4th Grade Science

Unit 1: ENERGY

• Students explain energy exists in many forms (i.e., light, sound, heat, and electrical).

• Students know changes in energy can cause changes in motion (e.g., adding energy can cause some things to move or some things to move faster).

• Students infer how energy can change form and be transferred in various ways between objects (e.g., sound from a radio, sound causing objects to vibrate, light from a flashlight, the sun heating a window pane, currents to electronic devices, and electric currents being used to produce motion or light).

• Simple circuits include a source (battery or other energy source), energy user (a light bulb or other device that uses energy), and an energy pathway or circuit (conducting wires that connect the two terminals of the battery). 

• Students know circuits are the pathway for energy flow.

• Students know circuits can be open or closed.

  1. Energy only flows in closed circuits.

  2. Energy flow can be interrupted when the circuit is opened (e.g., with a switch or disconnecting the energy source)

• Students recognize that electrical energy in a circuit can be transformed into other forms of energy (e.g., heat, light, sound, motion).

• Students know electrical energy can be transferred through certain materials (conductors- e.g., copper, aluminum, iron, steel, gold and silver).

• Students know that some materials do not allow energy to flow through them (insulators- e.g., glass, air, cotton, plastic, rubber, and wood). 

• Students classify good conductors and poor conductors (insulators) of electricity.

Questions to ask your child:

• How would you describe energy? (4.P.3)

• What are some ways that energy interacts with matter? (4.P.3)

• How can energy cause motion and/or create change? (4.P.3.1)

• How might you compare forms of energy? (4.P.3.1)

• How do electric circuits work? (4.P.3.1)

• What happens when light touches/strikes an object? (4.3.2)

Unit 5: Earth's Systems

ESS.4.2.1

• Students know matter has observable properties that can be measured and described based on its characteristics (e.g., strength, hardness, flexibility, ability to conduct heat, ability to be attracted by a magnet, reactions to water (dissolve) and heat/fire (melt/evaporate).

• Students know minerals can be identified using particular tests (e.g. hardness, streak). 

• Students describe the color, luster, and cleavage of a mineral.

• Students classify minerals based on physical properties.

ESS.4.2.2

• Students know:

  • Igneous rocks are formed from molten rock. 

  • Sedimentary rocks are formed from deposited rock particles (sediments) that are then compacted. 

  • Igneous and sedimentary rocks can be transformed into metamorphic rocks through the application of heat and pressure over long periods of time.

• Students classify rocks as metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary.

• Students know these classifications are based on the processes that created the rock. 

ESS.4.2.3

• Students know Earth materials include rocks, minerals, soil and water.

• Students explain Earth’s surface is made of rock and soil and it changes over time.

• Students explain how Earth’s surface changes over time due to weathering (wind and water- including ice, and chemicals breaking down rock) and erosion (carrying earth materials from one place to another). 

• Students know changes in the Earth’s surface may be slow or rapid, subtle or drastic and include:

  • Landslides which occur when gravity causes large sections of soil and rock to move suddenly down an incline.

  • Volcanic eruptions which are openings in the Earth’s crust that release hot gases and magma when they erupt. 

  • Earthquakes which occur when large masses of rock move beneath the surface causing the ground to shake.

• Students know volcanoes and earthquakes are often found along the boundaries between continents and oceans.

Questions to ask your child:

• What are some physical properties of the minerals? (e.g., color, hardness, luster, etc.) 

• What are some similarities and differences among the minerals? (e.g., same hardness, or streak). 

• How do size and shape affect color or streak? (e.g., it does not affect color or streak).

• If Mineral Sample one scratches Mineral Sample two, we know that Mineral Sample one is (harder) than Mineral Sample two.

• Provide a collection of various rocks to students. Ask-What is one way you could classify or group these rocks? 

• Describe the attributes (characteristics) you are using to sort or classify the rocks. (e.g., size, shape, color, composition, etc.)

• How can a small change to _________ have a big effect on __________? (e.g. the temperature, rock type (e.g. melting rock can form new igneous rocks). Pressure, rock type (e.g., pressure applied to sedimentary rock- limestone may turn it into metamorphic rock -marble)

• What are the key parts of the formation of _________? (e.g,. igneous rocks = magma, heat, melting; sedimentary rocks = pressure, various particles/sediments; metamorphic rocks = heat and pressure. 

• What are the key parts in the formation of rock? (e.g. pressure, heat, time, water, minerals). 

• How does water change the Earth's surface? (e.g., washes away soil and sediment to other areas, erodes earth’s surface)

• What evidence is there to support the claim that ice causes change? (e.g., repetitive freezing and thawing can cause rocks to crack-weathering; large glaciers can carve out valleys in the landscape over time)

• What are changes that happen slowly? (e.g., weathering-such as water dissolving minerals or physically breaking down rocks when water freezes and thaws on and in the cracks of rocks). 

