Topic 3 — Earth pulls things down — blueprint for James (revised to your rulings of 28 September 2026)
What I need from you: nothing — every decision is ruled and applied below
No decisions are open. You ruled on all four on 28 September 2026 (your words are in records/JAMES_REVIEW_G3T03_blueprint_2026-09-28.md); this page applies them, and authoring follows. Applied from James's read: (1) gravity may be said — "The Earth's gravity pulled it down" is fine; the topic says Earth first and names gravity later, in a brief closing part at the end of L03, never as the doer of anything; (2) L01 is a fact true of every case, not a sort — examples only, no non-example (a hand pushing a toy car is not a minimal-difference non-example of a fall), the rule last, a mixed true/false run as the check; the examples are a dropped ball, an apple, a raindrop, a child jumping, a thrown ball coming back down, and each one falls because Earth is always pulling on it; (3) the intro's three scenes stand (the diver, the girl on the bar, the rocket); scene 1 now answers its own question the way scenes 2 and 3 do: "So what pulled her down? It was the Earth."; (4) arrows are allowed — a figure may draw Earth's pull as one plain downward arrow, direction only, no length meaning, and never in an item whose answer is the direction the arrow points (vault: Grade 3-5 figures may show a pull as an arrow before arrows are taught). Also from your read: the PP100 type list is rewritten so every line says what the stem asks, what the four options are and gives one example stem, and it is cut to eight types; the headache openers vary across the three lessons and student prose may use contractions.
Applied without asking: the word "force" is not used anywhere in this topic (Olivia Mullins's sequence, James: "I think I'll follow that"), including the closing part that names gravity; "Earth pulls", never "gravity pulls"; "lift" is not used, the hand "pulls the ball up" or "picks it up"; "beat" is the everyday word for overcome (James's own word in the architecture); three lessons stays a topic of its own (James: "3 atoms is fine for testing"); one atom, one lesson, video and article; all three lessons teach a fact true of every case, so each runs examples then the rule, with a non-example only where a boundary case honestly exists (L03's rock); the rule stated last; qualitative only, no mechanism and no "the floor pushes up" (Topic 9); a fluency quiz after every coining part; an attached easy question after "Okay, now your turn" on every lesson video; about ten items per lesson quiz with varied surfaces; quiz scenes differ from lesson scenes; the what and the why as separate items; a verdict never bundled with its reason in one option; positive stems only; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll, never "now your turn"; the summary carries three attached questions; the PP100 bank of at least fifty four-option items is generated from a type sheet of eight types (one exemplar each) after this blueprint; drawings may use colour; the Grade 3 Forces feedback log read first.
Topic 3 at a glance — 3 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | Earth pulls it down | Suppose you hold an apple out in front of you. | video + article |
| L02 | Earth pulls on every part of you | Imagine you are standing on the floor. | video + article |
| L03 | A strong enough pull beats Earth's pull | Here is a ball on the floor. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Three lessons, one per atom: FOR3-021, FOR3-028, FOR3-022, in that order (architecture Card 2, row 3).
Terms coined here: Earth's pull (L01); gravity, as the name for what was doing the pulling (L03's closing part, riding on FOR3-021's language rule: "gravity" names the happening). Nothing else: "beat", "strong enough", "touching" are everyday words.
Deliberately not taught: the word "force" (Topic 5); magnets (Topic 4); the floor pushing up on a still object (Topic 9); why Earth pulls; whether heavier objects fall faster; what an arrow's length means (Topic 8).
Three lessons is a small topic. It stays a topic of its own: James ruled "3 atoms is fine for testing", Topic 4 (Magnets) is the same size, and Topic 5 needs both pulls met separately before it coins "force" on them.
None of these atoms is in the golden pack, so all three lessons are fresh; the pack's anatomy (examples first, rule last, 40-75 seconds, quiz straight after) and its language rules are followed.
Headache openers, one per lesson: L01 "Suppose…", L02 "Imagine you are…", L03 "Here is…".
Earth pulls it down L01
Suppose you hold an apple out in front of you.
You don't push the apple.
You just open your hand.
The apple falls to the floor.
No hand pushed the apple down.
No string pulled the apple down.
Nothing touched the apple on its way down.
So what made the apple fall?
Why does a dropped apple always fall down, and never up or sideways?
