Grade 4
Social Studies
Unit 4: The Movement of Ideas: Scientific Contributions and Culture
Time Frame: Four weeks
Unit Description
This unit focuses on the national culture of the United States. The unit examines how
dance, music, and arts of various cultures around the world, as well as scientific and
technological advancements, reflect the history of people living in the United States
today. The unit uses skills in historical and geographical analysis to explore the history
and cultures of the United States.
Student Understandings
Students identify cultural elements from around the world, as well as the United States,
and how those cultural elements have contributed to society. They understand significant
historical, scientific, and technological advancements. Students recognize important
historical figures throughout the ages and are able to explain their achievements.
Guiding Questions
1. Can students describe the influence of cultural elements on America’s national
heritage?
2. Can students identify cultural elements, beliefs, and significant historical
achievements of various cultures around the world?
3. Can students identify historical figures and achievements from around the
world and describe the impact of their contributions on society?
Unit 4 Grade-Level Expectations (GLEs)
GLE #
History
62.
63.
64.
GLE Text and Benchmarks
Identify and explain cultural elements that have contributed to our national
heritage (H-1C-E4)
Identify how dance, music, and arts of various cultures around the world reflect
the history, daily life, and beliefs of the people (H-1D-E1)
Identify significant historical achievements of various cultures of the world (e.g.,
building of the pyramids, founding of the Olympics) (H-1D-E1)
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GLE #
65.
66.
67.
GLE Text and Benchmarks
Identify and describe inventions that have affected people’s lives or altered their
view of the world (H-1D-E2)
Identify the chronological order of major scientific or technological advancements
(H-1D-E2)
Identify important historic figures from around the world and explain the impact
of their contributions (e.g., Galileo, Madame Curie, Gutenberg) (H-1D-E3)
Sample Activities
Activity 1: Culture and the National Heritage (GLE: 62)
Materials List: American Culture Opinionnaire BLM, one large envelope per student
group, newspapers, magazines
Review that culture is the language, food, music, customs/celebrations, art, religion, and
folklore of a group of people living in an area. Use the American Culture Opinionnaire
BLM (view literacy strategy descriptions) to force students to take a position on a
statement about American culture and to defend their position. The emphasis is on
student points of view and not the “correctness” of their opinions. Have students work in
pairs to read and discuss each statement, then write down reasons for their opinions.
Statements should be written in such a way as to elicit attitudes and feelings, which in
turn should promote language production, activate relevant prior knowledge, and lead to
engaged reading and listening. Afterward, invite students to share their opinions on each
statement. Force each student to take a stand. Separate students into two groups, those
who agree and those who disagree. Then ask the two groups to briefly debate the
statement and allow for any student who changes his/her mind to move to the other
group. By taking a stand on issues related to culture and engaging in critical discussion
about those issues, students will heighten their expectation of the content and make many
new connections from their opinions and ideas to those of their classmates. After
covering content on American culture, students can revisit their opinionnaires to consider
whether their opinions have changed and why.
Introduce the term time capsule to the students. Arrange students in cooperative groups.
Pass out a large envelope to each group and ask them to fill it with drawings or
newspaper/magazine clippings that would reflect items of America’s national culture
during this time period. Students should also provide a caption for each picture
explaining why the particular item was chosen to reflect this time period. Students should
include a picture of an invention, a style of clothing, the title of a song or type of music,
and an important news event of modern times. Have students share their pictures and
captions with another group and compare what was drawn.
With the students’ pictures, create a timeline that highlights life in the United States, from
the years 1960 through the current date. Each group should contribute one illustration for
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the timeline. Explain that with the students’ help, the class will construct a timeline for
the decades of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and the first decade of the 2000s. Tell
students they will be interviewing a family member, friend, or teacher who lived during
one of these time periods. Through class discussion, have students select the questions
that are most important to ask in the interview. Allow students to include additional
questions if they wish. Sample questions are as follows:
 What kinds of clothes did you wear?
 Which Presidents served during this time period?
 What one event or activity do you remember most?
 Do you think Americans have more or less freedom today than they had then?
Why?
 In your opinion, how has our country changed since then?
 Describe one or two items that were invented during the decade?
 What were the major news events of the decade?
 In your opinion, which event had the biggest impact on our country?
 What types of music were popular?
 What did you do for entertainment?
 How have prices of items changed since then? Provide specific examples.
Have students audiotape their interviews or write answers to interview questions and
write journal entries to summarize answers from their interviews. Have them give oral
summaries of the interviews with accompanying pictures or drawings of some significant
events in these decades. Students will mount pictures and create captions for them so they
can be added to the timeline.
Activity 2: Music and the Arts as Culture (GLEs: 62, 63)
Materials List: research materials on different types of music or visual arts
Have groups of students research different types of music (e.g., jazz, rock and roll, blues)
or some form of visual art, focusing on their origins, diffusion, and impact on American
culture. Have them create some form of artistic representation of each genre to display on
the class timeline. For reference materials on music and visual arts, refer to:
 Instrument Encyclopedia:
http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/instrument/
 History of Jazz:
http://pbskids.org/jazz/
 ThinkQuest Music History:
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/cat_show.html?cat_id=170
 Smithsonian Art:
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/explore_by_topic/everything_art.html
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Activity 3: Historical Achievements (GLE: 64)
Materials List: long strip of art paper, world map
Mount a long strip of art paper along one classroom wall to create an ongoing timeline
for the world. Refer to a world map and have students locate the United States. Remind
students that they have been constructing a timeline of the United States to help them
better understand the heritage of the nation. The world timeline will help illustrate the
important events that shaped the world. Explain to students that this timeline will be used
with the U.S. timeline to give them a perspective of what events were happening in the
world in addition to those occurring in the U.S. Add significant events related to the
topics of study during the school year, as appropriate. On the line, place events and
achievements from ancient Egyptian civilization, the Roman period, the Age of
Exploration, and the present.
Lead a class discussion about ancient Egypt and other civilizations whose
accomplishments are listed on the timeline. Explain that important events will be
recorded on the classroom timeline as they are studied (e.g., building of the pyramids,
founding of the Olympics). Make use of the timeline on a regular basis, adding each
event and person studied. Provide students with personal copies of the class timeline, and
ask them to record events as they are added to the large classroom timeline. For
reference materials on ancient civilizations, refer to:
 Ancient Civilizations:
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/ancientcivilizations.htm
 Ancient History:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/
Activity 4: Culture and Our National Heritage (GLE: 62)
Materials List: research materials on traditions from other countries, poster paper,
PowerPoint®, computers (optional)
Ask students to imagine a salad full of good ingredients. Explain that the culture of our
country is a great deal like a salad full of wonderful items because people in this country
have come here from all over the world. They have brought with them a variety of
traditions including celebrations, food, clothing, and art. Explain that many foods,
celebrations, and sports have their roots in other countries while some began in the
United States.
From student input, create a list of items such as foods, sports, and celebrations. Put
students in partnerships and have each pair research one of the items generated on the list
to determine its country of origin. Each pair of students should create a poster or
PowerPoint® slide that depicts an illustration of the food, sport, or celebration; an outline
of their country; and a world map with their country highlighted in some way to illustrate
its location within the context of the world. Additionally, they should include the time
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period depicting when the item became part of the United States culture. Have each
partnership present its findings to the class. As presentations are made, each student in
the class should complete a table including the name of the cultural element, the name of
the country of its origin, and the date it became part of American culture.
For research materials on traditions from other countries, refer to:
 Culture Quest World Tour:
http://www.ipl.org/youth/cquest/
 Global Gang:
http://www.globalgang.org.uk/reallife/
Activity 5: Historical Achievements (GLEs: 66, 67)
Materials List: teacher-made PowerPoint® or storyboard on Galileo, Curie, and
Gutenberg; research materials on famous figures in history
Have the students create a Walk of Fame that identifies the contributions of famous
important historic figures from around the world and explain the impact of their
contributions (e.g., Galileo, Madame Curie, Gutenberg).
Show a teacher-made PowerPoint® or storyboard to explain how Galileo, Curie, and
Gutenberg made significant historical contributions and why they are regarded as famous
figures in history. For reference materials on these historic contributions, refer to:
 Galileo Galilei PowerPoint:
http://qoptics.byu.edu/Physics471/Presentations/Galileo.ppt
 Madame Marie Curie PowerPoint:
http://tclauset.org/cpg132/albums/FTPupLoads/PPT_05/MCurie_ClaireG.ppt
 Johannes Gutenberg:
http://www.mainz.de/gutenberg/english/index.htm
Have the students work in pairs to research the life of one of the individuals from the list
below or another significant historical figure of their choosing.
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Alfred Nobel
Amelia Earhart
George Washington
Carver
Andrew Carnegie
Thomas Edison
Bill Gates
James Watt
Christa McAuliffe
Louis Braille
Susan B. Anthony
Eli Whitney
Wright Brothers
Leonardo Da Vinci
Levi Strauss
John J. Audubon
Duke Ellington
Harriet Tubman
Sir Isaac Newton
Refer to the following websites for research material:
 List of Inventions and Inventors:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/
 Cybersleuth Inventors:
http://cybersleuth-kids.com/sleuth/Science/Inventors/
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