• What are changes that happen rapidly? (e.g., volcanic eruptions, landslides, earthquakes) 

• How does/do ______ change the Earth's surface? (e.g., weathering- breaks down earth’s surface; erosion-carries weathered material away).

Unit 6: Biological Evolution (fossils)

• Students know fossils are evidence of living organisms (plants and/or animals) that once existed on Earth.

• Students know fossils (molds, casts, preserved parts of plants and animals) share some characteristics based on where, how, and from what they formed (e.g. certain plants and animals left behind impression fossils versus others that had their skeletons fossilized). 

• Students compare fossils to find similarities and differences in fossil characteristics.

• Students know some organisms that lived long ago are similar to existing organisms, while others are quite different (e.g., ancient alligators, crocodiles, and mollusks are still very similar to the animals we see now, but present day mammals look very different than their predecessors). 

• Students infer organisms that are alive today, under the right conditions, will leave fossil evidence (e.g. right conditions include a plant and animal being quickly buried by sediment or preserved in certain environments- peat bogs). 

• Students know fossils provide information about the environmental conditions that existed when the fossil organism was alive, as well as information about where, when and how, the organism lived.

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Questions to ask your child:

• What can fossils tell us about the environment of a certain area in the past? ?(e.g. it may have once been an aquatic environment if fossilized marine organisms are found there today.)

• If fossilized dragonflies had similar body structures to a modern day dragonfly what type of environment would you infer that the fossilized dragonflies lived in? (e.g. an environment similar to modern day). 

• How is ____________ changing over time? (e.g. the environment - the present day coastal plain  of North Carolina used to be underwater which is why Megalodon teeth and ancient whales can be found there) 

• What is one way you could classify or group these ________ (fossils), to create groups of _________ (animals or plants) that are similar to each other? Describe the attributes (characteristics) you are using to classify the __________ (fossils).

Unit 7: From Molecules to Organisms

• Students will be able to explain what a habitat is. 

• Students know that animals have behaviors in response to their environments and these behaviors help them survive  (e.g., migration or hibernation helps an animal to stay alive when food is scarce).

• Students describe how different animals respond to changes in environmental conditions (e.g., light, temperature, danger).

• Students identify and describe the functions of external structures. (e.g., structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, pollen, claws, horns, fur) on selected plants and animals.

• Students make a claim about the external structures that aid in survival of organisms (e.g., Plants- thorns for protection; roots to anchor the plant and obtain water to support growth; waxy coating to prevent water loss from plants; methods of seed dispersal- water, wind, relying on other organisms; Animals- sharp horns for defense; thick fur or blubber in Arctic/Antarctic areas for warmth; long claws for digging or climbing). 

• Students know the physical features of plants and animals are suited to the environments in which they live.

Questions to ask your child:

• Draw the parts of the system described in the scenario (e.g., stimuli, animal’s response). 

• How do the parts of [organism described in the scenario] work together? (e.g., animal uses sense, send information to the brain, animal responds).

• What part of the system does the model show? Why are these parts shown?

• Why do animals respond to stimuli? (i.e., to survive).

• What are examples of stimuli in an environment that an animal would respond to? (e.g., light, sound, smell, movement, touch) 

• Compare how two different animals respond to similar stimuli (e.g. temperature - reptiles and mammals and internal temperature regulation). Reptiles (lizards, turtles, snakes) are ectotherms, meaning they cannot generate their own body heat but instead must move to a warm/sunny spot to absorb heat from the environment in order to have energy to digest food, etc. Mammals (humans, rabbits, dolphins/whales, bears, etc.) are endotherms, meaning they can generate their own body heat and do not have to warm up in order to digest food, etc. They may be active in colder temperatures than reptiles).

• What are the specific structures of a given animal? (e.g. eyes, beaks, feathers, fur, claws, webbed feet, etc.) 

• What are the variations of structures in a given animal? (e.g. birds have beaks, feathers, and wings where mammals have fur, claws, and teeth).

• How does variation provide an advantage for an organism? (i.e., aid in survival)

• How does the environment impact which characteristics provide an advantage to a given animal? (e.g., certain moth species that adapted to have unique coloration for better camouflage are now becoming easier for predators to find due to certain tree species dying out; animals that have previously adapted to a pattern of colder, snowier weather (e.g. snowshoe hares or weasels changing their fur color to white in the winter to better camouflage in snow, will be at a disadvantage if the climate warms and there is less/no snow in winter). 

Unit 8: Earth & Human Activity

Questions to ask your child: