Teacher Guide

The plate side is for pushing, because there is nothing to grip; the handle side is for pulling. A good answer notices that the design tells your hand which force to use before you think about it.

The rope moves right. Add one player to the left, or take one away from the right. Either works, and finding both is the point.

Friction between the ball and the grass, and the air pushing against it. Naming it before next week is a bonus; describing it is enough.

Your feet push backward on the ground to move you forward, and friction is what lets them. With almost none, the push just slides.

Change the weight only: tape coins to the same car, same ramp, same floor, same start. Three things kept the same is the requirement; a good answer says “let go, do not push.”

A heavier weight barely changes the count, which surprises almost everybody. A fair test keeps the string length the same and changes only the weight. The surprise is the lesson: test before you believe.

No. The car might fly off a steep ramp, crash at the bottom, or roll off the end of the room. Patterns hold over the range you tested, and the farther you go past it the less you should trust them.

A magnet pulls through a hand and through a book. Through a cookie sheet it can stick to, it pulls much less, because it pulls on the sheet instead. Check the sheet first: if the magnet does not stick to it, it is probably aluminum and the clip will be pulled straight through, which is a different test. A good plan keeps the distance the same and changes only the material in between.

A magnet pulls iron and steel and keeps pulling; a rubbed balloon pulls light things like paper and hair, and its pull fades over time. Either difference is a complete answer.

Move the clip closer, use a bigger clip, or add a second clip. Any change is fine if the test is the same 10 bumps.

Many shapes beat the fan: a deeper fold, a fan with its edges taped. What matters is the prediction written down before the test.

On the left side, a push of 5 pointing right: then 6 and 6 balance. Adding a push on the right side can only make it worse, and a student who says so has understood the whole of Part 1.

Any animal, four stages, a picture for each. Accept “born” or “hatched” for the first stage.

Frog young hatch in water and look nothing like the adult; bean young are seeds that look nothing like the plant either. Both begin small and grow. Any two differences and one sameness is a full answer.

Variation: the caterpillars differ a little, as every living thing does. Some ate more, some were warmer. Any reasonable cause is fine; this is week 17 arriving early.

Yes. Both parents can carry a trait they do not show and pass it on. The point is not the mechanism, which comes much later, but that the parents' own looks do not tell the whole story.

The same shape, a hump in the middle, but smoother. Any drawing with most pods in the middle and a few at each end is right.

On white paper the white moths hide and the newspaper ones show. The advantage belongs to the match between the animal and its background, not to the color itself.

Where food is scarce and spread out, a lone bird does not have to share. Any place where sharing costs more than the extra eyes are worth.

Honey bees make honey, make wax, fan their wings to cool the hive, and dance to show other bees where food is. Any one, found and written down.

Five sentences, one per idea. Mark the five ideas, not the writing.

Light was meant to change; the packet, the water and the soil stayed the same. But a sunny window is warmer than a dark cupboard, so temperature probably changed too. A student who notices that has understood fair tests better than the page, and should be told so. Putting both cups by the window and covering one with a box would be fairer.

Height in a person or a tree is the classic: parents set a range, food and light decide where in it. Any trait with both parts named.

Damp, dark, cool and food: rotting wood. Any two that a worm needs.

Beetles, worms or mosquitoes in damp mud; anything that does not need deep water. The good answer says what the mud gives it.

Bottom to top: forest, lake, desert, town. The order is the whole answer; the fossils are a bonus.

One fossil can be moved by a bird, a flood or a person; many fossils of many kinds in one layer are hard to explain any other way.

Count for longer, at the same time of year, in the same way, and if possible on a nearby road with no tunnel as a comparison.

Any reasoned note. A strong one says grass is the long-term fix and asks whether something cheap could hold the bank while it grows.

In this table the rainy days were cooler. Two weeks is not enough to be sure; any answer that says why is right.

Their own graph, their own scale. Check that the scale starts at 0 and goes up evenly.

One snowy day is weather. Climate is about many years, so one day cannot tell you it is changing.

A camel can go a long time without water; a polar bear has thick fur and a thick layer of fat. Each trait suits one climate and would be a problem in the other.

Any three clear steps. A child who has been through a real hazard may know more than the page; let them lead if they choose to.

A note with one number from the table as evidence. That is the whole requirement, and it is a high one for Grade 3.

One design from the year, one thing changed (a second clip on the latch, a deeper fold in the bridge, a lighter cloth on the shade), the rest kept the same, and a failure point named before the test, such as the latch staying shut fewer than 8 times out of 10. Mark the plan, not the design.