Bios for Kids:
http://www.biography.com/bio4kids/bio4kids-meet.jsp
America’s Story:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa
Have the students share the results of their research in class. Their research should
include the following:
 name of the historical figure
 year of birth and year of death
 picture of the historical figure
 country of origin
 summary of their accomplishments
 impact of their contribution to society
Based on the historical figures researched, create a class timeline, sequencing in
chronological order the major cultural contributions made. (Note: Modify the United
States timeline created for the decades, adding more room for the time periods before the
1960s.)
Activity 6: Historical Achievement-Electricity (GLE: 65)
Materials List: chart paper, How Electricity Changed the Day BLM
Ask students to imagine what life was probably like without electricity. Lead the students
in brainstorming (view literacy strategy descriptions) about the activities of pioneer life
and list them in the How Electricity Changed the Day BLM indicating how daily tasks
have changed with the widespread use of electricity. A sample of the How Electricity
Changed the Day BLM is below.
ACTIVITIES DURING PIONEER LIFE
Maintaining a heating stove
HOW ELECTRICITY CHANGED THE
ACTIVITIES
Electrically operated furnace made heating
automatic
Chopping raw vegetables with knife
Washing dishes in a pan
Sleeping in a cold bed in an unheated room
Activity 7: Historical Achievements-Inventions (GLEs: 65, 66)
Materials List: research materials on different inventions, Archeology Process Guide
BLM
Allow students to choose one item from the list below. It is not necessary that all be used
if the number of items does not match the number of students in the class. Refer to the
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following website for information on various inventions:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/.
light bulb
oil drill
digital video recorder
television
Levi jeans
cell phone
airplane
automobile
camera
steel plow
telegraph
satellite television
sewing machine
streetcar
telephone
personal computer
combine
elevated electric railroad
bicycle
elevator
alkaline battery
X-ray machine
radio
gaming system (Play Station)
mp3 player
safety pin
icrowave
Ask students to research and report on the inventions to find answers to the following
questions:
 Who invented it?
 When was it invented?
 Where was it invented?
 How does the invention work?
 What need prompted the invention?
 How has the invention evolved today?
 How has the invention impacted life in America?
 What did the original invention look like? (Include diagram, drawing, or
picture.)
Have students put the illustrations and titles of inventions on a timeline after the research
and reports are completed. Students will keep a bulleted chronological list of inventions
and dates in their social studies logs/journals.
After students have completed their research, present students with the Archeology
Process Guide BLM (view literacy strategy descriptions). To complete this process
guide, students must be able to think at an applied level. Instead of requiring literal level
processing, the students must demonstrate that they can manipulate their learning about
scientific achievements. The Archeology Process Guide BLM presents students with an
excavation scenario. Students must place artifacts in order from various periods of
history based on how they would have been deposited in layers of rock over time.
Sample Assessments
General Guidelines


