4th Grade Science Curriculum 2009
Key Concept
Land and Water
Forces and Motion
Magnetism and Electricity
Ecosystems
Essential
Questions
How does the sun's energy and earth's water
create changes in the earth?
What makes objects move the way they do?
How does electrical and magnetic energy
affect our world?
How does matter and energy flow through
ecosystems? How do changes in the
ecosystem affect its health and survival?
Enduring
Understanding
Water has a major role in shaping the earth's
surface.
The position and motion of objects can be
changed by pushing or pulling.
Electrical and magnetic energy can be
transferred and transformed.
All organisms depend on the living and
nonliving features of the environment for
survival.
Unit Objectives
1. Describe the role of the sun’s energy (i.e.,
heating and cooling) in the continuous
cycling of water between the earth and the
atmosphere through evaporation,
condensation and precipitation.
2. Use models to demonstrate that
topography causes precipitation landing on
earth to move in streams and rivers from
higher to lower elevations.
3. Design and conduct simple investigations
to determine how moving water (flowing
downhill or in ocean waves) causes changes
to the land, the coastline or the course of a
stream or river.
4. Pose testable questions and employ simple
equipment and measuring tools to collect
data about factors that affect erosion (e.g.,
type of earth material in an area, volume of
moving water, slope of land, vegetation
coverage).
5. Present evidence to support a scientific
claim about the relationship between the
amount and speed of moving water and the
size of earth materials moved (e.g., silt,
pebbles, boulders).
1. Demonstrate that a force can cause an
object to start moving, stop, or change speed
or direction.
2. Use measurement tools and standard units
to compare and contrast the motion of objects
such as toy cars, balls, model rockets or
planes in terms of change in position, speed
and direction.
3. Design and conduct experiments to
determine how the motion of objects is
related to the mass of the object and the
strength of the force applied.
4. Describe how friction forces caused by air
resistance or interactions between surface
materials affect the motion of objects.
5. Predict the effect of an object’s mass on its
motion.
1. Construct complete (closed) and
incomplete (open) series circuits in which
electrical energy is transformed into heat,
light, sound and/or motion energy.
2. Draw labeled diagrams of complete and
incomplete circuits and explain necessary
components and how components must be
arranged to make a complete circuit.
3. Predict whether diagrammed circuit
configurations will light a bulb.
4. Develop a method for testing conductivity,
and analyze data to generalize about which
materials are good electrical conductors and
which are good insulators.
5. Observe magnetic effects associated with
electricity and investigate factors that affect
the strength of an electromagnet.
6. Describe materials that are attracted by
magnets.
7. Design procedures to move objects and
separate mixtures of solids using magnets.
8. Investigate how magnets react with other
magnets and analyze findings to identify
patterns in the interactions between north and
south poles of magnets.
9. Give examples of uses of magnets (e.g.,
motors, generators, household devices)
Committee Members; Elizabeth Wesolowski, Brooke Ketchum-Grau
1. Give examples of ways that living
and nonliving things are
interdependent within an ecosystem.
2. Draw diagrams showing how the
sun’s energy enters and is transferred
from producers to consumers in a
local land or aquatic food chain.
3. Design and conduct simple
investigations to record interactions
among producers, consumers,
herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and
decomposers in an ecosystem.
4. Analyze food webs to describe how
energy is transferred from plants to
various animals in an ecosystem.
5. Distinguish between naturally
occurring changes in ecosystems and
those caused by human activity.
6. Predict the effect an environmental
change, such as drought or forest
destruction, might have on the
community of living things.
