Grade 4 Science Washington standards Standards

How do we work together to ensure a healthy environment and sustainable economy for future generations?

Environmental and Sustainability Education

How do we engineer solutions to a problem?

3–5 Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science

How do humans and the Earth affect each other?

What are Earth’s features and how do they change?

Earth and Space Sciences

How do internal and external structures help living things function and survive?

Life Science

What can energy do and how can we use it?

Physical Science

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.

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

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

Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features. [ESE]

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

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

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.

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. [Engineering]

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. [Engineering]

Cite multiple sources and perspectives in an analysis of and presentation about environmental sustainability in the community, considering values at the individual, community, and tribal level.

Design an investigation on school grounds to make observations and/or measurements that provide evidence of the built environment’s effect on environmental quality (e.g. impacts on/benefits to water quality, air quality, biodiversity, waste).

Apply scientific ideas to solve design problems related to environmental sustainability, demonstrating the knowledge, attitudes, and understanding needed for personal and civic responsibility related to tribal sovereignty in Washington.

Use evidence to show and explain how Earth’s features have changed over time.

Use investigation, evidence, and data to show and explain patterns in Earth’s features and what causes those features to change.

Research to understand and explain human impacts on the environment and design solutions to lessen impacts of environmental events on humans.

Use modeling, investigation, and data to design, test, and improve solutions to problems that can be solved through engineering; include criteria, constraints, and elements of fair tests.

Use modeling to show and explain internal and external structures of plants and animals that help them live successfully.

Use evidence, data, and investigation to explain energy transfer and the energy of objects in motion; apply these understandings to design and build a device that converts energy.

Use investigation, evidence and modeling to show and explain how energy behaves, including as waves; design and evaluate solutions that use energy in patterns to communicate.

Through project-based learning, synthesize evidence using information from multiple sources about local ecological, social, and economic systems to collaborate with community partners and tribes in ways that foster solutions to local environmental problems.

Networks and the Internet

Impacts of Computing

Data and Analysis

Computing Systems

Algorithms and Programming

Apply collaboration strategies to support problem solving within the design cycle of a program.

Decompose (break down) a larger problem into smaller sub-problems, independently or in a collaborative group.

Construct and execute an algorithm (set of step-by-step instructions) that includes sequencing, loops, and conditionals to accomplish a task, both independently and collaboratively, with or without a computing device.

Create a plan as part of the iterative design process, both independently and with diverse collaborative teams (e.g., storyboard, flowchart, pseudo-code, story map).

Construct programs, in order to solve a problem or for creative expression, that include sequencing, events, loops, conditionals, parallelism, and variables, using a block-based visual programming language or text-based language, both independently and collaboratively (e.g., pair programming).

Use mathematical operations to change a value stored in a variable.

Analyze and debug (fix) an algorithm that includes sequencing, events, loops, conditionals, parallelism, and variables.

Use proper citations and document when ideas are borrowed and changed for their own use (e.g., using pictures created by others, using music created by others, remixing programming projects).

Identify, using accurate terminology, simple hardware and software problems that may occur during use, and apply strategies for solving problems (e.g., reboot device, check for power, check network availability, close and reopen app).

Use appropriate terminology in naming internal and external components of computing devices and describing their relationships, capabilities, and limitations.

Model how a computer system works. [Clarification: Only includes basic elements of a computer system, such as input, output, processor, sensors, and storage.]

Use numeric values to represent non-numeric ideas in the computer (binary, ASCII, pixel attributes such as RGB).

Create a computational artifact to model the attributes and behaviors associated with a concept (e.g., solar system, life cycle of a plant).

Answer a question by using a computer to (e.g., sort, total and/or average, chart, graph) and analyze data that has been collected by the class or student.

Seek out and compare diverse perspectives, synchronously or asynchronously, to improve a project.

Brainstorm ways in which computing devices could be made more accessible to all users.

Explain problems that relate to using computing devices and networks (e.g., logging out to deter others from using your account, cyberbullying, privacy of personal information, and ownership).

Evaluate and describe the positive and negative impacts of the pervasiveness of computers and computing in daily life (e.g., downloading videos and audio files, electronic appliances, wireless Internet, mobile computing devices, GPS systems, wearable computing).

Generate examples of how computing can affect society, and also how societal values can shape computing choices.

Model how a device on a network sends a message from one device (sender) to another (receiver) while following specific rules.

Create examples of strong passwords, explain why strong passwords should be used, and demonstrate proper use and protection of personal passwords.