Topic 39 — Plants respond — blueprint (29 September 2026)
What I need from you: 3 decisions
Is the L03 scope line worded right?
the line is "Most of the time, a plant responds by growing. A few plant responses are quick moves, like petals closing at night." The rule "a plant responds by growing, slowly, over days" is true of everything this topic shows, but Topic 32's own items had a daisy closing its petals at night and a bean plant folding its leaves — a plant responding by moving. Without a scope line, a student who remembers Topic 32 is told it was wrong. The line sits just before the respond card and is spoken in the video.
My recommendation: keep the line as written; "quick" is the reviewer's word for a move that takes minutes, against growth that takes days.
Does L02 keep its one Topic 3 line about Earth's pull?
the line is "You've already seen that Earth pulls everything straight down. But a root is not falling. It grows down." The atom is a prediction; L02 describes the root's response and never says what makes it grow down. But Topic 3 has taught that Earth pulls on everything, always, straight down, and a student who remembers it will ask whether the root is pulled. This line answers without teaching a cause, and it corrects Halvard's "because it is heavy" better than "a root does not fall" alone. The register's FOR3 link stays either way.
My recommendation: keep the line.
Do the ten question types stand, with the two typed hard types?
the reviewer found six of the first ten exemplars were quiz or attached items with a noun changed; all six are re-instanced on fresh scenes and drawings (a cress pot with a lamp to its left; a seed planted at a slant; a lamp moved to the other side of the room; how long a tipped root takes to turn — which gives the root atom its second alone-type; a pea tendril round a wire among a horse, a bee and a snow-bent branch; a goldfish and a mint plant). Hard items are typed (the word for how the plant responded; the thing that came in through a box's one hole).
My recommendation: approve the ten. [The type sheet](TYPES_G3T39.html)
Topic 39 at a glance — 3 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | A stem grows toward the light | Here is Liesl's bean plant on the kitchen windowsill on Monday. | video + article |
| L02 | A root grows down | Here is Eskil with a clear jar and a strip of wet paper. | video + article |
| L03 | Animals respond by moving, plants by growing | Here is Noemi in the kitchen. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Three short lessons on the one idea Grade 3 needs about plants responding: a plant does respond to what is around it — most of the time by growing, slowly, over days — while an animal responds by moving, quickly. L01: when the light comes from one side, a stem grows toward the light, a little each day (Liesl's windowsill bean plant; the pot turned round; a box with one hole; a lamp straight above, the everyday member). L02: a seed's root grows down whichever way up the seed is planted (Eskil's jar of three seeds; the jar laid on its side; a seed in the soil nobody sees). L03: the contrast — Noemi's cat runs to the food tin in a second; her bean plant grows toward the window over five days; a pea tendril grows round its stick; a root turns down — an animal responds by moving, quickly; a plant responds by growing, slowly.
The seams: Topic 32's young sunflower TURNED to follow the Sun in a day (a part moving); L01 says plainly that Liesl's plant did not just turn — it grew, it is taller, and turning takes hours while growing takes days. Topic 36's "senses" and "responds" are recalled for animals in L03 and never re-coined; a plant is not said to sense. Topic 38 owns what roots, stem and leaves do. Topic 13's line stands: light lands on the plant; it does not push. Topic 3's Earth's pull is not used (decision 2).
The register seedling (a potted seedling whose stem top is displaced toward the light, drawn Day 1 | Day 3 | Day 5), the jar of three seeds (before, after, laid on its side) and the respond card are this topic's new register entries; the pot and soil are Topic 38's colours, the stem and leaves Topic 32's.
Applied without asking (rulings you have already given, and the coordinator's on the review): hard PP100 items are typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing; every prediction figure shows the BEFORE moment only; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; colour in figures; scene changes spoken with "let's" and never as an imperative — the summary's two "Turn / Lay…" lines became "If you turn / If you lay…"; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; three questions on the summary; the surprising members first; a claim-maker once per topic; a headache character in no item; names checked against the course register; one lesson per atom; a plant "responds", never "senses" (Topic 36's word is an animal's); the causal sky line ("so stems outside grow up") CUT — L01 ends on the lamp straight above; the Topic 32 line time-bound ("between breakfast and supper, that top turned; the plant did not get longer in one day") and checked by two new quiz items (a part turned / it grew toward the light); "within hours each root tip had begun to curve" in place of "nothing had changed by morning"; the week-later stem drawn as an S (the old lean kept, the new top toward the window); the tipped jar drawn as the Day 7 jar turned; the bending mechanism untaught.
A stem grows toward the light L01
Here is Liesl's bean plant on the kitchen windowsill on Monday.
It stands straight up.
On Friday, Liesl looks again.
The plant leans toward the window, and it is taller.
Nobody touched the pot.
Which way did the plant grow?
The light comes in through the window.
Day by day, the stem has grown toward the light.
Turn the pot round, and a week later the stem has grown back toward the window.
The light does not push the plant.
The plant grows toward the light by itself.
When the light comes from one side, a plant's stem grows toward the light, a little each day.
