of Traits

• Different organisms vary in how they look and function because they have different inherited information.
• The environment also affects the traits that an organism develops.

LS4.B: Natural Selection

ESS2.D: Weather and Climate

• Climate describes a range of an area’s typical weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over years.

Science and Engineering Practices
Focal:

• Constructing explanations
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Obtaining and evaluating information
• Using mathematics and computational thinking

Supporting:

• Asking questions
• Developing and using models
• Planning and carrying out investigations
• Engaging in argument from evidence
• Communicating information

Crosscutting Concepts
Focal:

• Cause and effect
• Patterns

Supporting:

• Scale, proportion, and quantity
• Structure and function

Common Core State Standards
English Language Arts Connections
Speaking and listening:

• Presentation of knowledge and ideas (SL.3.1)
• Comprehension and collaboration (SL.3.1.C)
• Comprehension and collaboration (CCRA.SL.2)

Reading:

• Key ideas and details (RI.3.1)
• Integration of knowledge and ideas (RI.3.9)
• Range of reading and level of text complexity (RI.3.10)
• Key ideas and details (CCRA.R.1)

• Text types and purposes (CCRA.W.3.10)

Math Connections

• Represent and interpret data (3.MD.B.3)
• Represent and interpret data (3.MD.B.4)
• Develop understanding of fractions as numbers (3.NF.A.3.D)

Concepts and Practices Storyline
Focus Question 1: What can an organism get from its parents?
Lesson 1: Alike and Different
Individuals of the same species can have different traits.
Students carry out an investigation to make observations of a variety of traits in Wisconsin Fast Plants® and analyze data to reveal patterns of similarities and differences between individuals.
Lesson 2: A Family Portrait
Traits can be inherited within families.
Students obtain and evaluate information from a text on a unique trait in California condors and use a pedigree model to uncover a pattern of inheritance.
Lesson 3: Plants Have Parents, Too
Some, but not all, traits can come from one or both of an organism’s parents.
Students carry out an investigation to compare the traits of plants with those of their parents and use patterns to construct an explanation for which traits are likely inherited.
Focus Question 2: What can an organism get from its environment?
Lesson 4: Nature and Nurture
Many factors can vary within an organism’s environment.
Students ask testable questions about environmental factors that could affect the traits of plants and collaboratively plan fair tests of two factors.
Lesson 5: Pen Pal Plants
Plants that grow well in one geographic region do not always grow well in other regions. Students obtain and evaluate information from a text about the effect of environmental factors on plant growth.
Lesson 6: Pack Your Bags!
Climate is an area’s typical weather conditions, and climate varies in different geographic regions.
Students obtain climate data from texts to create and analyze a class map that reveals patterns in temperature and precipitation in different climate zones in North America.
Lesson 7: Fair-Weather Fronds
Differences in environmental factors such as light and water can cause otherwise similar plants to develop different traits.
Students analyze the results of an investigation into whether environmental factors can affect plant traits and revise an explanation about the cause of plant traits.
Focus Question 3: How do organisms change throughout their lives?
Lesson 8: Plant Patterns
Plants have diverse life cycles, but all share some similarities. Students carry out an investigation to make observations of patterns in a variety of plant life cycles.
Lesson 9: Animal Stories
Animals have diverse life cycles, but all share a common pattern of birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Students obtain and evaluate information from a text on the life cycles of an animal, communicate it to peers, and analyze both for common patterns in life cycles.
Lesson 10: The Cycles of Life
All organisms have commonalities in their life cycles, and reproduction is necessary to sustain life.
Students use a model to understand the essential role of reproduction in the continuation of life and develop a model to represent common patterns in life cycles for all living organisms.
Focus Question 4: How could being different be an advantage?
Lesson 11: Busy Bees
Bees aid plant reproduction by serving as pollinators, and pollinators can prefer flowers with certain traits over other flowers.
Students obtain and evaluate information from a text to generate testable questions about the effect of flower traits on pollination success.
Lesson 12: Snapdragon Science
If bees prefer one color of flower over another, plants with the preferred color of flower will get more chances to reproduce.
Students analyze and graph data from an investigation into how snapdragon flower color affects bumblebee visits.
Lesson 13: Tricky Traits
A variation in a trait can give an organism an advantage in one context but not in another. Students use mathematics to compare predator attacks on light and dark mice in different environments and construct an explanation to answer the question of whether having a certain fur color causes them to have an advantage.
Science Challenge
Focus Question 5: Why are some guppies more colorful than others?
Lesson 14: Guppy Mystery Part 1
Guppies are brighter orange in one stream than in another, and the streams vary in a number of environmental factors.
Students analyze data from field notes about the environmental conditions in two streams where guppies live and ask questions about their possible effects.
Lesson 15: Guppy Mystery Part 2
Guppies can get brighter orange coloration from food that is only available in some streams but not others. This is an example of variation that is primarily caused by an environmental factor. Students analyze and interpret data from the results of an investigation to make a claim about the cause of the guppies’ bright orange spots.

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