Topic 31 — The solar system — blueprint (29 September 2026)
What I need from you: 4 decisions
May the topic coin "solar system" in L03, even though no atom names it?
the topic's title and its sub-domain are "The solar system", and the intro and summary need a word for the Sun and everything that travels around it. L03 coins it in one line after the eight planets ("The Sun, the eight planets and everything else that travels around the Sun are called the solar system"), the L03 video now says it too, and the quiz and the practice set test it by recall. Nothing else rests on it.
My recommendation: keep the one line and the recall item.
Does L01 stay silent on the year's length while L02 gives the Moon's month?
SPA3-010's cross field says the year-length claim is deliberately NOT made here (SPA4-008 owns it), and SPA3-011's example says "about a month for each lap". So L01 says "one lap, then round again" and never says how long a lap takes, while L02 says "about a month". A child may ask why one lap has a time and the other does not. The Sun crossing the sky and day and night are also left unsaid (Earth's spin is Grade 4's), so the reversed claim "the Sun travels around Earth" is corrected by the orbit alone, never by the sky.
My recommendation: follow the register as written; the year arrives in Grade 4 with the seasons.
Does L04 keep the memory sentence "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles"?
SPA3-013 is a routine — name eight planets in order — and a Grade 3 student has no structure to hang eight names on. L04 gives two: the two groups of four (near and small; far and big) and one memory sentence whose first letters are the planets' first letters — the one US classrooms already use, every word a grade-3 word (the reviewer's proposal over "My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming"). It costs two idea lines in the article and one eleven-word beat in the video.
My recommendation: keep it, in the article and the video.
Do the ten question types stand, with one reorder type and two typed hard types?
five atoms give ten types (≤ 2 alone-types per atom; coverage table on records/TYPES_G3T31.md). Type 7 is a reorder item (your Topic 2 ruling: "you can actually use a reorder question"). Nothing in this topic is counted or read off a scale, so both hard types are text entry: the real thing a model's small ball stands for (the Moon), and the planet whose orbit is the fifth one out (Jupiter).
My recommendation: approve as written.
Topic 31 at a glance — 5 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | Earth travels around the Sun | Here is Alder, standing still in the middle of the school field. | video + article |
| L02 | The Moon travels around Earth | Here is Blythe at her bedroom window at night. | video + article |
| L03 | Earth is a planet | Here is Florian on the hill at night. | video + article |
| L04 | The eight planets in order | Here is Elspeth with a poster of the eight planets. | video + article |
| L05 | A model of the Sun, Earth and the Moon | Here is Briony in the living room with a lamp, a blue ball and a marble. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Five short lessons, one per atom, closing the Earth & Space strand, in the order Earth's path → the Moon's path → what a planet is → the eight in order → a model of the three. L01: a runner's path goes around the field and comes back; Earth's path goes around the Sun the same way — a curved path that comes back round, called an orbit; one lap, then round again; nobody can feel it. L02: Earth is traveling around the Sun — is the Moon left behind? The Moon travels around Earth (about a month a lap) and keeps doing so the whole time, so wherever Earth goes, the Moon goes along with it; it does not travel around the Sun on its own. L03: one point of light in the night sky is not a star — through a telescope it is a round ball, Mars; a large ball that travels around the Sun is called a planet; Earth is one of eight; the Moon (travels around Earth) and the Sun (a star) are not planets; a planet makes no light of its own — sunlight lands on it. L04: moving outward from the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; Earth third; the four near are small, the four far are big, Jupiter biggest; the eight drawn to size (the Sun left out) and drawn to distance (equal dots) on two honest figures. L05: a lamp for the Sun, a ball for Earth, a marble for the Moon; the marble travels around the ball while the ball travels around the lamp; two wrong models under the question "Does it show the real paths?"; the model gets the paths right and the sizes and the gaps wrong.
One depiction per thing: the Sun, Earth and the Moon are Topic 29's drawers, imported; every orbit diagram is the same computed circle seen from far above with a dashed path and one arrowhead; the eight planets have fixed colours; the model's top view uses the same path convention.
