Narrative and Rationale: The three bundles in this Grade 4 model are characterized by the overarching theme that students can find evidence of patterns and systems throughout the natural and designed world. Each bundle also relates to energy transfer, as students begin to learn about the concept of energy in colliding objects and the role of energy in a large system early in the year, and then apply that knowledge to information transfer and to different Earth systems later in the year. Cognitive demand increases as the year progresses, with the expectations that students will become more adept at using the science and engineering practices and the crosscutting concepts. The instruction begins with concrete, familiar experiences and moves to more abstract learning. Note that the practices and crosscutting concepts described are intended as end-of-instructional unit expectations and not curricular designations – additional practices and crosscutting concepts should be used throughout instruction in each bundle. 

4th grade Thematic Model NGSS

Alternatively, consider the 4th Grade Topics Model.

Narrative and Rationale: The five bundles in this Grade 4 model all have a particular topical focus. Bundle 1 focuses on organism structure and function and information processing. In Bundle 2, the abstract concept of energy transfer is introduced alongside a focus on information transfer. Bundle 3 extends the study of energy to include cause and effect relationships between energy and collisions. In Bundle 4, students are introduced to waves and their properties. The idea that waves can cause objects to move can be used to facilitate student understanding of the scale of the rate of weathering or erosion in certain environments. Bundle 5 builds on the third grade focus on force to facilitate students’ understanding of Earth systems and their processes of change. Opportunities also exist to connect back to concepts of energy transfer introduced earlier in the year. There are a variety of opportunities to incorporate the 3–5 engineering design performance expectations throughout the year. Although these performance expectations are included in this 4th grade model, they will be fully assessable at the end of grade five. The science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts in the fourth grade performance expectations enable students to develop a concrete understanding of phenomena associated with energy transfer.

What is the Thematic Model? In the thematic model, bundles are created to support a given theme.  The theme increases in depth and complexity throughout the school year.

What is the Topic Model? In the topic model, each bundle has a separate but related topic.

The example bundles are not intended to represent the only ways to organize courses, but rather to provide some well thought out, concrete examples of what bundles might look like.

From NGSS:

For each grade, two different examples are provided to motivate users to compare the different examples and think about what works in their local context:

• For each grade K-5, an example is provided that organizes the bundles based on the Topics arrangement of the NGSS and one that focuses on a particular theme that builds across each year.