Students should be monitored throughout the work on all activities via teacher
observation, log/data collection entries, report writing, group work, and journal
entries.
All student-developed projects and student investigations should be evaluated as
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

the unit progresses. When possible, students should assist in developing any
rubrics that will be used.
Use a variety of performance assessments to determine student comprehension.
Select assessments consistent with the types of products that result from the
student activities.
General Assessments



Given a sentence strip or strip of poster paper about a yard long, students will
create a timeline for the United States reflecting major scientific and
technological advancements as well as cultural elements from each time period.
Students will focus on two-to-three consecutive decades. Upon completion of the
timeline, students should write a reflection describing how times changed from
the time period at the beginning of their timeline to the time period at the end.
Students will create picture books of the decades 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990
based on the reports written from the interviews and information from the
timeline. Students will compile the information from their interviews to create the
text. Then students should create illustrations to accompany the text.
Have students work in partnerships to create a collage with ten illustrations and
captions depicting our culture. These may be fashions, popular songs, inventions,
etc. Upon completion of the collage, students justify in writing why they chose
their ten items to best reflect our way of life.
Activity-Specific Assessments

Activity 1: Have students work in partnerships with another student who
researched a decade different from theirs. Have them create a Venn diagram to
compare and contrast the decades. Following this comparison, have students
independently write essays describing similarities and differences between the
two decades.

Activity 6: Using their charts from this activity, have students write a diary entry
from the viewpoint of a pioneer student. Have them use key events that would
illustrate what life was like without electricity.

Activity 7: Have students choose ten items from a list of inventions. Students are
to create a timeline depicting the order in which the inventions were discovered or
created.
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Resources
Books
If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine and Wayne Parmenter
Journey to Ellis Island by Carol Bierman, Laurie McGaw, and Barbara Hehner
Thomas Alva Edison: Young Inventor by Louis Sabin
When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and P.J. Lynch
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