4th Grade Science Curriculum 2009
*** at the end of each lesson, discuss the
relationship between the lesson and the
enduring understanding***
STC Land and Water Unit
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 6
Lesson 7
Lesson 8
Lesson 11
Lesson 13
Lesson 14
*** at the end of each lesson, discuss the
relationship between the lesson and the
enduring understanding***
STC Force and Motion
Lesson 1 & 2 taught together
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6
Lesson 7
Lesson 8
Lesson 9
Lesson 10
Lesson 14
*** at the end of each lesson, discuss the
relationship between the lesson and the
enduring understanding***
Delta Magnetism and Electricity Lessons;
Investigation 1: Parts 1-3 (3-4 class sessions)
Investigation 2: Parts 1-4 (4 class sessions)
Investigation 3: Parts 1-3 (4-5 class sessions)
Investigation 4: Parts 1-3 (4 - 5 sessions)
Follow WebQuest found on
http://knaughton.wordpress.com/4th-gradescience-lessons/
Two class periods:
1st - Choosing individual investigation
question and planning the investigation.
2nd - Completing the investigation and
drawing conclusions. Teacher uses rubric to
score.
***Students should reflect back to their
Journal questions for guidance***
Found within Lesson 14:
Performance Assessment
CMT Embedded Task
http://knaughton.wordpress.com/4th-gradescience-lessons/
Found within WebQuest: Visual Project of
the Food Web and Letter Writing
Unit Vocabulary
water cycle, evaporate, condense,
precipitation, erosion, valley, floodplain,
delta
motion, force, speed, gravity, friction, mass,
inertia, energy
electric current, energy source, battery,
contact, complete (closed) circuit, incomplete
(open) circuit, conductor, insulator, user,
path, generator
ecosystem, organism, abtiotic factors,
nutrient, producer, consumer, herbivore,
carnivore, omnivore, decomposer, food
chain, food web
Supplemental
Resources
The Magic School Bus: Wet All Over, A Book
About the Water Cycle by Scholastic
A Drop of Water by Walter Wick
Forces and Motion by Sally Hewitt,
Forces and Motion: From Push to Shove by
Christopher Cooper,
A Crash Course in Forces and Motion with
Max Axiom, Super Scientist by Emily Sohn,
Extreme Zone: Force and Motion by Paul
Mason
What is Electricity? By Lisa Trumbauer,
Where Does Electricity Come From? By C.
Vance Cast
Amazing Magnetism (Magic School Bus) by
Rebecca Carmi and John Speirs
What Makes a Magnet? By Franklyn M.
Branley
Switch On, Switch Off by Melvin Berger
Food Chain Frenzy (Magic School Bus) By
Anne Capeci
Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth
to Life by Penny Chisholm
Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food
Websby Patricia Lauber
One Day in the Woods by Jean Craighead
George
Desert is Theirs by Byrd Baylor
Gets Eaten: A Book About Food Chains by
Assured
Experiences
Performance
Assessments
See Food Chains/Web Webquest
See Go with the Flow
Committee Members; Elizabeth Wesolowski, Brooke Ketchum-Grau
4th Grade Science Curriculum 2009
Scholastic
Technology
Resources
www.brainpop.com
United Streaming Video: The Sun, Water
Cycles and Climate from the Series"Water
Smart"(includes teacher's guide and video
quiz), United Streaming Viideo: River Flight
(2 parts)
http://www.physics4kids.com/files/motion_f
orce.html
http://www.idahoptv.org/dialogue4kids/seaso
n9/forcesmotion/facts.cfm
http://www.learningscience.org/psc2bmotion
forces.htm
http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/dishitout/inde
x.html
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/#forces
energy
http://www.phun.com
Committee Members; Elizabeth Wesolowski, Brooke Ketchum-Grau
http://www.pge.com/microsite/pge_dgz/wires
/game.html,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ag
es/8_9/science_8_9.shtml
http://www.quia.com/rr/35935.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/podsmission/el
ectricity/annie02.shtml
http://www.engineeringinteract.org/resources
/siliconspies.htm
http://pbskids.org/eekoworld/index.html?load
=environment
http://www.mbgnet.net/ (Look for “What’s it
like where you live?”)
http://www.earthmatters4kids.org/main.html
http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/kids/