4th Grade Standards

Physical Sciences

4.P.1 Understand how various forces affect the motion of an object.

• PS.4.1.1 Ask questions to summarize the relationship of magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

• PS.4.1.2 Carry out investigations to explain how electrically charged objects push or pull on other objects to produce motion.

PS.4.2 Understand that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

• PS.4.2.1 Ask questions to identify basic forms of energy (light, sound, heat, and electrical) that cause motion or create change.

• PS.4.2.2 Use models to explain a simple electrical circuit and the necessary components.

• PS.4.2.3 Carry out investigations on common materials to classify them as insulators or conductors of electricity.

PS.4.3 Understand the nature of light and how light interacts with objects.

• PS.4.3.1 Carry out investigations to infer the path light travels from a light source to a mirror and how it is reflected (by the mirror) using different angles.

• PS.4.3.2 Carry out investigations to explain how light is refracted and absorbed.

Life Sciences

LS.4.1 Understand the effects of environmental changes, adaptations, and behaviors that enable organisms to survive in changing habitats.

• LS.4.1.1 Use models to explain that plants and animals have external structures that function to support survival.

• LS. 4.1.2 Use models to explain that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information, and respond to the information in different ways.

• LS.4.1.3 Engage in argument from evidence to explain how differences among animals of the same population sometimes gives individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing in changing habitats.

LS.4.2 Understand the use of fossils as evidence of the history of Earth and its changing life forms.

• LS.4.2.1 Analyze and interpret data to compare fossils to one another and living organisms.

• LS.4.2.2 Analyze and interpret data to explain how fossils suggest ideas about Earth's early environment.

Earth Sciences

ESS.4.1 Understand the causes of day and night and phases of the moon.

• ESS.4.1.1 Use models to explain the cause of day and night based on the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

• ESS.4.1.2 Use models to explain the repeating pattern of the phases of the moon (new, crescent, quarter, gibbous, and full).

ESS.4.2 Understand patterns of change in the Earth's surface over time.

• ESS.4.2.1 Carry out investigations to classify minerals using tests for the physical properties of hardness, color, luster, cleavage and streak.

• ESS.4.2.2 Carry out investigations to classify rocks as metamorphic, sedimentary, or igneous based on their composition, how they are formed, and the processes that create them.

• ESS.4.2.3 Use models to explain changes in Earth's surface over time (to include slow changes of erosion and weathering, and fast changes of earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity).

ESS.4.3 Understand changes caused by human impact on the environment.

• ESS.4.3.1 Ask questions to infer whether changes in an organism's environment are beneficial or harmful.

• ESS.4.3.2 Engage in argument from evidence to explain how humans can adapt their behavior to live in changing

• environments (e.g. recycling wastes, establishing rain gardens, planting native species to prevent flooding and erosion).

• ESS.4.3.3 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to compare solutions to environmental problems impacting plants and animals.