Major Units of Fourth Grade
Forces and Motion
Focus
• Investigate how things move, change direction or speed • Use a triple beam balance accurately • Identify simple machines • Determine how simple machines use motion to make work easier • Demonstrate the effect of gravity on the motion of an object • Determine relationship between force and size, speed, or direction on motion • Reduce friction to enhance efficiency • Participate in many experiments to test Newton’s laws of motion • Graph results of multiple experiments to see change in motion and momentum |
Sound, Light and the Senses
Focus
• Research, record, and share information about sound and light • Identify materials as transparent, opaque, or translucent • Use a mirror and light source to show reflection patterns • Identify the attributes and use of convex lens, concave lens and prism • Create water lens (refraction) and pinhole (diffraction) lens • Use a model to explain why the sky is blue and why sunsets are more orange that the mid-day sun. • Recognize that sound is produced by vibrations • Recognize conditions that cause sound to vary • Demonstrate changes of pitch • Use a compression cannon to learn about compression waves and drag. • Conduct multiple hands-on experiments to experience how all of our senses work |
Robotics
Focus
• Organize, sort, and maintain the MindStorm Lego parts and materials in an efficient manner • Program the MindStorm operating system to accomplish individual and multistep robotic movement including saving and recording of results and modifying instructions • Think ahead and plan computer programming to accomplish goals of robotic vehicle turns and movement • Program their computer to driver their vehicle around obstacles and predetermined paths. • Engineer and build many vehicle designs to accomplish goals of strength, speed, and maneuverability • Learn how their robots’ incorporation of sensors, gears, traction, and shape will help it achieve specific goals • Work cooperatively to problem solve during the design, programming, engineering, and testing phases of the project |
Stars and the Solar System
Focus
• Research, record, and share information about the planets and constellations • Observe stars in night sky and various resources • Compare number, color, size and position of stars • Identify constellations as patterns of stars • Compare planets and stars in number, appearance, position • Develop models of planets according to relative size and order from the sun • Relate models to explanations of Earth/moon/sun in day/night cycle, phases of the moon, and seasonal changes on Earth • Create a model of meteorite/asteroid impacts on the Moon • Create a model of Jovian laminar flow • Develop and present their own legend about a constellation |
Weather
Focus
• Identify solid, liquid, gas as states of water • Recognize the temperature at which water changes state • Investigate how clouds are formed • Collect and analyze weather data to determine patterns • Use weather data to predict weather • Use weather instruments to collect data • Use weather maps and weather symbols to communicate data |
Ecology and Genetics
Focus
• Identify roles of consumers, producers, and decomposers • Illustrate food chains and food webs • Identify ways adaptation can help organisms survive • Recognize and define genetic traits • Understand the difference between a learned behavior and an inherited trait • Predict how changes in an environment will effect a community • Predict the effects on a population if there are too many or a scarcity of some animals or plants • Identify factors leading to extinction |