What does a student learn in StateConnecticut,GradeGrade 4,SubjectScience?

Students practice turning a curiosity or a real-world problem into a question that can actually be tested or built toward. This is where science and engineering both begin.

Students build or draw models, such as a diagram of the water cycle or a sketch of a bridge design, to show how something works or why it behaves the way it does.

Students plan a test or experiment, carry it out, and collect data to check whether their idea holds up.

Students look at data from experiments or observations and explain what it means. They spot patterns, like temperatures rising each day or plants growing faster in sunlight, and use those patterns to draw conclusions.

Students use numbers, measurements, and simple calculations to back up what they observe in science. Instead of just describing what happened, they show it with data.

Students build written explanations for science questions using evidence from experiments or observations, then connect that evidence to a scientific idea or pattern they have already learned.

Students look at two or more possible explanations or solutions, then use data or observations to argue which one holds up better. The focus is on the evidence, not on who sounds more convincing.

Students read about a science topic, decide which sources are trustworthy, and explain what they learned in writing or a presentation. The focus is on finding good information and sharing it clearly.

Students explore what everyday materials are made of at a level too small to see. They use that understanding to explain why ice melts, why water evaporates, or why objects sink or float.

Students test how pushes, pulls, and collisions move objects, slow them down, or keep them still. They look for patterns in what makes things speed up, change direction, or stay in place.

Students explore how energy moves and changes form, such as heat turning into light or motion. They learn that energy is never lost, just passed along or converted into something else.

Students explore how waves, like sound and light, carry energy from one place to another. They also look at how waves are used to send information, like a radio signal or a phone call.

Students study how living things are built and how they work, from the tiny cells inside a leaf or a finger all the way up to the body systems those cells form together.

Students learn how energy from the sun moves through a food chain and how materials like water and nutrients get reused by plants, animals, and decomposers. They also explore how organisms in the same community compete, cooperate, and depend on each other.

Students look at how traits like eye color or height get passed from parents to offspring, and why siblings can look similar but not identical.

Students look at how living things are alike and how they differ, then explore why those differences develop over generations. The focus is on what drives change in plants and animals over long stretches of time.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how the sun, moon, and planets move in patterns. They also look at how Earth itself has changed over a very long time.

Students study how Earth's land, water, air, and living things connect and affect each other. They look at what happens when one part changes, like how rain shapes the ground or how plants change the soil.

Students look at how human choices (like building cities or burning fuel) change the land, water, and air around them, and how natural events like floods or earthquakes put people at risk.

Students identify a real problem, come up with possible fixes, then test and adjust their ideas until the design works better. It's the same cycle engineers use when building anything from a bridge to a better backpack.

Students explore how inventions shape daily life and how the needs of society push engineers to create new tools. A new technology can change how people live, and those changes often lead to the next problem engineers try to solve.