Earth pulls the apple down.
Earth pulls the apple without touching it.
Earth is always pulling on every object.
So every object you let go of falls to the ground.
We call this pull Earth's pull.
Video: the hand opens and the apple drops; the ball drops; the raindrop falls from the cloud; the child jumps and comes back down; the thrown ball rises, then comes back down — falling is a motion, so video and article.
Part 1 — FOR3-021 — Identify Earth's pull as what makes an object fall to the ground with nothing touching it; state that Earth is always pulling on every object; coin Earth's pull
Part 1q — Fluency quiz: Earth's pull
Notes
Example list (a fact true of every case, your ruling; examples only, the rule last): E you let go of a ball; the ball falls to the floor; Earth pulled it down → E an apple comes loose from its branch; the apple falls to the ground; Earth pulled it down → E a raindrop leaves a cloud; the raindrop falls to the ground; Earth pulled it down → E a child jumps up; the child comes back down to the ground; Earth pulled her down → E you throw a ball up; the ball comes back down; Earth pulled it down → rule: Earth is always pulling on every object, so every object you let go of falls to the ground. The three sentences are identical across the five cases; only the object changes. No non-example: nothing that moves differs from a fall by the one feature "Earth pulled it", so a sort would be dishonest.
Check plan (design-check-sequence): the fact form — a mixed true/false run of about eight, truths and falsehoods mixed, then two "What made it fall?" items, then the term-recall item last. True/false examples: "A dropped cup falls because Earth pulls it down" (true); "A dropped cup falls because the air pushes it down" (false); "Nothing touched the leaf while it fell" (true); "Earth pulls only on objects that are already falling" (false); "Earth pulls the ball down while it is on its way up after you throw it" (true); "A pencil fell off the desk because the desk pushed it down" (false). The "What made it fall?" items offer three options (Earth's pull / the named nearby thing / the air). The term-recall item asks the name of the pull that makes dropped objects fall. Keys written as a string and checked for runs. Quiz scenes: a pencil, a leaf, a cup, a coin, a skipping child — never the lesson's ball, apple, raindrop, jumper or thrown ball.
Earth pulls on every part of you L02
Imagine you are standing on the floor.
Earth pulls you down.
Your feet press on the floor.
Your nose doesn't press on anything.
Your hair doesn't press on anything.
So which parts of you does Earth pull on?
Does Earth pull on all of you, or only on the part that touches the ground?
Earth pulls on every part of you.
Earth pulls on your feet.
Earth pulls on your hands.
Earth pulls on your hair.
Earth pulls on the blood inside you.
When you hang upside down, your hair hangs down toward the floor.
Earth pulls your hair down, even then.
Video: the girl swings up onto the bar and hangs upside down, her hair falls toward the floor and her face goes red; the floppy arm drops to her side; a single hair drifts down — video and article; the article carries a GIF of the girl on the bar (Topic 1 precedent: an article whose point is a motion carries a GIF).
Part 1 — FOR3-028 — State that Earth pulls on every part of an object, not only the part touching the ground; name the parts one by one
Notes
Example sequence: a fact true of every case, so examples then the rule, no non-example (feedback log, rule 5: only a boundary non-example is honest, and none exists here). E you stand on the floor; Earth pulls you down; your feet press on the floor → E you hold your arm straight out and let it go floppy; your arm drops to your side; Earth pulled your arm down, and nothing touched it → E a girl hangs upside down from a bar; her hair hangs down toward the floor; her face goes red because Earth pulls her blood down toward her head → E one hair comes loose and drifts to the floor; Earth pulls even one hair → rule: Earth pulls on every part of you, not only the part touching the ground. The parts are named one by one: feet, hands, hair, nose, ears, the blood inside you (the atom's cross field).
