Grade 4 Science Vermont standards Standards

Engineering Design

Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Earth's Place in the Universe

Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

Earth's Systems

Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth's features.

Earth and Human Activity

Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Use a model to describe that animals' receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Energy

Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.

Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.

Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

Economics

Civics, Government and Society

Physical and Cultural Geography

History

Conducting Research

Research Plan

Hypothesis/Research Statement

Social and Historical Questioning

Inquiry

Students initiate an inquiry by…

Students show understanding of past, present and future time by…

Students interpret geography and solve geographic problems by…

Students show understanding of human interaction with the environment over time by…

Students analyze how and why cultures continue and change over time by…

Students act as citizens by…

Students show understanding of various forms of government by…

Students examine how different societies address issues of human interdependence by…

Students examine how access to various institutions affects justice, reward, and power by…

Students show an understanding of the interaction/interdependence between humans, the environment, and the economy by…

Students show understanding of the interconnectedness between government and the economy by…

Students develop a hypothesis, thesis, or research statement by…

Students make economic decisions as a consumer, producer, saver, investor, and citizen by…

Students design research by…

Asking relevant and focusing questions based on what they have seen, what they have read, what they have listened to, and/or what they have researched (e.g., Why was the soda machine taken out of the school? Why is the number of family farms in Vermont growing smaller?).

Identifying an important event in their communities and/or Vermont, and describing a cause and an effect of that event (e.g., Excessive rain caused the flood of 1927, and as a result communication systems have changed to warn people.).

Measuring calendar time by days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries (e.g., How old is your town?).

Interpreting data presented in time lines.

Constructing time lines of significant historical developments in the community and state, and identifying the dates at which each occurred.

Grouping historical events in the history of the local community and state by broadly defined eras .

Asking appropriate geographic questions and using geographic resources to answer them (e.g., what product is produced in a region and why; atlas, globe, wall maps, reference books).

Using grid systems to locate places on maps and globes (e.g., longitude and latitude).

Identifying and using basic elements of the map (e.g., cardinal directions and key).

Creating effective geographic representations using appropriate elements to demonstrate an understanding of relative location, location, size, and shape of the local community, Vermont, the U.S., and locations worldwide (e.g., create a representation of a globe, including continents, oceans, and major parallels).

Locating major global physical divisions, such as continents, oceans, poles, equator, tropics, Arctic and Antarctic Circles, tropical, mid-latitude and polar regions.

Locating countries and major cities in North America.

Locating the physical and political regions of Vermont (e.g., six regions, towns, counties).

Observing, comparing, and analyzing patterns of local and state land use (e.g., agriculture, forestry, industry) to understand why particular locations are used for certain human activities.

Identifying characteristics of surrounding towns and the state of Vermont using resources such as road signs, landmarks, models, maps, photographs and mental mapping.

Recognizing patterns of voluntary and involuntary migration in Vermont (e.g., use maps and place names to hypothesize about movements of people).

Describing how patterns of human activities (for example, housing, transportation, food consumption, or employment) relate to natural resource distribution (e.g., how population concentrations in Vermont developed around fertile lowlands, French/English/Indian conflict for furs in northern Vermont.)

Describing a community or state environmental issue (e.g., creating a slide show describing the environmental issues surrounding Lake Champlain).

Identifying and participating in ways they can contribute to preserving natural resources (e.g., creating a class or school recycling center).

Describing how people have changed the environment in Vermont for specific purposes (e.g., clear-cutting, sheepraising, interstate highways, farming, ski resorts).

Identifying ways in which culture in Vermont has changed (e.g., Colonists learning maple sugaring from the Indians, Indians acquiring metal tools in exchange for furs).

Describing the contributions of various cultural groups to Vermont and the U.S. (e.g., describing French cultural diffusion in Vermont).

Identifying expressions of culture in Vermont and the U.S., such as language, social institutions, beliefs and customs, economic activities, behaviors, material goods, food, clothing, buildings, tools, and machines (e.g., discovering how Abenaki oral tradition reflects and influences their society).

Participating in setting, following and changing the rules of the group and school.

Describing the roots of American culture, its development and many traditions, and the ways many people from a variety of groups and backgrounds played a role in creating it.

Demonstrating the role of individuals in the election processes (e.g., voting in class or mock elections).

Explaining their own point of view on issues that affect themselves and society (e.g., forming an opinion about a social or environmental issue in Vermont, then writing a letter to a legislator to try to influence change).

Identifying problems, planning and implementing solutions in the classroom, school or community.

Demonstrating positive interaction with group members (e.g., working with a group of people to complete a task).

