Grade 4 Science: energy, waves, Earth features, and engineering design

A taste of a lesson on Speed and kinetic energy

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The 16 topics in Grade 4 Science

Each topic builds on the ones before it. The tutor checks what you already know and starts there.

1. Engineering design: problems, criteria, and constraints

   Teach what an engineering design problem is: a need or want, stated with criteria for success (what the solution must do) and constraints (limits on materials, time, or cost). Students practice writing a simple design problem with clear criteria and constraints and recognize that a good problem statement makes solutions testable. Real understanding means the student can distinguish criteria from constraints in a new example.

2. Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

   Teach independent, dependent, and controlled variables and how to run a fair test by changing only one thing at a time. Cover repeating trials, recording data in tables, and identifying failure points in a model or prototype so the design can be improved. Real understanding means the student can design a fair test for a simple prototype, name its controlled variables, and propose one targeted improvement from the results.

   Builds on Engineering design: problems, criteria, and constraints

3. Generating and comparing multiple solutions

   Teach that engineers brainstorm several possible solutions to one problem, then compare them against the criteria and constraints using a simple decision table or rating. Students learn that the best solution is the one that meets criteria within constraints, not the first idea. Real understanding means the student can list at least three solutions and justify a choice using evidence about how well each meets the criteria and constraints.

   Builds on Engineering design: problems, criteria, and constraints, Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

4. Speed and kinetic energy

   Teach that moving objects have energy of motion (kinetic energy) and that faster objects have more of it. Introduce speed as distance divided by time and show with examples (rolling ramps, moving cars) that a higher speed means more energy. Real understanding means the student can use evidence from a simple experiment, such as a ball rolled down ramps of different heights, to explain the relationship between speed and energy.

   Builds on Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

5. Energy transfer and collisions

   Teach that energy moves from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric current, and that when objects collide, some energy is transferred to the other object and changes its motion, sometimes with sound and heat as well. Students make observations of each transfer type and predict what will happen when objects collide (for example, a moving marble hitting a stationary one). Real understanding means the student can trace an energy transfer in an everyday example and predict outcomes of a collision.

   Builds on Speed and kinetic energy

6. Designing energy conversion devices

   Teach that devices convert energy from one form to another, such as a motor turning electrical energy into motion, a solar cell turning light into electricity, or a generator turning motion into electricity. Students apply energy-transfer and conversion ideas to design, build, test, and refine a simple device, identifying the input and output energy forms. Real understanding means the student can name the energy input and output of a device and use test results to refine it.

   Builds on Engineering design: problems, criteria, and constraints, Fair tests, variables, and improving designs, Generating and comparing multiple solutions, Energy transfer and collisions

7. Rock layers, fossils, and changing landscapes

   Teach that sedimentary rock forms in layers, with the oldest layers usually at the bottom, and that fossils in layers are evidence of organisms that lived in the past and of environments that changed over time. Students use patterns in rock formations and fossils to explain how a landscape changed, for example a layer of seashell fossils showing an area was once under water. Real understanding means the student can read a simple layered cross-section and use it to infer past events in order.

   Builds on Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

8. Weathering and erosion: observation and measurement

   Teach that weathering breaks rock into smaller pieces through physical processes (freezing water, plant roots, wind abrasion) and chemical processes, and that erosion moves the pieces by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. Students make observations and measurements (for example, timing how fast water carries sediment down a tray, or measuring crumbling) to provide evidence of weathering or erosion rates. Real understanding means the student can design a measurement of erosion rate and explain what the data show about the agent of erosion.

   Builds on Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

9. Waves: amplitude, wavelength, and motion

   Teach that waves transfer energy without transferring matter, and describe waves with a model using amplitude (height of the wave from rest position, related to energy) and wavelength (distance between repeating crests or compressions). Show that waves can make objects move, such as a cork bobbing on water or a rope pulse shaking a stick. Real understanding means the student can label amplitude and wavelength on a diagram and explain how changing each affects the wave and what it does to a floating object.

   Builds on Energy transfer and collisions

10. Light, reflection, and how we see

    Teach that we see objects when light from a source reflects off them and enters the eye, and that light travels in straight lines and reflects predictably off smooth surfaces. Students build a model showing light from a source to an object to the eye, and explain why objects in darkness cannot be seen and why shiny or smooth surfaces reflect more light. Real understanding means the student can draw and explain the path of light that lets someone see an object.

    Builds on Waves: amplitude, wavelength, and motion

11. Transferring information with patterns

    Teach that information can be encoded as patterns of waves or signals, such as light flashes, sound pulses, or Morse code, and decoded by a receiver. Students generate multiple ways to send a message using patterns (for example, flashlight codes, flags, or sound signals), and compare them on speed, distance, clarity, and cost. Real understanding means the student can explain how a pattern carries information and justify which signal system best fits a given need.

    Builds on Generating and comparing multiple solutions, Waves: amplitude, wavelength, and motion, Light, reflection, and how we see

12. Animal senses, information, and responses

    Teach that animals receive information through senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste), that sense organs send signals to the brain, which processes them and directs different responses. Students build a simple model (for example, a flow diagram or paper model) showing stimulus, sense organ, brain, and response, and compare how different animals use different senses. Real understanding means the student can trace a signal from a stimulus through the sense organ and brain to a response in a new example.

    Builds on Light, reflection, and how we see

13. Structures that support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction

    Teach that plants and animals have internal and external structures with functions: roots absorb water, leaves make food, bird beaks suit feeding, skeletons and muscles support movement, and flowers or seeds support reproduction. Students build an argument that a given structure helps the organism survive, grow, behave, or reproduce, using evidence from the structure's shape and function. Real understanding means the student can state a structure's function and support a claim with evidence.

    Builds on Fair tests, variables, and improving designs

14. Reading maps: patterns of Earth's features

    Teach how to read topographic and relief maps, including contour lines that show elevation, map keys and symbols, and compass directions. Students analyze data from maps to describe patterns in Earth's features such as mountains, rivers, coastlines, and plains, and where features tend to occur. Real understanding means the student can use a map's key and contour lines to describe where high and low land, rivers, and coasts are located and what pattern they show.

    Builds on Weathering and erosion: observation and measurement

15. Energy resources and environmental effects

    Teach that energy and fuels come from natural resources, including renewable sources (sun, wind, water, geothermal, biomass) and nonrenewable sources (coal, oil, natural gas, uranium). Explain how each is extracted and used and how its use affects the environment, such as air pollution, habitat change, or land disturbance. Students combine information from several sources to describe the tradeoffs. Real understanding means the student can classify a resource as renewable or nonrenewable and describe one environmental effect of its use.

    Builds on Designing energy conversion devices, Reading maps: patterns of Earth's features

16. Natural hazards and reducing their impacts

    Teach common natural Earth processes that threaten people, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides, and tsunamis, and how their patterns (such as where floods or earthquakes occur, shown on maps) can guide planning. Students generate multiple solutions to reduce a hazard's impact on humans, such as levees, building codes, early warning systems, or planting vegetation on slopes, and compare them against criteria and constraints. Real understanding means the student can propose and justify at least two solutions for a given hazard.

    Builds on Generating and comparing multiple solutions, Rock layers, fossils, and changing landscapes, Weathering and erosion: observation and measurement, Reading maps: patterns of Earth's features

Practice questions in Grade 4 Science

A few of the kinds of questions you will work through, with answers.