Check plan (design-check-sequence): type (c), a concept whose payoff is a named misconception (Earth pulls only on your feet). Four items in order: the what (a boy hangs upside down from the monkey bars: which way does his hair hang? toward the ground / toward the sky / straight out sideways); the why, on a fresh case the page never shows (a monkey hangs from a branch by its tail; its arms hang down; explain why — the options are reasons: Earth pulls on its arms / the branch pulls its arms down / its arms are heavy on their own); the misconception (Noor says Earth pulls only on the part of you that touches the ground. Is Noor right? yes / no; the correction is the last line of the why); the transfer (a cat sits on a shelf with its tail hanging over the edge: which parts of the cat does Earth pull on? its paws only / its tail only / every part of the cat). Then a true/false run of about six (the golden pack's form for a fact true of every case), truths and falsehoods mixed: "Earth pulls on your ears" (true); "Earth pulls only on the part of you touching the ground" (false); "Earth pulls on a bird's wings while it flies" (true); "Earth stops pulling on your hand when you hold it up" (false). Keys written as a string and checked for runs. Quiz scenes: monkey bars, a monkey, a cat, a bird, a flag on a pole — never the lesson's girl on the bar.
A strong enough pull beats Earth's pull L03
Here is a ball on the floor.
Earth pulls the ball down.
You reach down.
You pick the ball up.
You pull the ball up to your chest.
The ball goes up, away from the floor.
Earth still pulls the ball down.
So how did the ball go up?
Can anything go up, when Earth pulls every object down?
Your hand pulls the ball up.
Earth pulls the ball down.
Your pull is strong enough to beat Earth's pull.
So the ball goes up.
A push or a pull that is strong enough beats Earth's pull.
When your hand lets go, only Earth's pull is left.
The ball falls.
Video: the hand pulls the ball up, holds it, lets go, and the ball drops; the crane's cable winds in and the box rises; the rocket leaves the pad; the boy heaves at the rock and the rock stays put; then the closing beat, the apple and the ball shown again with the word gravity spoken — video and article; the strongest video in the topic, because every beat is a motion or a non-motion the student must see.
Part 1 — FOR3-022 — State that a push or a pull that is strong enough beats Earth's pull, and that the object falls again when the push or pull stops
Part 2 — FOR3-021 — Name gravity as what was doing the pulling ("What was doing the pulling? Something called gravity — the Earth's gravity"); say that the student will learn more about it later in the course
Notes
Example sequence: E your hand pulls the ball up; the ball goes up; your pull is strong enough to beat Earth's pull → E your hand lets go; only Earth's pull is left; the ball falls → E a crane pulls a heavy box up by its cable; the crane's pull is strong enough → E a rocket's engine pushes the rocket up; a push that is strong enough beats Earth's pull too → NE a boy pulls up on a big rock; the rock stays on the ground; his pull is not strong enough, and Earth's pull wins → rule: a push or a pull that is strong enough beats Earth's pull; when the push or pull stops, Earth's pull is the only pull left, and the object falls. The rock is a true boundary case (the same pull, not strong enough), so this one non-example is honest. "Strong enough" is the atom's own phrase; "stronger than" (Topic 8, FOR3-009) is not used.
Closing part (your ruling; about fifteen seconds of video, four lines of article, after the rule and before "Okay, now your turn"):
What was doing the pulling, all this time?
It was something called gravity.
The Earth's gravity pulled the apple down.
The Earth's gravity pulls the ball down, even while your hand pulls it up.
You will learn more about gravity later in the course.
The word "force" is not spoken; gravity is named as what was doing the pulling and nothing more is claimed about it. No new atom: this rides on FOR3-021's language rule ("gravity" names the happening; students say "Earth pulls the apple down"), so the part is tagged FOR3-021.
Check plan (design-check-sequence): type (c), a concept whose payoff is a named misconception (nothing can go up, because Earth pulls everything down). Four items in order: the what (a crane holds a box up by its cable, then the crane stops pulling: what happens to the box? it falls / it stays where it is / it goes higher); the why, on a fresh case the page never shows (a helicopter pulls a rescue basket up by a rope; explain why the basket goes up — options are reasons: the rope's pull is strong enough to beat Earth's pull / Earth stops pulling on the basket when it is in the air / the basket is empty); the misconception (Kai says nothing can ever go up, because Earth pulls everything down. Is Kai right? yes / no; the correction is the last line of the why); the transfer (a kangaroo pushes on the ground with its legs and jumps up: what beat Earth's pull for that moment? the push of its legs / Earth stopped pulling / the air pushed it up). Then a fluency run of about five two-option items, "Which pull won?" — the named push or pull / Earth's pull — on scenes where the object went up or stayed down (a girl heaves at a full suitcase and it stays on the floor; an elevator's cable pulls the elevator up; a toddler pulls at a parked pram's wheel and it stays down). Then the closing part's one easy recall item: "What is the name for what was pulling the ball down?" (gravity / speed / position / a pattern). Keys written as a string and checked for runs. Quiz scenes: a helicopter, a kangaroo, an elevator, a suitcase, a pram — never the lesson's ball, crane, rocket or rock.