Video: the day strip building Day 1, Day 3, Day 5; the turned pot and the S-shaped week-later drawing; the box; the lamp above — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-025 — Predict which way a plant's stem grows when the light comes from one side
Part 1q — quiz, 13 items
A root grows down L02
Here is Eskil with a clear jar and a strip of wet paper.
He tucks three bean seeds between the paper and the glass.
One seed sits the right way up.
One lies on its side.
And one is upside down.
Which way will each root grow?
A week later, every root has grown down.
The upside-down seed's root came out of the top, turned, and grew down.
Lay the jar on its side, and three days later every root tip has turned to grow down again.
Earth pulls everything straight down.
But a root is not falling.
It grows down, a little each day.
A seed's root grows down, whichever way up the seed is planted.
Video: the DAY chip counting to 7 as the roots appear one by one; the jar lying down and the tips bending; a close-up on one thread-thin root tip — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-026 — Predict which way a seed's root grows whichever way up the seed is planted
Part 1q — quiz, 10 items
Animals respond by moving, plants by growing L03
Here is Noemi in the kitchen.
Her cat is asleep by the door.
Noemi opens the cat food tin.
The cat comes running, in about a second.
On the windowsill stands Noemi's bean plant.
All week, its stem has grown toward the window.
The cat did something because of the tin.
Did the plant do something too?
The cat hears the tin.
Then it responds: it runs to the tin, in about a second.
The bean plant has no ears and no legs.
But it responds to the light too: its stem grows toward the window, over days.
A pea tendril grows round a stick it touches.
A root turns and grows down.
Most of the time, a plant responds by growing; a few plant responses are quick moves, like petals closing at night.
An animal responds by moving, quickly.
A plant responds by growing, slowly, over days.
Video: the respond card filling one column at a time (MOVING, IN ABOUT A SECOND; GROWING, OVER DAYS); the tendril photo; the upside-down seed's root — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-028 — Contrast how an animal responds (moves, quickly) with how a plant responds (grows, slowly)
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
Language decisions
- No term is coined. "Responds" and "senses" are Topic 36's, recalled for animals; "grows", "stem", "root", "shoot", "seed", "light" are everyday words or earlier topics'.
- A plant "grows toward the light"; it never "wants", "looks for", "reaches for", "tries", "finds" or "follows" the light in teaching. Dorothea's practice claim ("it wants to see outside") is the one place an intention word appears, as a claim the key corrects.
- "The light does not push the plant. Light only lands on the plant." (Topic 13's verb.) "The plant grows toward the light by itself." (Topic 32's phrase for a living thing's own doing.)
- "A root does not fall. It grows down." — never "heavy", never "Earth pulls it" (decision 2). "Down" is the direction; "toward the ground" and "into the soil" are its plain forms in the accept lists.
- Turning (Topic 32) against growing (this topic): "That top turned. The plant did not get longer." / "Turning takes hours. Growing toward the light takes days."
- "In about a second" for an animal; "over days", "a little each day" for a plant. Never "instantly", "immediately" (words this age reads unevenly).
- Openers vary: L01 "Here's Liesl's bean plant…", L02 "Here's Eskil with a clear jar…", L03 "Here's Noemi in the kitchen."; contractions in scripts and headaches; "Now consider…" opens each new case.
PP100 type sheet (TYPE_SHEET_ONLY; James's 28 Sep night ruling: hard items are typed)
Ten types, ten exemplars, every one re-instanced on a fresh scene after the review; alone-types per atom: LIF3-025 → 1, 4 (+10 typed); LIF3-026 → 2, 6; LIF3-028 → 3 (+9 typed); pair types 5 (025 + 026), 6 (026 + 028), 7 (028 + 025), 8 (028 + 025). Eight four-option MCQs (easy and medium) and two typed hard items (both text entry). Coverage table in records/TYPES_G3T39.md.
Figures
36 figures: 27 SVG (the register seedling in its day strips and BEFORE moments, the S-shaped week-later stem; the jar of seeds, upright and turned on its side; the seed in a pot, four ways up; the respond card; three rule cards), 3 cartoons (Liesl at the windowsill; Eskil with the jar; Noemi with the tin and the cat), 6 photos (a real bean plant leaning toward a window; bean roots in a jar; a running cat; a pea tendril round a stick; a blackbird; a deer). Every figure has an IMAGE_BRIEFS entry and an IMAGE_KINDS entry; people and hands are never drawn as glyphs; every prediction figure is the BEFORE moment only and its SVG carries no animation.
Deliberately not taught
Why the stem bends (the shaded side growing faster) — one what-line, no mechanism; why the root grows down (Earth's pull is recalled, never said to make the root grow; Grade 5's); why shoots grow up (the cut sky line); whether a plant "senses" (ruled: responds only); leaves turning to face the light within a day (Topic 32's turning; not this topic's growing); tendrils, climbing and touch as a named response class (one example only, in L03); the brain step for animals (LIF4-003); "tropism" and any other term.
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.