Science - 4th Grade

Avon Lake Curriculum Framework

SCIENCE  •  GRADE 4

 

Content Overview: 

Students use evidence and models to explain structures and information processing in organisms, energy transfer and conversion, processes that shape Earth, and wave patterns used to transfer information. 3-5-ETS1-1 through 3-5-ETS1-3 are integrated across engineering and design tasks.

 

Resources:

TCI Bring Science Alive! Exploring Science Practices 

 

Assessments: 

TCI Unit Checkpoints and Performance Assessments; investigation evidence; models and data analysis; written explanations/arguments; engineering design tasks; NGSS-designed unit tests.

 

Standards/Learning Goals 

Unit 1 Plant and Animal Structures

  • 4-LS1-1 — Construct an argument that internal and external structures support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

  • 4-LS1-2 — Use a model to explain how animals receive sensory information, process it, and respond.

  • Science Practice — Use models and evidence to connect structure to function within plant and animal systems.

Unit 2  Energy

  • 4-PS3-1 — Use evidence to relate an object’s speed to its energy.

  • 4-PS3-2 / 4-PS3-3 — Investigate energy transfer by sound, light, heat, and electric currents and predict energy changes during collisions.

  • 4-PS3-4 / 4-ESS3-1 — Design, test, and refine an energy-conversion device and describe how energy/fuel resources affect the environment.

Unit 3 Earth’s Changing Surface

  • 4-ESS1-1 — Use rock formations and fossils as evidence for changes in landscapes over time.

  • 4-ESS2-1 / 4-ESS2-2 — Measure effects of weathering/erosion and analyze maps for patterns in Earth’s features.

  • 4-ESS3-2 — Generate and compare solutions that reduce impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

Unit 4 Waves and Information

  • 4-PS4-1 — Develop a model of wave patterns using amplitude and wavelength and show that waves can cause objects to move.

  • 4-PS4-3 — Generate and compare solutions that use patterns to transfer information.