Topic 27 — Fossils — blueprint (28 September 2026)
What I need from you: 4 decisions
The type sheet — ten question types, one exemplar each
after the non-author review, four exemplars were re-instanced as fresh scenes (a feather / pebble / shell-shape / pinecone card; a crab high on a mountain, typed; a quarry skull; sea snails under a city street). Two typed hard types; every atom alone and in pairs. The teeth move (type 6) has only two states, so the bank should hold few of it.
My recommendation: approve as they stand; the bank of about fifty follows.
Amber is out of Grade 3. Do you agree?
a whole insect in amber is neither "a part of a living thing" nor "a mark it made"; it is the living thing itself, and it breaks L01's "soft bodies rot away". The reviewer and the coordinator both ruled to drop it; the definition now holds for every member (footprint, shell shape, leaf print, bone, trilobite's shell). Keeping it needs a longer coin and two "usually"s.
My recommendation: out, as ruled.
Does L01 keep the one mechanism line, "over a very, very long time, the mud hardens into rock"?
EAR3-029 asks only that a buried hard part or print "lasts a very long time". But L03's way of telling "from long ago" at this age is "it is found in rock", and that only works if L01 has said once how mud becomes rock. The reviewer and the coordinator say keep.
My recommendation: keep the one line.
The register prereq note: EAR3-032 and EAR3-033 lean on Topic 16's observation atom, and EAR3-029 on Topic 26's rot atom. Add them?
L04 and L05 use "what the fossil SHOWS is an observation; what we THINK is an idea about it" as Topic 16 taught it; L01 uses "rots" and "becomes part of the soil" as Topic 26 coined them. Neither atom is in the register's prereq lists.
My recommendation: add both as prereqs (register edit in the knowledge-graph repo).
Topic 27 at a glance — 5 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | What happens after a living thing dies | Here's Hal's pumpkin on the ground by the porch step, the day after Halloween. | video + article |
| L02 | What a fossil is | Here's Romy at a rocky riverbed with her aunt. | video + article |
| L03 | Fossil or not? | Here's Bryn with a shoebox of things she found this summer. | video + article |
| L04 | What the fossil creature was like | Here's Yolanda at the museum. | video + article |
| L05 | What the place was like back then | Here's Nils on a dry, rocky hill with his grandpa. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Five short lessons, one per atom. A student meets what happens to a dead thing (almost everything rots away and becomes part of the soil; a hard part or a print buried fast lasts — a fossil-to-be is the rare one buried before it could rot), the word for the few that last (a fossil: a part of a living thing from long ago, or a mark it made, that has lasted until today — a footprint, a shell shape, a leaf print, a bone, a trilobite's shell), the two-question sort (did a living thing leave it? is it from long ago?), and the one move that turns a fossil into knowledge: the fossil SHOWS a part or a mark, we compare it with living things today, and that gives us an IDEA about the creature (L04) and about the place (L05). Topic 16's words carry the last two lessons: what the fossil shows is an observation; what we think is an idea about it.
Trace fossils come first everywhere: L01's story is a dinosaur footprint, not a bone; L02 opens on a footprint in rock; L03's first fossil is a shell shape, its second a footprint. The surprising members come first so that "a fossil is a dinosaur bone" never forms.
Every real fossil is a photo (a footprint in rock, a shell shape, a fern print, a bone, a trilobite, fossil teeth, a fish); the how-a-footprint-lasts strip, the shell pair, the find cards with their two-question verdict layer and the evidence → idea cards are SVG; children and their scenes are cartoons. The find card and the evidence card are this topic's register entries.
Applied without asking (rulings you have already given, and the coordinator's rulings of 28 Sep night): hard PP100 items typed; attached questions stand alone with their own drawing; no verdict + reason options; positive stems; colour figures with photo kind for every real fossil; "let's" at scene changes; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson or its example; three summary questions; "fossil" not said before L02 coins it; trace fossils before bones; "before any people" kept with the dinosaur named; the pumpkin on the ground by the porch step; L05 closes "Places change over a very, very long time. Long ago, the sea covered this hill. Today it does not."; the face-rock card asks only the first question; Hesper's claim says "mean"; one TRUE claim in L01; Topic 26's words for rotting, never re-coined.
