Science 4

Unit 1: Waste and Our World

Organizing idea: waste and dangerous materials do not simply disappear — where they go matters. Where our garbage really goes, how reducing, reusing and recycling shrink it, how to handle dangerous materials safely, and the impacts our choices have on the environment.

• Tracking waste after the bin
• Reduce, reuse and recycle

• Handling dangerous materials safely
• Impacts on the environment

Unit 2: Forces That Act at a Distance

Organizing idea: some forces act on objects without ever touching them. Magnets that pull and push across a gap, static electricity that makes things cling, and gravity that pulls everything down — all forces that reach across empty space.

• Magnets pulling across a gap
• Static electricity

• Gravity pulls without touching

Unit 3: Earth’s Systems

Organizing idea: Earth is made of systems that connect together to keep living things alive. Air, water, soil and living things form systems that share resources — and the ways they link up are what sustain life.

• Air, water, soil and living things
• How the systems connect to sustain life

Unit 4: Living Things: Structures and Functions

Organizing idea: the outside parts of living things have jobs that help them survive. The external structures of plants and animals — roots, leaves, stems, wings, claws, fins — and how each structure is matched to what it does.

• Observing external structures
• Matching a structure to its job

Unit 5: Objects in Space

Organizing idea: the objects we see in the sky connect to our everyday lives. The Sun, Moon and stars, how they appear to move, and how their patterns shape day and night, shadows and the calendar we live by.

• Objects we see in the sky
• How space connects to our day

Unit 6: Design and Build

Organizing idea: we use a design process to build things that meet a need. Deciding what a device must do, planning and building it (using wheels, levers and simple machines), then testing and improving it until it works.

• Finding a need and planning a design
• Build, test and improve to meet the need

Unit 7: Evidence in Science

Organizing idea: science relies on evidence — what we can observe and measure. Gathering evidence carefully, telling evidence apart from a guess, and reflecting on why evidence is what lets us decide if an idea is right.

• Collecting evidence by observing
• Why evidence matters in science