Grade 4
The Amplify Science grade 4 program progressively builds students’ abilities to meet all the grade-level performance expectations through a three-dimensional instructional sequence. The following is an overview of the sequence of units, a description of the progression of student learning across the year, and a summary of how the sequence meets all performance expectations for grade 4.
Sequence of units
- Energy Conversions
- Vision and Light
- Earth’s Features
- Waves, Energy, and Information
Energy Conversions
The fictional town of Ergstown experiences frequent blackouts.
Students take on the role of systems engineers for Ergstown, a fictional town that experiences frequent blackouts, and explore reasons why an electrical system can fail. Students apply what they learned as they choose new energy sources and energy converters for the town, then write arguments for why their design choices will make the town’s electrical system more reliable.
- 4-PS3-1: Relationship Between Speed and Energy
- 4-PS3-2: Energy can be Transferred
- 4-PS3-4: Design an Energy Converter
- 4-ESS3-1: Energy and Fuels
- 3-5-ETS1-1: Defining the Problem
- 3-5-ETS1-2: Developing Possible Solutions
- 3-5-ETS1-3: Improving Designs
- 4-PS3-3: Collisions
- 4-ESS3-2: Earth and Human Activity
Vision and Light
The population of Tokay geckos in a rain forest in the Philippines has decreased since the installation of new highway lights.
As conservation biologists, students work to figure out why a population of Tokay geckos has decreased since the installation of new highway lights in the rain forest. Students use their understanding of vision, light, and information processing to figure out why an increase in light in the geckos’ habitat is affecting the population.
- 4-PS4-2: Light is Necessary for Sight
- 4-LS1-1: Internal and External Structures
- 4-LS1-2: Patterns to Transfer Information
Earth’s Features
A mysterious fossil is discovered in a canyon within the fictional Desert Rocks National Park.
Playing the role of geologists, students help the director of Desert Rocks National Park explain how and when a particular fossil formed and how it came to be in its current location. Students figure out what the environment of the park was like in the past and why it has so many visible rock layers.
- 4-ESS1-1: Landscape Changes
- 4-ESS2-1: Evidence of Weathering or Erosion
- 4-ESS2-2: Patterns of Earth’s Features
- 4-ESS3-1: Energy and Fuels
- 4-ESS3-2: Reduce Impacts of Earth Processes
Waves, Energy, and Information
Mother dolphins in the fictional Blue Bay National Park seem to be communicating with their calves when they are separated at a distance underwater.
In their role as marine scientists, students work to figure out how mother dolphins communicate with their calves. They write a series of scientific explanations with diagrams to demonstrate their growing understanding of how sound waves travel. Then they apply what they’ve learned about waves, energy, and patterns in communication to figure out how to create patterns that can communicate information over distances. As they solve these problems, students construct a foundational understanding of how waves transfer information from one place to another.
- 4-PS3-2 Energy Can Be Transferred
- 4-PS3-3: Collisions
- 4-PS4-1: Waves
- 4-PS4-3: Patterns to Transfer Information
- 4ESS3-2: Reduce Impacts of Earth Processes
- 4-LS1-2: Info, Senses and the Brain
- 3-5-ETS1-2: Developing Possible Solutions
- 3-5-ETS1-3: Improving Designs