Intro video
Scene 1: a diver stands still on the high board; she steps off; she falls, and lands in the pool. Nobody pushed her. No rope pulled her. So what pulled her down? It was the Earth. (L01's gap, answered the same way as scenes 2 and 3, your ruling: leaving scene 1 unanswered would suggest the diver is a different case.)
Scene 2, spoken as a scene change: "Now let's leave the pool. Here's a girl on a bar in the playground." She hangs upside down; her hair hangs down toward the ground; her face goes red. Earth pulls her down. But which parts of her does Earth pull on — only her hands on the bar, or all of her? (L02's gap.)
Scene 3, spoken as a scene change: "Now let's go somewhere much bigger. Here's a rocket on its launch pad." Earth pulls the rocket down, just as it pulled the diver. The engines fire, and the rocket goes up. How can anything go up, when Earth pulls everything down? (L03's gap.)
General close, no hand-over to L01: "That's what this topic is about: why everything falls down, and how anything ever gets back up."
Ready line: "Okay, so are you ready to find out why everything falls down?"
Poll (no key): "Yes, let's go!" · "Not sure yet" · "Let me watch that again". Under 120 words; no coined term spoken; the word "gravity" is not said in the intro (Earth first; gravity arrives at the end of L03).
Summary video
The summary restates the three rules in teaching order with the topic's own pictures, and its last line answers the intro's ready question: what was pulling all along was the Earth's gravity, and the student will learn more about it later in the course. Then "Okay, now your turn," then three easy, video-dependent questions, one per lesson:
1. L01 target: a pencil rolls off a desk and falls to the floor. What made it fall? Earth's pull / the desk / the air. (Key: Earth's pull.)
2. L02 target: a boy hangs upside down from a bar. Which parts of him does Earth pull on? his hands only / his hair only / every part of him. (Key: every part.)
3. L03 target: a crane pulls a box up by its cable. Which pull was strong enough to win? the crane's pull / Earth's pull. (Key: the crane's pull.)
The three keys join the topic's attached-question key string; the intro's poll does not.
PP100 bank
Each type is one design move; the type sheet (one exemplar each, written in full) follows this blueprint and is the next page James reads. Every bank item is a four-option MCQ; depth tags follow the DOK rule (easy = recall or a one-step judgement; medium = a fresh case; hard = a judgement of a claim). Hard is only ever more of the skill, never a stranger scene or a longer stem. Each line says what the stem asks, what the four options are, and gives one example stem.
Type 1 (FOR3-021, easy) — The stem describes an object that fell with nothing touching it and asks what made it fall. The four options are four things in or near the scene that might have moved it: Earth's pull, and three named things that did not (a nearby object, the air, a person's hand). Example: "A pencil rolls off the edge of a desk and falls to the floor. What made the pencil fall to the floor?" — Earth's pull / the desk / the air / the teacher's hand.
Type 2 (FOR3-021, easy) — The stem asks for the name of the pull that makes dropped objects fall, or the name for what was doing the pulling. The four options are four names the course has coined or used: Earth's pull or gravity as the key, three other coined words as distractors. Example: "You let go of a ball and it falls to the floor. What is the name of the pull that made the ball fall?" — Earth's pull / the floor's pull / the air's pull / your hand's pull. Example: "What is the name for what was pulling the ball down?" — gravity / speed / position / a pattern.
Type 3 (FOR3-021 and 028, easy to medium) — The stem places an object somewhere (held up high, on a shelf, on a hillside, in a tree, flying on a string) and asks which way Earth pulls it. The four options are four directions: toward the ground / toward the sky / sideways / Earth does not pull on it there. The medium instance is an object high up or moving upward. The figure never carries an arrow, because the answer is a direction. Example: "A kite flies high above the field on its string. Which way does Earth pull the kite?" — toward the ground / toward the sky / sideways / Earth does not pull on it up there.
