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Science Standards

4th Grade Science Standards (NGSS*)

All 14 4th grade performance expectations of the Next Generation Science Standards, each explained in plain English. The official wording of each one is a click away.

14 standards

Energy

5 standards
4-PS3-1
Use evidence to explain that a faster moving object has more energy, like a ball rolled hard knocking down more pins than a slow one.
Official wording
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
4-PS3-2
Observe and gather evidence that energy travels from place to place as sound, light, heat and electric current, like a circuit lighting a bulb.
Official wording
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
4-PS3-3
Ask questions and predict how energy changes when objects crash into each other, like a speeding toy car slowing down as it hits another.
Official wording
Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
4-PS3-4
Use science ideas to design, test and improve a device that changes energy from one form to another, like a circuit that makes a buzzer sound.
Official wording
Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
4-ESS3-1
Gather and combine information showing that energy and fuels come from natural resources, like wind, sunlight and coal, and that using them affects the environment.
Official wording
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Waves

2 standards
4-PS4-1
Make a model of waves, like a diagram or a wiggling rope, to show patterns in amplitude and wavelength and how waves can push objects.
Official wording
Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.
4-PS4-3
Come up with and compare several ways to send information using patterns, like Morse code, drumbeats or a grid of ones and zeros for a picture.
Official wording
Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

Structure, Function, and Information Processing

3 standards
4-PS4-2
Use a model to show that we see objects when light bounces off them and enters our eyes.
Official wording
Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
4-LS1-1
Argue from evidence that the inside and outside parts of plants and animals help them survive, grow, behave and reproduce, like roots, petals, lungs and skin.
Official wording
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
4-LS1-2
Use a model to show how animals take in information through their senses, make sense of it in the brain and react in different ways.
Official wording
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.

Earth's Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

4 standards
4-ESS1-1
Use patterns in rock layers and fossils as evidence to explain how a landscape changed over time, like a river carving a canyon.
Official wording
Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
4-ESS2-1
Observe or measure to gather evidence of how water, ice, wind or plants break down rock or move soil, like testing how slope changes water erosion.
Official wording
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-ESS2-2
Analyze maps to describe patterns in Earth features, like where mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes line up along the edges of continents.
Official wording
Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
4-ESS3-2
Generate and weigh several designs that lessen the harm of earthquakes, floods, tsunamis or volcanoes, like a building that withstands shaking.
Official wording
Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

The official document

Official wording from NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. The plain-English lines and everything else on this page are EMStudio’s own explanations, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standards.

*NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.