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4th Grade

Earth's Systems: Processes That Shape the Earth

 

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations
 

 

Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers for changes in a landscape over time to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time. 4-ESS1-1

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence from patterns could include rock layers with marine shell fossils above rock layers with plant fossils and no shells, indicating a change from land to water over time; and, a canyon with different rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom, indicating that over time a river cut through the rock.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include specific knowledge of the mechanism of rock formation or memorization of specific rock formations and layers. Assessment is limited to relative time.

 

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.

 

Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features. 4-ESS2-2

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Maps can include topographic maps of Earth’s land and ocean floor, as well as maps of the locations of mountains, continental boundaries, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Assessment Boundary: none

 

Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans. 4-ESS3-2

Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

Clarification Statement: Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake resistant building and improving monitoring of volcanic activity.

Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

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)

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Analyzing data in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to introducing quantitative approaches to collecting data and conducting multiple trials of qualitative observations. When possible and feasible, digital tools should be used.

Analyze and interpret data to make sense of phenomena using logical reasoning. (4-ESS2-2)

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.

Identify the evidence that supports particular points in an explanation. (4-ESS1-1)

Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design solution. (4-ESS3-2)

Disciplinary Core Ideas

ESS1.C:  The History of Planet Earth

Local, regional, and global patterns of rock formations reveal changes over time due to earth forces, such as earthquakes. The presence and location of certain fossil types indicate the order in which rock layers were formed. (4-ESS1-1)

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.B:  Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions

The locations of mountain ranges, deep ocean trenches, ocean floor structures, earthquakes, and volcanoes occur in patterns. Most earthquakes and volcanoes occur in bands that are often along the boundaries between continents and oceans. Major mountain chains form inside continents or near their edges. Maps can help locate the different land and water features areas of Earth. (4-ESS2-2)

ESS2.E:  Biogeology

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

ESS3.B:  Natural Hazards

A variety of natural hazards result from natural processes. Humans cannot eliminate natural hazards but can take steps to reduce their impacts. (4-ESS3-2)

ETS1.B:  Developing Possible Solutions

Testing a solution involves investigating how well it performs under a range of likely conditions. (secondary to 4-ESS3-2)

Crosscutting Concepts

Patterns

Patterns can be used as evidence to support an explanation. (4-ESS1-1), (4-ESS2-2)

Cause and Effect

Cause and effect relationships are routinely identified, tested, and used to explain change. (4-ESS2-1), (4-ESS3-2)

Connections to Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

Influence of Science, Engineering, and Technology on Society and the Natural World

Engineers improve existing technologies or develop new ones to increase their benefits, to decrease known risks, and to meet societal demands. (4-ESS3-2)

Connections to Nature of Science

Scientific Knowledge Assumes an Order and Consistency in Natural Systems

Science assumes consistent patterns in natural systems. (4-ESS1-1)

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-ESS3-2)
  • RI.4.7 - Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears. (4-ESS2-2)
  • RI.4.9 - Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. (4-ESS3-2)
  • W.4.7 - Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic. (4-ESS1-1), (4-ESS2-2)
  • 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-ESS1-1), (4-ESS2-1)
  • W.4.9 - Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (4-ESS1-1)
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-ESS1-1), (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), (4-ESS2-2)
  • 4.OA.A.1 - Interpret a multiplication equation as a comparison, e.g., interpret 35 = 5 x 7 as a statement that 35 is 5 times as many as 7 and 7 times as many as 5. Represent verbal statements of multiplicative comparisons as multiplication equations. (4-ESS3-2)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (4-ESS1-1), (4-ESS2-1), (4-ESS3-2)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (4-ESS1-1), (4-ESS2-1), (4-ESS3-2)
  • MP.5 - Use appropriate tools strategically. (4-ESS2-1)