Virginia SOL 3.1.b.iii

Science3rd GradeScientific and Engineering Practices

The Standard

estimate length, mass, volume, and temperature

Virginia Standards of Learning for Science · The student will demonstrate an understanding of scientific and engineering practices by

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students make reasonable estimates of length, mass, volume, and temperature before using measuring tools. They choose a suitable unit and use familiar objects or values as benchmarks.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students give an estimate with a unit and explain the benchmark they used. Their estimates are close enough to the measured values to be reasonable.
Common Misconceptions: Students may guess without using a benchmark or leave units off their answers. They may confuse mass with volume or choose unreasonable units, such as centimeters for a classroom's length.
How to Assess It: Show a water bottle, book, pencil, and cup of warm water. Ask students to estimate one relevant measurement for each and name the benchmark they used.

Lesson moves

Set up stations with a string, bag of cubes, filled jar, and water cup, then have students estimate each measurement before checking.
Ask students to write which benchmark would help estimate a desk's length, an apple's mass, a bottle's volume, and room temperature.
Play Benchmark Match by having teams pair measurement cards with reasonable estimates, then explain and revise any mismatches.
Plan a picnic by estimating the cooler's volume, food mass, table length, and outdoor temperature using pictures and familiar benchmarks.

Keep exploring

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