Type 4 (FOR3-028, easy) — The stem describes a body or an animal in a position (upside down, arm held out, tail over an edge, lying on its back) and asks which parts Earth pulls on. The four options are three single parts and "every part". Example: "A boy hangs upside down from the monkey bars. Which parts of the boy does Earth pull on?" — only his hands / only his hair / only his feet / every part of him.
Type 5 (FOR3-022, medium) — The stem describes a push or pull that was holding an object up and then stops (a hand lets go, a cable breaks, a crane stops winding, an engine cuts out) and asks what the object does next. The four options are four things the object might do: it falls / it stays where it is / it goes higher / it moves sideways. The figure shows the object held, never the motion asked about. Example: "A crane holds a box high in the air by its cable. The cable breaks. What does the box do?" — it falls to the ground / it stays where it is / it goes higher / it moves sideways.
Type 6 (FOR3-022, medium — your type 8) — The stem describes a named push or pull on an object and says whether the object went up or stayed down, then asks which pull won. The four options are four pullers or pushers in the scene: the named push or pull, Earth's pull, and two other things in the scene that were not pulling. Example: "A girl pulls up on a full suitcase. The suitcase stays on the floor. Which pull won?" — Earth's pull / the girl's pull / the floor's pull / the suitcase's own pull.
Type 7 (FOR3-022, medium — your type 9) — The stem describes an object going up (a rocket, an elevator, a jumping kangaroo, a girl climbing a rope) and asks what beat Earth's pull. The four options are four pushes or pulls that could be in the scene, only one of which acted on the object in the direction it went. Example: "An elevator goes up from the ground floor to the top floor. What beat Earth's pull on the elevator?" — the cable's pull on the elevator / the air's push on the elevator / the people's push on the elevator floor / Earth's pull on the elevator.
Type 8 (FOR3-028 or FOR3-022, hard — your type 10, with the old type 6 folded in) — A named student makes a claim the topic disproves, the stem fixes the verdict ("Kai is wrong"), and asks which happening shows why. The four options are four everyday happenings, one of which is the case that disproves the claim; the other three are true happenings that do not bear on it. Two claims only: "nothing can ever go up, because Earth pulls everything down" (FOR3-022) and "Earth pulls only on the part of you touching the ground" (FOR3-028). Example: "Kai says nothing can ever go up, because Earth pulls everything down. Kai is wrong. Which happening shows why?" — a rocket's engines push it up off the launch pad / an apple falls from a tree / a rock stays on the ground when a boy pulls at it / a ball rolls along the floor.
Dropped from the first list: the old type 2 (pick the sentence that says what was touching the object while it fell), because its options were sentences the student reads rather than things he picks, and type 1's distractors already test "nothing touched it"; the old type 6 (Noor's claim), folded into type 8 as its second claim. No multi-select is planned; none of these answers is a set. About fifty items from these eight types, easy-heavy, with type 8 carrying at most eight items.
Questions the blueprint cannot settle alone
- The attached question after each lesson video (the XP gate) is written with the script, not here; its form follows write-video-script.
- "Heavier objects fall faster" is not in the FOR3 register's misconception list, and no atom in this topic counters it; if James wants it met at grade 3, that is a register change in the knowledge-graph repo, not a blueprint line.
- Whether the rocket in L03 is a NASA photo or a drawing is the figure register's call once the article is laid out; a photo is honest here because a real rocket is what the student has seen.
This grade’s course architecture — open only if you want the whole map
Skill: course-build → atomise (architecture, step 6b gate) → write-like-james @ acc4fb6
Grade 3 Science — course architecture v3 (James's rulings of 25 September, plus Olivia Mullins's sequencing)
Read this in five minutes. Grade 3 Science is ONE course with a fixed order; nobody picks strands. It arranges the 183 Grade 3 atoms into four strands and forty-two small topics, each with its own mixed practice, summary video and PP100. Nothing below writes a lesson sentence. The atoms stay where they are: the Science Knowledge Graph's 3-5 registers.
Rulings recorded (James, 25 September 2026)
- Strand order: Physics, Matter, Earth & Space, Life. James: "I don't think it matters hugely … Happy to go with 1 Physics 2 Matter 3 Earth and space 4 Life. That works well." Strands may be intermingled later if a reason appears; none does yet.
- Grade 3 is one course. "We're not going to allow students to pick any strand … we need to structure Grade 3 as we think Grade 3 should be structured best." v1's line about students choosing strands was wrong and is gone.