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 (thirteen claim items, all bare yes / no); every stem a positive question; colour in figures; every orbit diagram says NOT TO SCALE and sizes and distances are drawn to scale on separate figures that say which they keep true; scene changes spoken with "let's", never an imperative; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; three questions on the summary; scripts at most 150 spoken words; "gravity" and "pull" are not said (no atom here asks why the planets stay on their paths); the Moon is lit, not a source (Topic 13); the Sun is a star (Topic 29); Pluto is not mentioned; a headache character never appears in an item; each claim-maker used once; names grepped course-wide; one lesson per atom, five lessons.
Earth travels around the Sun L01
Here is Alder, standing still in the middle of the school field.
He is not moving.
But Earth, under his feet, is moving.
Where is Earth going?
A runner's path goes around the field and comes back to where she started.
Earth's path goes around the Sun the same way.
It is a curved path that comes back round.
Earth's path around the Sun is called an orbit.
One lap, and Earth is back where it was; then round it goes again.
Video: the runner's dot moving round the track with the dashed path drawing behind it; Earth moving round the Sun with its path drawing; Earth at 1, 2, 3, 4 and back to 1 — video and article.
Part 1 — SPA3-010 — State that Earth travels around the Sun along a path called an orbit
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
The Moon travels around Earth L02
Here is Blythe at her bedroom window at night.
The Moon is up over the rooftops.
Earth is traveling around the Sun.
Is the Moon left behind?
The Moon travels around Earth.
Its path is an orbit too, and one lap takes about a month.
Earth travels around the Sun, and the Moon keeps traveling around Earth the whole time.
So wherever Earth goes, the Moon goes along with it.
The Moon does not travel around the Sun on its own.
Video: the Moon moving round Earth with its path drawing; the zoom-out to the Sun; Earth moving along its orbit with the Moon circling it as it goes; a wrong loop around the Sun crossed out — video and article.
Part 1 — SPA3-011 — State that the Moon travels around Earth, not off on its own around the Sun
Part 1q — quiz, 9 items
Earth is a planet L03
Here is Florian on the hill at night.
He sees thousands of tiny points of light.
One of them is brighter than most of the others, and a little orange.
Is it a star like all the others?
Through a telescope, the orange point is a round ball: Mars (it looks small only because it is far, far away).
Mars is a large ball, and it travels around the Sun, just like Earth.
A large ball that travels around the Sun is called a planet.
Eight large balls travel around the Sun, so there are eight planets, and Earth is one of them.
The Moon travels around Earth, so it is not a planet; the Sun is a star, so it is not a planet.
Video: the orange point ringed and the telescope view opening on a round ball; sunlight landing on Mars; the eight dashed paths drawing one by one; the four verdict cards appearing in turn under "Is it a planet?"; the solar-system line — video and article both carry the lit-not-a-source line and the coin (the review's B2).
Part 1 — SPA3-012 — State that Earth is a planet: one of eight large bodies that each orbit the Sun
Part 1q — quiz, 12 items
The eight planets in order L04
Here is Elspeth with a poster of the eight planets.
The poster shows them in a row.
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Which is farthest away?
Moving outward from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Mercury is closest to the Sun, and Neptune is farthest away.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
The four near the Sun are small; the four far out are big, and Jupiter is the biggest.
A poster cannot show the sizes and the gaps at the same time, so one drawing shows the sizes and another shows the gaps.
Video: each name appearing under its disc as it is said; the two group bands; the memory sentence word by word; the eight growing to size with the Sun's "would not fit" chip — video and article. The article alone adds the drawn-to-distance figure.
Part 1 — SPA3-013 — Name the eight planets in order moving outward from the Sun
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
A model of the Sun, Earth and the Moon L05
Here is Briony in the living room with a lamp, a blue ball and a marble.
She wants to show her little brother how the Sun, Earth and the Moon move.
But the real ones are far too big, and far too far away, to see all at once.
So she is going to build a model.
A small copy that shows how the real things move is called a model.
The lamp stands for the Sun, the ball for Earth, the marble for the Moon.
Briony walks the ball around the lamp, and as she walks she carries the marble around the ball.
The marble travels around the ball while the ball travels around the lamp: the real paths.
