NSTA - National Science Teaching Association

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4th Grade

Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

How to Read the Standards

Common Core State Standards Connections

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information. 4-PS4-3

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include drums sending coded information through sound waves, using a grid of 1’s and 0’s representing black and white to send information about a picture, and using Morse code to send text.

Assessment Boundary: none

Science and Engineering Practices

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Constructing explanations and designing solutions in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to the use of evidence in constructing explanations that specify variables that describe and predict phenomena and in designing multiple solutions to design problems.

Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design solution. (4-PS4-3)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

PS4.C: Information Technologies and Instrumentation

Digitized information can be transmitted over long distances without significant degradation. High-tech devices, such as computers or cell phones, can receive and decode information—convert it from digitized form to voice—and vice versa. (4-PS4-3)

ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution

Different solutions need to be tested in order to determine which of them best solves the problem, given the criteria and the constraints. (secondary to 4-PS-3)

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns

Connections to Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

Interdependence of Science, Engineering, and Technology

Knowledge of relevant scientific concepts and research findings is important in engineering. (4-PS4-3)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

RI.4.1 - Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. (4-PS4-3)
RI.4.9 - Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. (4-PS4-3)