Identifying the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a school and local community (e.g., the right to use town roads and speak one's mind at town meeting, the responsibility to pay town taxes).

Describing how characteristics of good leadership and fair decision-making affect others (e.g., cooperative group behavior).

Explaining what makes a just rule or law (e.g., provides protection for members of the group).

Knowing where to locate written rules and laws for school and community.

Comparing similarities of rules and laws (e.g., how are bike helmet and seatbelt laws similar?).

Explaining different ways in which conflict has been resolved, and different ways in which conflicts and their resolutions have affected people (e.g., reservations and Indian schools; Green Mountain Boys; treaties).

Identifying different types of conflict among individuals and groups (e.g., girls and boys, religion, material goods).

Identifying behaviors that foster cooperation among individuals.

Identifying examples of interdependence among individuals and groups. (e.g., buyers and sellers; performers and audience).

Citing examples, both past and present, of how diversity has led to change (e.g., Native Americans moving to reservations).

Giving examples of ways that she or he is similar to and different from others (e.g. gender, race, religion, ethnicity.).

Defining their own rights and needs – and the rights and needs of others – in the classroom, school, and community (e.g., establishing a clothing drive/swap for the needy; creating a park for roller blades).

Identifying and describing ways regional, ethnic, and national cultures influence individuals' daily lives (e.g., reading myths and legends to learn about the origins of culture).

Explaining how a community promotes human rights.

Describing ways in which local institutions promote the common good (e.g., state police, library, recreation programs).

Describing the causes and effects of economic activities on the environment in Vermont (e.g., granite industry).

Describing how producers in Vermont have used natural, human, and capital resources to produce goods and services (e.g., describing the natural, human, and capital resources needed to produce maple syrup).

Tracing the production, distribution, and consumption of goods in Vermont (e.g., after visiting a sugar house, tracing the distribution of locally-produced maple syrup).

Describing and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using currency vs. bartering in the exchange of goods and services (e.g., an advantage of bartering is that one doesn't need money, a disadvantage is determining fairness).

Explaining the relationship between taxation and governmental goods and services in Vermont (e.g., town taxes provide for road upkeep).

Identifying goods and services provided by local and state governments (e.g., firefighters, highways, museums).

Using prior knowledge to predict results or proposing a choice about a possible action (e.g., using experience from a field trip to the nature center, propose a way to preserve Vermont's natural habitats).

Explaining how people save (e.g., by giving up something you want, by saving your allowance, by putting money in the bank).

Comparing prices of goods and services.

Explaining ways people meet their basic needs and wants (e.g., people buy oil because they need heat; people buy video games because they want entertainment).

Examining factors that influence supply and demand (e.g., Why is Vermont considering investing in wind energy?).

Planning how to organize information so it can be shared.

Identifying tasks and how they will be completed, including a plan for citing sources (e.g., I will interview the principal about why the soda machine was taken out of the school).

Identifying resources for finding answers to their questions (e.g., books, videos, people, and the Internet).

<ul><li>Referring to and following a plan for an inquiry. </li> <li>Locating relevant materials such as print, electronic, and human resources.</li> <li>Describing evidence and recording observations using notecards, videotape, tape recorders, journals, or databases (e.g., taking notes while interviewing the principal).</li> <li>Citing sources.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Organizing and displaying information in a manner appropriate to the research statement through tables, graphs, maps, dioramas, charts, narratives, and/or posters.</li> <li>Classifying information and justifying groupings based upon observations, prior knowledge, and/or research.</li> <li>Using appropriate methods for interpreting information such as comparing and contrasting.</li></ul>

<ul><li>Explaining the relevance of their findings to the research question.</li> <li>Proposing solutions to problems and asking other questions.</li> <li>Identifying what was easy or difficult about following the research plan.</li></ul>

Giving an oral, written, or visual presentation that summarizes their findings.

Examining how events, people, problems and ideas have shaped the community and Vermont (e.g., Ann Story's role in the American Revolution).

Describing ways that life in the community and Vermont has both changed and stayed the same over time (e.g., general stores and shopping centers).

Explaining differences between historic and present day objects in Vermont, and identifying how the use of the object and the object itself changed over time (e.g., evaluating how the change from taps and buckets to pipelines has changed the maple sugaring industry).

Differentiating among fact, opinion, and interpretation in various events.

Identifying and using various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others.

Students conduct research by…

Students develop reasonable explanations that support the research statement by…

Students make connections to research by…

Students communicate findings by…

Students connect the past with the present by…

Students show understanding of how humans interpret history by…