- Topic 1 is the pilot. "That topic 1, I think, works as a good pilot."
- Small topics. "3 atoms is fine for testing. PP100s on quite granular stuff is absolutely fine … A 4-atom topic and a 5-atom topic is great. 9 is too many, really … if something's got 9 atoms, we should be considering splitting it." So sound, soil, fossils and natural resources each stand alone, and every v1 topic of nine or more was split (Card 2). Topics 1 and 2 keep 8 and 7 lessons because James approved Topic 1 as it stands and Topic 2 is one chain about speed; both are flagged as split candidates once their PP100 data arrives.
- Forces opens with Earth's pull and magnets, before the word "force" (Olivia Mullins call, 25 September; James: "I think I'll follow that"). Topics 3 and 4 teach the two non-touching pulls with no talk of forces; Topic 5 coins "force" on both of them and on the hand push together, so the hand push never becomes the whole category. Her two classroom misconceptions (Earth pulls only on your feet; "balanced" is a kind of force) are in the register and the lessons.
- States of matter start with air (Olivia): air takes up space → gases spread → liquids → solids → the sort.
Applied from the earlier rulings: four strands; Motion before Forces before Energy; Scientific Reasoning atoms taught inside the topics that use them; one intro video per strand and per topic, each teaching nothing; one atom, one lesson, both video and article; a summary video before every PP100; PP100 banks of at least fifty items tagged by depth of reasoning; the Forces topics reuse the golden pack; the language rules (Earth's pull, carriers not forms, no "leak" or "lift").
Card 1 — The strands and their order
The call: Physics → Matter → Earth & Space → Life, each with its own intro video and its own end-of-strand test.
| Strand | Topics | Atoms | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | 1-15 | 64 | Motion first: what you can see, before the invisible cause. Energy last: "faster means more energy" needs speed. |
| Matter | 16-21 | 22 (+7 Scientific Reasoning) | Uses the measuring tools and feeds Earth's water cycle in Grade 4. |
| Earth & Space | 22-31 | 41 (+4 Scientific Reasoning) | Weather uses tables and graphs; "the Sun powers Earth" must precede food chains. |
| Life | 32-42 | 43 | Ends the year; leans on Space (the Sun), Forces (Earth's pull) and Matter (properties). |
Scientific Reasoning's 13 atoms are spread through Topics 1, 16, 17, 22, 23 and 25 (Card 4). Total 183 lessons.
Card 2 — The topics
The call: forty-two topics, most of three to six lessons; a mixed mastery practice set, a summary video and a PP100 at the end of every one.
| # | Topic (student-facing title) | Atoms (in teaching order) | Lessons | The big idea it serves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | ||||
| 1 | Where is it? Did it move? | MOT3-001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008 (+ SR3-020, 021 inside L07/L08) | 8 | You say where something is with a landmark; moving means its position changed; motions can repeat |
| 2 | Fast and slow | MOT3-020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026 | 7 | Faster means farther in the same time, or the same distance in less time |
| 3 | Earth pulls things down | FOR3-021, 028, 022 | 3 | Earth pulls every object toward the ground, on every part of it, without touching; a strong enough pull can beat it (no word "force" yet) |
| 4 | Magnets | FOR3-023, 024, 025 | 3 | A magnet pulls steel without touching; two magnets pull or push; use a magnet to solve a problem (no word "force" yet) |
| 5 | What a force is | FOR3-012, 001, 008, 006 | 4 | Earth's pull, a magnet's pull and your push are all forces; push or pull; on one object; in one direction |
| 6 | Forces that touch, and forces that don't | FOR3-020, 027, 026 | 3 | Some forces act without touching: Earth, magnets, a rubbed balloon; most pushes touch |
| 7 | Pushes and pulls change things | FOR3-002, 003, 004, 005, 007 | 5 | A push or pull starts, stops, turns or squashes; you can test it |
| 8 | Strong or weak: drawing a force | FOR3-009, 010, 011 | 3 | A stronger push makes a bigger change; an arrow shows a force's direction and strength |
| 9 | Balanced forces | FOR3-040, 041, 042, 043, 045 | 5 | Several forces act at once; balanced forces leave motion as it is, still or steady |
| 10 | Unbalanced forces | FOR3-044, 046, 047 | 3 | Unbalanced forces speed up, slow down or turn |
