Topic 26 — Soil — blueprint (28 September 2026)
What I need from you: 5 decisions
What do we call the third soil — the dark, crumbly one?
EAR3-004's example is "gritty fast-draining sand against sticky clay", so sandy soil and clay soil are the two the atom names. L04 puts a third plate beside them, the dark crumbly soil a child digs in a vegetable bed, because it is the soil the topic's other three lessons looked at, and because "all soil is the same brown" needs three colors to break. The lesson calls it garden soil: the everyday name, honest about what it is (full of dark crumbs from rotted plants). "Loam" is the gardener's word and jargon at this age.
My recommendation: garden soil.
Does L01 keep the jar-shake test?
EAR3-001's example is the hand lens (pale rock grains among dark crumbs). L01 adds a second way of taking the soil apart — shake a spoon of soil in a jar of water and wait: the bits of rock sink to the floor, the bits of dead leaves float. It applies Topic 19's sink / float test, it is the strongest picture that soil is two kinds of bits, and it gives the bank a typed hard item (where the rock bits will be). It costs the article one subtitle, two figures and six idea lines.
My recommendation: keep.
Does L01 keep the one-line answer to "soil is alive"?
the register's common findings for this age include "soil is alive as a whole". The atom does not name it. L01 spends three idea lines on it ("Worms live in soil. Roots grow in soil. The soil itself is bits of rock and bits of dead plants and animals. So the soil itself is not alive.") and one quiz claim (Beatrix, keyed yes). "Plants eat soil" is deliberately NOT touched: what plants take from soil is the Life strand's, and this topic never says what a plant eats.
My recommendation: keep the three lines; leave "plants eat soil" to Life.
How much of the "how" does L02 give?
EAR3-002 is a fact — the rock bits come from bigger rocks slowly breaking apart — and its cross says the word "weathering" arrives at Grade 4. L02 shows a cracked boulder with pieces at its foot, the waves rolling a pebble smaller and rounder, the size strip (boulder → rock → pebble → grit → grain of sand), one line on time (far longer than a person lives), and a try-it (rub two rocks over white paper). It never says WHY the boulder cracked.
My recommendation: this much and no more; the causes are Grade 4's.
Do the ten question types stand?
ten types, two of them typed hard items (records/TYPES_G3T26.md, rendered at course_preview/review/TYPES_G3T26.html). Coverage: every atom alone; pairs EAR3-003 + EAR3-001 (the layers), EAR3-004 + EAR3-001 (name the soil from three observations), EAR3-001 + Topic 19's sinks / floats (the jar). My recommendation: approve as they stand.
Topic 26 at a glance — 4 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | What soil is made of | Here is Meera in the school garden, digging a hole for a bean plant. | video + article |
| L02 | The bits of rock come from bigger rocks breaking apart | Here is Kezia at the beach. | video + article |
| L03 | The dark crumbs come from dead things rotting | Here is Roshan in the fall. | video + article |
| L04 | Tell two soils apart | Here is Flora with two pots for her sunflower seeds. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Four short lessons, one per atom, in the Earth & Space strand: what soil is, where its two kinds of bits came from, and how to tell one soil from another.
L01 takes a handful of soil apart twice — under a hand lens (pale hard bits that do not squash: rock; dark soft bits, a bit of leaf, a bit of twig: dead plants and animals) and in a jar of water (the bits of rock sink, the bits of dead leaves float). L02 follows the pale bits back: a cracked boulder with pieces at its foot, a pebble rolled smaller by the waves, the size strip, and the one line on time. L03 follows the dark crumbs back: a leaf pile tall in the fall and low and dark in spring; the cut through the layers under a hedge (whole leaves, leaves in bits, dark crumbs); the word "rot"; where the leaves went. L04 compares three soils by Topic 16's properties (color, how it feels) and one recorded test in Topic 19's shape (pour the same water on each; write down what happened), then names them: sandy soil, clay soil, garden soil.
The strand's figure style is photo-heavy: five photo slots (real soil close up, a cracked boulder, a beach with pebbles and sand, leaf litter cut through, three soils on plates), five cartoon slots (the children and the rubbing hands), and thirty-six SVG drawings an item is answered from — the hand-lens view (a fresh scatter per item, one black arrow), the jar (shaken / settled), the size strip, the cracked rock, the layers strip (letters J, K, L on items), the soil cards, the water test (letters on items), the comparison table, and the rule cards.
Names: Meera and Lyle (L01), Kezia (L02), Roshan (L03), Flora (L04) are the headache children and appear in no item. Every item name is fresh to the course (grepped across Topics 1–25).
Applied without asking (rulings you have already given): hard PP100 items are typed (two of ten exemplars, both text entry); every attached question stands alone with its own drawing; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; a claim item is bare yes / no with the correction in the why; colour in figures; scene changes spoken with "let's" and never as an imperative; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; three questions on the summary, each on a fresh drawing; photos for the real things (soil close up, a cracked boulder, a beach, leaf litter, three soils on plates); cartoons for children and hands, never glyphs; contractions and varied openers; "Suppose / Imagine / Now consider" at each new scene; quiz scenes differ from the lesson's; no headache character in any item; each claim-maker used once.
What soil is made of L01
Here is Meera in the school garden, digging a hole for a bean plant.
She lifts out a handful of soil.
'It's just dirt,' says Lyle.
'Dirt is dirt.'
Meera looks closer.
Is soil one stuff, all the way through?
