Students construct rockets from balloons propelled along a guide string. They use this model to learn about Newton's three laws of motion, examining the effect of different forces on the motion of the rocket.

Learn about many ways to combine art and science as we observe the world around us. We often think of scientists as methodical and precise, and artists as free-willed, impulsive creators. But did you know that some art has science packed right into it? And that artists throughout history have helped scientists conduct their work? Learn about the photography of Berenice Abbott who documented the changing New York skyline with photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science interpretation in the 1940s to 1960s. Learn how to use the sun to air dry your salt dough creations and explore papier-mâché. 

Momentum is not only a physical principle; it is a psychological phenomenon. Students learn how the "Big Mo" of the bandwagon effect contributes to the development of fads and manias, and how modern technology and mass media accelerate and intensify the effect. Students develop media literacy and critical thinking skills to analyze trends and determine the extent to which their decisions may be influenced by those who manipulate a few opinion leaders. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Students make a skydiver and parachute contraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. Gravity pulls the skydiver toward the Earth, while the air trapped by the parachute provides an upward resisting force (drag) on the skydiver.

Here’s a new “spin” on an old toy. In this modern adaptation of a classic toy—the spool racer—a plastic water bottle is propelled by energy stored in a wound-up rubber band.

Students learn about stress and strain by designing and building beams using polymer clay. They compete to find the best beam strength to beam weight ratio, and learn about the trade-offs engineers make when designing a structure.

Students create and analyze composite materials with the intent of using the materials to construct a structure with optimal strength and minimal density. The composite materials are made of puffed rice cereal, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Student teams vary the concentrations of the three components to create their composite materials. They determine the material density and test its compressive strength by placing weights on it and measuring how much the material compresses. Students graph stress vs. strain and determine Young's modulus to analyze the strength of their materials.

Students observe the relationship between the angle of a catapult (a force measurement) and the flight of a cotton ball. They learn how Newton's second law of motion works by seeing directly that F = ma. When they pull the metal "arm" back further, thus applying a greater force to the cotton ball, it causes the cotton ball to travel faster and farther. Students also learn that objects of greater mass require more force to result in the same distance traveled by a lighter object.

Students write poems using rhyme and meter as they come to understand the mechanical concept of rhythm, based on the principle of oscillation, in a broader biological and cultural context, as seen in dance and sports, poetry and other literary forms, and communication in general. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Students design a simple behavioral survey, and learn basic protocol for primary research, survey design and report writing. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Students learn about the physical force of linear momentum movement in a straight line by investigating collisions. They learn an equation that engineers use to describe momentum. Students also investigate the psychological phenomenon of momentum; they see how the "big mo" of the bandwagon effect contributes to the development of fads and manias, and how modern technology and mass media accelerate and intensify the effect.

Students learn about viscoelastic material behavior, such as strain rate dependence and creep, by using silly putty, an easy-to-make polymer material. They learn how to make silly putty, observe its behavior with different strain rates, and then measure the creep time of different formulations of silly putty. By seeing the viscoelastic behavior of silly putty, students start to gain an understanding of how biological materials function. Students gain experience in data collection, graph interpretation, and comparison of material properties to elucidate material behavior. It is recommended that students perform Part 1of the activity first (making and playing with silly putty), then receive the content and concept information in the associated lesson, and then complete Part 2 of the activity (experimenting and making measurements with silly putty).

This video lesson has the goal of introducing students to galaxies as large collections of gravitationally bound stars. It explores the amount of matter needed for a star to remain bound and then brings in the idea of Dark Matter, a new kind of matter that does not interact with light. It is best if students have had some high school level mechanics, ideally Newton's laws, orbital motion and centripetal force. The teacher guide segment has a derivation of centripetal acceleration. This lesson should be mostly accessible to students with no physics background. The video portion of this lesson runs about 30 minutes, and the questions and demonstrations will give a total activity time of about an hour if the materials are all at hand and the students work quickly. However, 1 1/2 hours is a more comfortable amount of time. There are several demonstrations that can be carried out using string, ten or so balls of a few inches in diameter, a stopwatch or clock with a sweep second hand and some tape. The demonstrations are best done outside, but can also be carried out in a gymnasium or other large room. If the materials or space are not available, there are videos of the demonstrations in the module and these may be used.

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 1: Unit 1 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Overcoming Learning Challenges Near and Far. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 1: Unit 3 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Overcoming Learning Challenges Near and Far. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 2: Unit 1 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Adaptations and the Wide World of Frogs. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 2: Unit 2 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Adaptations and the Wide World of Frogs. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 3: Unit 1 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Exploring Literary Classics. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 3: Unit 2 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Exploring Literary Classics. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos

Additional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block component of Grade 3: Module 2: Unit 3 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. The ALL Block is one hour of differentiated small group instruction aligned to the module content, giving students further practice with key literacy skills. This unit's ALL Block curriculum complements the Grade 3 module Adaptations and the Wide World of Frogs. For more information on the ALL Block, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org/about-k-2-labs-and-ALL-block.

To access this resource, you will need to create a free account for the system on which it resides. This partner uses such data for funding requests to keep their resource growing and up-to-date. Also, these resources are openly-licensed for editing and re-sharing, EXCEPT for certain copyright-protected content (authentic texts, photographs, etc.) within the materials that are from outside sources. This outside content may not be reproduced or distributed (outside the scope of fair use or the EL Education Curriculum Terms of Use) without additional permissions from the content owner.

Related materials on EL Education:
http://eled.org/writing-rubric-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-map-kindergarten
http://eled.org/curriculum-plan-k-2
http://eled.org/guidance-document
http://eled.org/required-trade-book-procurement-list
http://eled.org/recommended-texts-and-other-resources-list
http://eled.org/classroom-protocols
http://eled.org/fostering-character
http://eled.org/supporting-english-language-learners
http://eled.org/curriculum-videos