| 11 | Energy: what has it, how it travels | ENE3-001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 034 | 6 | Energy makes things happen; light, sound and electricity carry it; faster means more |
| 12 | Sound | ENE3-030, 031, 032 | 3 | Sound comes from vibration and travels to your ear |
| 13 | Light: sources, straight lines, shadows | ENE3-010, 011, 012, 017 | 4 | Light comes from a source, travels straight, makes shadows, must reach the eye |
| 14 | Light bounces, bends or soaks in | ENE3-013, 014, 015, 016 | 4 | Reflection, refraction, absorption, sorted |
| 15 | Light and heat | ENE3-020, 021, 033 | 3 | Light-givers give heat; rubbing makes heat; light carries energy |
| Matter | ||||
| 16 | Describe it, sort it | SR3-001, 002, MAT3-001, 002, 003 | 5 | Observe with more than your eyes; describe an object by its properties; sort and order |
| 17 | Measuring tools | SR3-003, 004, 005, 006, 007 | 5 | Thermometer, scale, measuring jug; pick the right one; two groups can disagree |
| 18 | Which has more? | MAT3-004, 005, 006 | 3 | More mass, more space, warmer, decided by a measurement |
| 19 | Sinks, floats, sticks to a magnet: choosing materials | MAT3-007, 008, 060, 061 | 4 | Test a property, then pick the material for the job |
| 20 | Solids, liquids and gases | MAT3-022, 023, 021, 020, 024 | 5 | Air first: it takes up space; gases spread; liquids take their container's shape; solids keep theirs; then the sort (Olivia's order) |
| 21 | Heating and cooling | MAT3-040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 046 | 7 | Heating and cooling change the state but it is the same water (split candidate: melting/freezing vs evaporating/condensing) |
| Earth & Space | ||||
| 22 | Measuring the weather | EAR3-017, 018, 019, SR3-010, EAR3-020, SR3-011 | 6 | Three instruments, a weather diary, reading it back |
| 23 | Weather over a season, and far away | SR3-012, EAR3-022, 023, 021, 024 | 5 | A season's records make a chart; the chart predicts; other places differ |
| 24 | Volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides | EAR3-007, 010, 008, 011, 009, 012 | 6 | What each one is, then how it changes the land fast |
| 25 | Dangerous weather | EAR3-013, 014, SR3-022 | 3 | Weather can do damage; a defence holds it back; pick the sensible cause |
| 26 | Soil | EAR3-001, 002, 003, 004 | 4 | Soil is broken rock plus dead things |
| 27 | Fossils | EAR3-029, 030, 031, 032, 033 | 5 | A few dead things last as fossils and tell of the past |
| 28 | Using and conserving natural resources | EAR3-040, 041, 042, 043 | 4 | Everything you own started as a natural resource; some run short |
| 29 | The Sun | SPA3-001, 007, 002 | 3 | A huge glowing ball of gas; a star; the source of Earth's energy |
| 30 | The stars | SPA3-003, 004, 005, 006 | 4 | Stars differ; they look like dots because they are far; telescopes show more |
| 31 | The solar system | SPA3-010, 011, 012, 013, 014 | 5 | Earth orbits the Sun with seven other planets; the Moon orbits Earth |
| Life | ||||
| 32 | Alive or not | LIF3-001, 007, 008, 009, 002 | 5 | Living things grow, feed, move and make more; sort living from non-living |
| 33 | What living things need | LIF3-003, 004, 005, 006 | 4 | Food, water, air and a place that suits them |
| 34 | Backbone or no backbone | LIF3-010, 011, 070 | 3 | Grouping by shared features; vertebrates, invertebrates, arthropods |
| 35 | The five vertebrate groups | LIF3-015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 012 | 6 | Mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, then the sort |
| 36 | Eggs, body parts and senses | LIF3-013, 020, 027 | 3 | Egg-layers or live birth; body parts do survival jobs; animals sense, then respond |
| 37 | How plants make new plants | LIF3-071, 072, 014, 024 | 4 | Seeds, spores, the sort, the flower's job |
| 38 | Plant parts and their jobs | LIF3-021, 022, 023 | 3 | Roots, stem, leaves |
| 39 | Plants respond | LIF3-025, 026, 028 | 3 | Stems grow to the light, roots grow down; plants respond by growing, animals by moving |
| 40 | Life cycles and family likeness | LIF3-030, 031, 040, 041, 042 | 5 | Every life runs in a cycle; offspring take after their parents but differ |
| 41 | Food chains | LIF3-050, 051, 052 | 3 | Every food chain starts with the Sun; remove a link and the rest changes |
| 42 | Living together and coping with change | LIF3-060, 061, 062, 063 | 4 | Groups, places and seasons decide who survives |
Totals: 183 lessons, 42 practice sets, 42 PP100s (banks of at least 50 items each), 4 strand tests (after Topics 15, 21, 31, 42), 1 end-of-grade test.
