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This year in fourth grade STEM, we will hopefully cover these topics (time-dependent):
Solidify decimal understanding including number lines, rounding, adding/subtracting, solving word problems, etc.
Through investigation, students will build an understanding of our "powers of 10" place value system and scientific notation, exploring logarithmic scales while extending their understanding of decimal operations.
Connection of our Hands-On Equations learning from last year to creating visual set-ups to reflect situations and solve them (these are called verbal equations)
Using an investigative method, students will be determining the formulas for the area of parallelograms, trapezoids and triangles and then apply those formulas to solve complex problems. We will also extend this unit to learn about circles.
Hands-On Equations Level 2 introduces the concept of "opposite of x" or -x.
Our engineering (forces & structures) unit will:
explore the concepts of structure, strength and stability and the facts that affect them
determine the importance of form, function, strength, and stability in structures through time.
investigate strong and stable structures to determine how their design and materials enable them to perform their load-bearing function.
learn and use appropriate science and technology vocabulary including compression, tension, torsion, shearing, strength and stability in oral and written communication.
identify properties of materials that need to be considered when building structures.
investigate through experimentation the effects of pushing, pulling and other forces on the shape and stability of simple structures.
use technological problem-solving skills and knowledge acquired from previous investigations to design and build a strong and stable structure that serves a purpose.
learn the geometry of structures
introduce scale and basic architectural concepts through simple scale drawing exercises.
measure drawings of famous landmarks and redraw them in a different scale.
create a scale drawing of a hallway in their school and/or room in their home
research, design and build a 3-D scale model of a Chicago building.
We will solidify our understanding of fractions as well, through conceptual-based math lessons from "Mindset Math."
We will use Turing Tumbles to practice logical thinking!
We will also continue our practice with and assessment of problem-solving strategies using CML (Continental Mathematics League).
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