The model gets the paths right and the sizes and the gaps wrong.
Video: each chip as its part is named; the ball moving round the lamp with its path drawing; the marble circling the ball as it goes; the wrong model with its red cross; the right model with its green tick — video and article.
Part 1 — SPA3-014 — Construct a model that shows the Moon circling Earth while Earth circles the Sun
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
Language decisions
- The atoms' words: "travels around" (the one verb for every orbit), "orbit" (the path), "planet", "eight", "Mercury … Neptune", "model", "stands for".
- "Orbit" is a noun only: "Earth's path around the Sun is called an orbit"; never "Earth orbits".
- The Moon "makes no light of its own; sunlight lands on it, and it is lit up" (Topic 13's words); a planet is lit the same way.
- The Sun is "a star, a huge ball of glowing gas" (Topic 29); "more than a hundred Earths side by side would fit across it" (Topic 29's exact sentence, reused in L04 and L05).
- Not said anywhere: "gravity", "force", "pull", "year", "day and night", "spin", "rotate", "the Sun rises / sets / goes across the sky", "Pluto", "dwarf planet", "gas giant", "rocky planet", "space" as a place, "lift", "leak".
- The item rows of eight planets are equal grey discs, so counting from the Sun is the only route (the teaching rows keep the planets' colours); every row's chip says SIZES AND GAPS NOT TO SCALE.
- Every orbit diagram carries NOT TO SCALE and the article says once per lesson what the drawing gets wrong (the real Sun is far bigger and far, far away; the real Moon is smaller than Earth and much farther away).
- Openers vary: L01 "Here's Alder…", L02 "Here's Blythe…", L03 "Here's Florian…", L04 "Here's Elspeth…", L05 "Here's Briony…"; contractions in scripts and headaches.
Misconceptions (the topic's line per exposed belief)
- The Sun travels around Earth — confronted: L01's orbit diagram with the Sun in the middle; Dorian's claim in the quiz; the attached question's second option. Never explained by the sky (Earth's spin is Grade 4's).
- The Moon travels around the Sun on its own / gets left behind — confronted: L02 asks "Is the Moon left behind?" and answers it (never a why the topic cannot answer — the reviewer's F1); the carried-along figure; Ivor's and Osric's claims; the practice FRQ.
- The Moon makes its own light — confronted by recall (Topic 13's fact as L02's first quiz item); a planet is lit the same way (L03).
- The Moon is a planet; the Sun is a planet — confronted: L03's two verdict cards; Anselm's and Dulcie's claims.
- Earth is the biggest planet / planets are the size they look on a poster — confronted: L04's drawn-to-size figure; Basil's claim; the poster's honest caption.
- Sizes and gaps can both be drawn on one page — avoided: two figures, each saying what it keeps true; L05 says what the model gets wrong.
- Pluto — avoided: not mentioned (James: say nothing unless asked).
PP100 type sheet (TYPE_SHEET_ONLY; James's 28 Sep night ruling: hard items are typed)
Ten types, ten exemplars, at most two alone-types per atom; seven four-option MCQs (easy and medium), one reorder item (medium) and two typed hard items (both text entry — nothing in this topic is counted or read off a scale). Coverage table in records/TYPES_G3T31.md.
Figures
51 figures: 43 svg (every orbit diagram, the row of eight, the size and distance figures, the verdict cards, the model's top views, the rule cards, the item drawings), 3 photos (the Moon, Mars, the eight planets), 5 cartoons (Alder on the field, Blythe at the window, Florian on the hill, Elspeth with the poster, Briony with the model). Every figure has an IMAGE_BRIEFS entry and an IMAGE_KINDS entry; people and hands are never glyphs; item figures carry no verdict chip and their blind comments give the drawing, never the answer.
Deliberately not taught
Why Earth and the Moon stay on their paths (no atom asks; the Sun's pull is Grade 5's); the length of a year (SPA4-008); day and night and Earth's spin (Grade 4); the seasons; the Moon's phases; Pluto and the dwarf planets; what the planets are made of; the eight-point vane's cousin, the compass; the distances in numbers; "gas giant" and "rocky planet" as labels.
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.