A round glass that makes small things look bigger is called a hand lens.
Under the hand lens, the soil is bits: pale hard bits and dark soft bits.
The pale hard bits are bits of rock.
The dark soft bits are bits of dead plants and animals.
In a jar of water, the bits of rock sink, and most of the bits of dead leaves float.
Soil is made of broken bits of rock mixed with bits of dead plants and animals.
Video: the hand lens moving over the soil; the pin pressing a grain; the jar settling into its layers — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-001 — Name what soil is made of: broken bits of rock mixed with bits of dead plants or animals
Part 1q — quiz, 12 items (two-option keys 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0)
The bits of rock come from bigger rocks breaking apart L02
Here is Kezia at the beach.
She scoops up a handful of sand.
Every grain is a tiny, hard bit of rock.
Where did all these grains come from?
Nobody made them.
Nobody carried them here.
A big rock has a crack.
Pieces have broken off it.
Some pieces are big, and some are pebbles.
Some are grit: tiny bits of rock.
The waves roll a pebble against other pebbles, year after year, and bits rub off.
The bits that rub off are grains of sand.
A grain of sand was once part of a bigger rock.
This takes far longer than a person lives.
Video: the pebble rolling, shrinking and rounding; the size strip building left to right — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-002 — State that the rock bits in soil come from bigger rocks slowly breaking apart
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
The dark crumbs come from dead things rotting L03
Here is Roshan in the fall.
He rakes the dead leaves under the oak into a big pile.
In spring he comes back.
The pile is small.
Under the top leaves, it is dark and crumbly.
Where did all the leaves go?
At the top of the pile lie whole brown leaves.
Lower down lie leaves in bits, soft and dark.
At the bottom lie dark crumbs.
You cannot tell they were leaves.
A dead leaf slowly goes soft, falls apart, and turns into dark crumbs.
We say it rots.
The crumbs mix into the soil.
The dark crumbs in soil come from dead plants and animals rotting away.
Video: the pile shrinking from fall to spring; one leaf softening, breaking into bits, becoming crumbs that sink into the soil — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-003 — State that the dark crumbly part of soil comes from dead plants or animals rotting away
Part 1q — quiz, 12 items
Tell two soils apart L04
Here is Flora with two pots for her sunflower seeds.
She fills one pot with soil from beside the sandbox, and the other with soil from the pond bank.
'Soil is soil,' she says.
'Brown is brown.'
But the two soils don't look the same, and they don't feel the same.
How can Flora tell two soils apart?
Three soils sit on three plates.
Look: one is pale, one is orange, one is dark brown.
Feel: one is gritty, one is smooth and sticky, one is soft and crumbly.
Test: pour one full cup of water on each.
Through the pale soil it runs fast, on the orange soil it sits, and through the dark soil some runs.
The pale gritty soil is sandy soil, the orange sticky soil is clay soil, and the dark crumbly soil is garden soil.
To tell two soils apart, look at their color, feel them, and test how fast water runs through.
Video: a finger rubbing each soil; the water poured and the jar levels rising over one minute — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-004 — Compare two soils by properties you can see or feel
Part 1q — quiz, 13 items
Topic close
Intro (109 words): a forest floor in the fall — leaves fall every year, so where are they all; the ground up close; where did the pale bits come from, where did the leaves go, why is the pond soil sticky; the general close; the ready line "Okay, so are you ready to dig into soil?" and the poll.
Summary (198 words): the four lexicon sentences spoken as written, in teaching order, with the topic's own pictures; "Okay, now your turn."; three attached questions on fresh drawings (a leaf bit under the lens; pebbles in a stream; a clay-soil card from a ditch).
Mixed practice: 15 items (10 MCQ, 1 FRQ, 4 typed terms: soil, rot, sandy soil, clay soil).
PP100 type sheet: 10 exemplars, 8 four-option MCQs (keys D B D B C C A A) and 2 typed hard items; TYPE_SHEET_ONLY = True. Revised after the non-author review (28 Sep, night): four exemplars re-instanced, the reviewer's fixes applied; the blueprint's decisions 1–4 stand, with the reviewer agreeing on each (records/REVIEW_G3T26_2026-09-28.md §4).
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, 029, 030, 028, 022 (+ a closing lesson naming gravity) | 6 | Earth pulls every object, all the time, straight down, on every part of it, without touching; a strong enough pull can beat it; the pull's name is gravity (JM 28 Sep 2026; 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, 062, 005, 006 | 4 | More mass, more space, warmer, decided by a measurement; MAT3-062 "everything takes up space" (JM ruling on Olivia's comment, 28 Sep 2026) sits before the space comparison |
| 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 | MAT3-063, 064, 065, 022, 023, 021, 020, 024 | 8 | Air first (Olivia's order): air is something you can feel; it is made of tiny pieces too small to see; so is every kind of matter; air takes up space; gases spread out to fill their space; liquids take their container's shape; solids keep theirs; then the sort with the awkward cases. MAT3-063, 064, 065 were added on 28 Sep 2026 (JM's rulings on Olivia's comments) before MAT3-022 in the chain; eight lessons is over JM's 3–6 size, so the Topic 20 build record (decision 1) proposes a split after MAT3-022 into "Air is something" (4) and "Solids, liquids and gases" (4), renumbering Matter to 16–22, Earth & Space 23–32, Life 33–43 — nothing after Topic 19 is authored, so the renumbering costs nothing now |
| 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.