Topic 37 — How plants make new plants — blueprint (29 September 2026)
What I need from you: 3 decisions
Do I keep the strawberry line in the intro ("A strawberry has its seeds on the outside")?
it is the most surprising seed a child knows, and it opens the curiosity gap in one line. Strictly, each yellow speck on a strawberry is a tiny case with the seed inside, so "its seeds outside" is a simplification. It appears in the intro and the blurb only; no lesson, item or key rests on it.
My recommendation: keep it — clarity beats accuracy here, and no item tests it.
Do I keep the two Florida labels, "flowering plant" and "nonflowering plant", in L03?
LIF3-014's cross field says Florida's flowering / nonflowering labels ride inside this sort (SC.3.L.15.2 names them). L03 coins both in three lines after the sort, with the one line that keeps them honest: the pine is a nonflowering plant that still makes seeds, in its cones. Two quiz items, one practice item and a term item use them; no bank type does.
My recommendation: keep — the labels are the words a Florida item will use, and the pine line stops "nonflowering = spores".
Does L01 say that a seed needs water and warmth to start, and not soil?
LIF3-071 asks only what a seed is. The bean on a wet paper towel is the one case where the package is seen to open, and it meets two findings for this age — "a seed is dead until planted" (Topic 32 keyed a seed living) and "a seed needs soil to start" (Topic 26 planted seeds in soil). It costs the lesson one figure and five lines; one quiz item asks it.
My recommendation: keep — it is the cheapest way to show that the tiny plant inside is alive.
Topic 37 at a glance — 4 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | What a seed is | Here's Isolde on a path under the pine trees. | video + article |
| L02 | What a spore is | Imagine a fern that grows in the shady corner of Ferran's yard. | video + article |
| L03 | Seeds or spores? Sort the plant | Here is Rhoswen in her grandmother's garden. | video + article |
| L04 | What the flower does | Imagine Caradoc's apple tree in spring: it is covered in pink and white flowers. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Four short lessons, one per atom, in the register's order: seeds, spores, the sort, the flower's job. L01 defines a seed by opening one — a tiny plant, its food for the start, a coat around both — after a pine cone's winged seed has raised the question, and closes on the apple pip and the coconut; plants with flowers or cones make seeds. L02 turns a fern leaf over: brown dots, brown dust, each speck a spore that can grow a new fern; a spore is NOT a tiny seed (nothing is wrapped inside it, and it is far smaller); moss makes spores too. L03 sorts a garden on one question — does the plant ever make flowers or cones? — row by row in a sorting table, with grass as the surprise (it flowers), then coins flowering / nonflowering with the pine kept honest. L04 watches one apple flower through the year: petals fall, a green ball stays where the flower was, it grows into the apple, the pips inside are the seeds; a plant's flower is where its seeds are made — so a tree that loses every flower to frost makes no apples that year.
What the topic deliberately does not teach: how the tiny plant gets into the seed (pollination, Grade 4's four stages); roots, stem and leaves (Topic 38); "fruit" and "vegetable" as categories; any flower part beyond the petals and "the middle"; fungi (mushrooms make spores but are not plants, and LIF3-072 names plants); how a spore grows; that living things make more of their own kind (Topic 32).
Every figure carries an image kind: real seeds, cones, ferns, moss and flowers are photos; the four children's scenes are cartoons; the labelled seed, the seed-against-spore card, the sorting table, the labelled flower, the flower-to-apple strip and the rule cards are SVG.
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 scene; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; colour in figures with an image kind on each; scene changes spoken with "let's", never as an imperative; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; three questions on the summary; a claim-maker is used once per topic; a headache character never appears in an item; surprising members first (the pine cone's seed before the apple pip; the fern before any flower; grass as a flowering plant); one lesson per atom, four lessons; Topic 32's sunflower is retrieved in one line, never re-taught.
What a seed is L01
Here's Isolde on a path under the pine trees.
She picks up a pine cone and shakes it.
Something small and brown, with a papery wing, drops out.
It is smaller than her fingernail.
Can this tiny thing really become a tree as tall as a house?
The small brown thing from the cone is a seed.
Inside a seed is a tiny plant and its food for the start, wrapped in a coat.
A seed is a plant's package for growing a new plant.
Given water and warmth, the tiny plant starts to grow.
Plants with flowers or cones make seeds.
Video: the three labels landing on the cut seed as each is spoken; the coat splitting on the wet towel; the apple, the cone and the coconut in turn — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-071 — State that a seed is a plant's package for growing a new plant, made by plants with flowers or cones
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
What a spore is L02
Imagine a fern that grows in the shady corner of Ferran's yard.
It has stood there for years, and it has never once made a flower.
It has never made a cone either.
Yet small new ferns keep appearing in the damp soil around it.
Where do the new ferns come from?
Under a fern leaf are rows of brown dots.
Tap the leaf, and brown dust falls out of the dots.
Each speck of that dust is a spore, and each spore can grow into a new fern.
A spore is not a tiny seed: nothing is wrapped inside it.
Plants without flowers or cones release spores to grow new plants.
Video: the leaf turning over; the dust falling onto paper; a speck drifting to the soil and a small fern growing; the two-panel card; a moss capsule opening — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-072 — State that a spore is a dust-like speck that plants without flowers release to grow new plants
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
Seeds or spores? Sort the plant L03
Here is Rhoswen in her grandmother's garden.
A rose bush grows by the gate, and a tall pine stands behind it.
A fern sits in the shade, and moss covers the top of the wall.
Her grandmother says some of these plants make seeds, and some make spores.
Which are which?
How can Rhoswen tell?
One question sorts every plant: does it ever make flowers or cones?
The rose makes flowers, so the rose makes seeds.
The pine makes cones, so the pine makes seeds.
The fern never makes flowers or cones, so the fern makes spores.
Grass makes flowers too, tiny green ones, so grass makes seeds.
Video: the sorting table filling one row at a time as each verdict is spoken; the grass-flowers photo before the last row — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-014 — Sort plants into those that make seeds and those that make spores
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
What the flower does L04
Imagine Caradoc's apple tree in spring: it is covered in pink and white flowers.
By fall, the flowers are long gone and the tree is heavy with apples.
Caradoc cuts one apple open and finds five dark pips inside.
Where did the apples come from?
Where were the pips made?
In spring the apple tree makes flowers.
The petals fall, and a small green ball stays where each flower was.
All summer it grows, and by fall it is an apple with pips inside.
The pips are seeds, and they were made in the flower.
A plant's flower is where its seeds are made.
Video: the flower's two labels landing as spoken; the four-panel strip playing panel by panel (petals drop, the green ball, the apple, the cut apple); the bean flower and pod — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-024 — State that a plant's flower is where its seeds are made
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.