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4th Grade

Earth's Systems

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation. 4-ESS2-1

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of variables to test could include angle of slope in the downhill movement of water, amount of vegetation, speed of wind, relative rate of deposition, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling, and volume of water flow.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single form of weathering or erosion.

Science and Engineering Practices

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Planning and carrying out investigations to answer questions or test solutions to problems in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to include investigations that control variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions.

Make observations and/or measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon. (4-ESS2-1)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS2.A:  Earth Materials and Systems

Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, living organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller particles and move them around. (4-ESS2-1)

ESS2.E:  Biogeology

Living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions. (4-ESS2-1)

Crosscutting Concepts

Cause and Effect

Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change. (4-ESS2-1)

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy
  • W.4.8 - Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources. (4-ESS2-1)
Mathematics
  • 4.MD.A.1 - Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Record measurement equivalents in a two column table. (4-ESS2-1)
  • 4.MD.A.2 - Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale. (4-ESS2-1)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (4-ESS2-1)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (4-ESS2-1)
  • MP.5 - Use appropriate tools strategically. (4-ESS2-1)