Grade 3 Engineering & Physics

32 of 36 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: Forces and Machines

• MUST COVER 1.1 Newton’s First Law: Why a Heavy Train Is Hard to Stop · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.2 Pulleys and the Portsmouth Block Mills · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.3 Gears and the Antikythera Mechanism · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.4 Archimedes’ Water Screw · unit test

Unit 2: Bridges

• MUST COVER 2.1 Compression and Tension: The Inca Grass Bridge · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.2 Beams and Spans: The Covered Bridges of New England · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.3 Roman Arches and the Keystone · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.4 The Roeblings and the Brooklyn Bridge · unit test

Unit 3: Buildings

• MUST COVER 3.1 The Great Pyramid: The Strength of a Wide Base · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.2 Gothic Cathedrals and Flying Buttresses · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.3 The Eiffel Tower: Iron Lace in the Wind · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.4 The Steel Frame: Chicago’s First Skyscraper · unit test

Unit 4: Electricity and Magnets

• MUST COVER 4.1 Series and Parallel: Why Edison Wired Houses in Parallel · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.2 Stephen Gray Discovers Conductors and Insulators · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.3 William Gilbert, Magnets and the Compass · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.4 Samuel Morse and the Telegraph · unit test

Unit 5: Water, Power and Telephones

• MUST COVER 5.1 Clean Water: The Croton Aqueduct and the Sand Filter · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.2 Sewers: Chicago Lifts Its Streets · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.3 From the Power Plant to Your Outlet · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.4 Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone · unit test

Unit 6: Boats and Ships

• MUST COVER 6.1 Density and Buoyancy: Brunel’s Iron Ship · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.2 Sails and the Clipper Ship Flying Cloud · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.3 Paddle Wheels, Propellers and Newton’s Third Law · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.4 John Smeaton’s Lighthouse and the Light That Guides Ships · unit test

Unit 7: Flight

• MUST COVER 7.1 Air Pressure: The Magdeburg Hemispheres and a Stomp Rocket · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.2 George Cayley and How a Wing Makes Lift · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.3 Otto Lilienthal’s Gliders and the Secret of Balance · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.4 The Wright Brothers Twist Their Wings · unit test

Unit 8: Robots and Inventions

• MUST COVER 8.1 Sense, Think, Act: Sojourner on Mars · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.2 Ada Lovelace and Loops · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.3 Levers and Tendons: Building a Helping Hand · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.4 Abraham Lincoln’s Patent and Our Invention Fair · unit test

Unit 9: Toy Lab: The Physics of Play OPTIONAL unit

• OPTIONAL 9.1 Inside the Etch A Sketch: Strings, Pulleys and Two Knobs
• OPTIONAL 9.2 Newton’s Cradle: Passing the Push
• OPTIONAL 9.3 The Gyroscope Top: Why Spinning Things Stay Up
• OPTIONAL 9.4 A. C. Gilbert’s Erector Set: Building with Girders and Bolts

From the course’s own 36-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Grading: Builds (effort, fair testing and the improve round) 40%, Engineer’s notebook (predictions, data tables, sketches) 20%, Unit reviews 15%, Portfolio builds 25%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69. Below 60: redo the build or the review together.