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Grade 3 · STEM Skills and Connections · Test, Debug, and Refine

Debug a Pollinator Path

Testing reveals whether a design or program behaves as intended. Debugging means finding the cause of a problem and changing the solution carefully.

Visual model

See how the ideas connect

Look · connect · explain
Start at the centre. Follow each line and explain how that idea belongs to Test, Debug, and Refine.

For students

Notice, predict, explain

Choose one part of the model. Predict how it connects to another part, then use the lesson evidence to explain your thinking.

For teachers

Pause for science talk

Show the model before the explanation. Ask “What do you notice?” and “What might change?” Then revisit student ideas after the worked example.

The big idea

Improvement depends on evidence from testing

A useful test has a clear goal and records what actually happens. Changing one part at a time helps show whether the revision solved the problem.

Work it through

Repair a route across a grid

  1. Step 1 Draw a grid with a bee, two flowers, and obstacles that cannot be crossed.
  2. Step 2 Write a sequence of moves and turns intended to visit both flowers.
  3. Step 3 Trace every instruction exactly, then locate the first step where the route fails.
  4. Step 4 Change that step, run the entire route again, and explain how the evidence supports the revision.