What happens after a living thing dies L01
Here's Hal's pumpkin on the ground by the porch step, the day after Halloween.
He leaves it there, and forgets it.
By December, it is soft, brown and caved in.
By spring, there is only a dark patch on the soil by the step.
Where did the pumpkin go?
After a living thing dies, its body usually rots away and becomes part of the soil.
A dead fish's soft body rots in weeks; its bones crumble away in a few years.
A footprint pressed into mud, dried, and covered with new mud can last inside the rock.
A shell buried fast in mud lasts millions of years.
To last, a dead thing needs a hard part or a print, and it needs to be buried fast.
Video: the strip's four panels appearing on their words; the shell pair buried side first — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-029 — State that a dead body usually rots away, and that a hard part or a print buried fast lasts a very long time
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
What a fossil is L02
Here's Romy at a rocky riverbed with her aunt.
She picks up a flat gray rock.
Pressed into it is the curly shape of a shell.
There is no shell. There is only its shape, in the rock.
What made this shape, and how long ago?
A footprint in rock is a mark a living thing made, long ago.
A bone in rock is a part of a living thing, from long ago.
A fossil is a part of a living thing from long ago, or a mark it made, that has lasted until today.
A fossil is not the living thing itself: the soft body rotted away long ago.
Video: the family card's members lighting up in turn — video and article. (Amber dropped after the review; the fern print added as a mark.)
Part 1 — EAR3-030 — State what a fossil is, on five members, marks before parts
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
Fossil or not? L03
Here's Bryn with a shoebox of things she found this summer.
She has a shell from the beach, and a rock with a shell shape in it.
She has a rock that looks like a face, and a rock with a fern shape.
She has a footprint in rock from a hill, and a footprint she pressed into wet sand.
Her sister says only some of them are fossils.
Which ones are fossils? How can Bryn tell?
To decide if something is a fossil, ask two questions.
Did a living thing leave it, a part of it or a mark it made?
Is it from long ago? Something found in rock is from long ago.
Two yeses mean it is a fossil.
Video: each card's tick, cross and label appearing on its word — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-031 — Decide whether an object is a fossil (NE → E → E → E → NE → NE → rule)
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
What the fossil creature was like L04
Here's Yolanda at the museum.
In a glass case is a fossil skull, as long as her arm.
Its teeth are long and pointed, like knives.
The sign says: THIS ANIMAL ATE MEAT.
But nobody alive has ever seen this animal.
How can anyone know what it ate?
A fossil shows a part, or a mark.
Sharp, pointed teeth: a dog today has teeth like that, and eats meat. So we think the fossil animal ate meat.
Flat, wide teeth: a cow today has teeth like that, and eats plants. So we think the fossil animal ate plants.
What the fossil shows is an observation. What we think from it is an idea about it.
Video: the evidence card's right panel appearing after the left — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-032 — Explain what a fossil shows about the living thing that left it
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
What the place was like back then L05
Here's Nils on a dry, rocky hill with his grandpa.
There is no water anywhere. The sea is far away.
Nils splits a gray rock that sticks out of the hillside, and inside it is a fish.
It is not a living fish: it is the shape of one, bones and fins and all.
Why is a fish on a hill? Fish live in water.
Did somebody carry it up here? How did it get here?
A fossil shows what lived in a place long ago.
Fish live in water today. Fish fossils in rock on a hill mean this hill was once under water.
The fish is inside the rock, and the rock is part of the hill. It formed around the fish. Nobody carried it up.
Compare the fossil with where that living thing lives today, and you get an idea about what the place was like back then.
Video: the evidence cards building on their words — video and article.
Part 1 — EAR3-033 — Explain what a fossil shows about what a place was like long ago
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
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.