Why this grouping
- Every prerequisite edge points backwards in this order. Checked atom by atom in the assembled files; no forward reference.
- Animal topics (33-35) and plant topics (36-38) are separate, as James asked; the plant-versus-animal response contrast (LIF3-028) closes Topic 38 because it needs both sides taught.
- Topics 3 and 4 teach Earth's pull and magnets without the word force; Topic 5 coins it on all three kinds (Olivia's sequence). Topic 8 carries the two force-arrow atoms so Topics 9 and 10 can draw balanced and unbalanced forces.
- Topic 24 puts "what a volcano is" straight before "volcanoes change the land fast", and the same for earthquakes and landslides: what it is, then what it does.
What changes: the folder gets grade3/topicNN_build/ per topic; Topic 1's blueprint is approved; Topic 1 is built first.
Card 3 — Topic 1 is the pilot (approved)
The call: pilot "Where is it? Did it move?" end to end — 8 lessons, an attached question per video, a ten-item quiz after each, mixed practice, summary video, PP100 — before any other topic starts.
- It is the first thing a Grade 3 student meets, so the whole format ladder gets tried where the stakes are lowest.
- It holds a fact, four sorts, two routines and a prediction. Every check type the course needs appears once.
- Its quiz items are drawings of everyday scenes, so the figure pipeline for young grades gets tested too.
- Topics 3 to 10 follow, reusing the golden Forces pack where its lessons match (push or pull, force on one object, strength, direction, more than one force, the balanced and unbalanced lessons).
Card 4 — Scientific Reasoning is taught where it is used
The call: each of the 13 Scientific Reasoning atoms is a lesson inside the topic that first needs it, with its check there; no separate strand, no separate test.
| SR atom | Host topic | Why there |
|---|---|---|
| SR3-001 Observe with more than your eyes; SR3-002 Observation or idea about it? | 16 Describe it, sort it | describing an object's properties is observing |
| SR3-003 Read a thermometer; SR3-004 Measure mass with a scale; SR3-005 Measure the volume of a liquid; SR3-006 Pick the right measuring tool; SR3-007 Two groups, two different answers | 17 Measuring tools | the tools before "which has more?" uses them |
| SR3-010 Record results in a table; SR3-011 Find a value in a table | 22 Measuring the weather | the weather diary is the first table students fill and read back |
| SR3-012 Read a pictograph or bar graph | 23 Weather over a season | the graph before the graphing routine |
| SR3-020 Spot the pattern; SR3-021 Use the pattern to predict | 1 Where is it? Did it move? (inside L07 and L08) | the swing's repeat is the pattern |
| SR3-022 Choose the sensible cause | 25 Dangerous weather | first place students pick a cause for an event |
Card 5 — Tests and benchmarks
The call: a PP100 per topic; a static end-of-strand test per strand (some free response); one static end-of-grade test; all Grade 3 tests are our own banks, seeded from released grade-5 items filtered to Grade 3 atoms.
- No state tests science before grade 5 (D1 ruling). The released STAAR, Florida SSA and AZSCI grade-5 forms give the style and difficulty; items tagged to Grade 3 atoms seed the banks.
- The strand tests fall after Topics 15, 21, 31 and 42.
- The end-of-grade test samples all four strands with free-response items.
What happens next
Topic 1 is built as the first interactive version for James: the topic intro (video script and article), eight lessons each as a video script with animation guidance and an article with figures, one attached question per video, a ten-item quiz per lesson, mixed practice, the summary video script and the PP100 bank. Topic 3 follows, reusing the golden pack.