OpenSciEd Grade 3 Unit 3: Trait Variations Teacher Edition

The OpenSciEd elementary science program aligns with all NGSS standards for elementary education. This comprehensive curriculum encourages students to explore, design, investigate, and solve problems in the world around them. 

• Phenomenon Based - Centered around exploring phenomena or solving problems
• Driven by Student Questions - Storyline based on students’ questions and ideas 
• Grounded in Evidence - Incremental building and revision of ideas based on evidence 
• Collaborative - class and teacher figure out ideas together
• Equitable - Builds a classroom culture that values ideas and learning of all

The materials invite students to explore science through a phenomenon-based, three-dimensional approach that promotes curiosity, understanding, and equitable learning. Crafted with insights from teachers and students across the country, each unit features thoughtfully selected phenomena and engaging storylines that draw students in. Along the journey, students develop essential skills like problem-solving, asking meaningful questions, and building arguments supported by evidence. With an interdisciplinary design, these units also seamlessly integrate literacy and math, nurturing critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Unit 3.3 Trait Variations - Why do animals look and act the way they do?

There are many kinds of dogs that look and act differently, especially as they grow from newborns to adults, but why do they look and act the way that they do? Students begin this unit by noticing that newborn puppies look and act relatively similar to one another, but adult canines look and act quite differently from one another, and they wonder how and why this happens. Throughout the unit, students identify patterns in canines’ trait variations to figure out that canines look and act a certain way because of information they inherit from their parents, along with influences from their environments. Students then investigate how long people and dogs have been living and working together. They use fossil evidence to make sense of what the environment was like long ago when this relationship began. They also explain that some animals are no longer found on Earth because they did not pass along information to their offspring to continue the existence of animals that look and act the way they did.