Science concepts create the themes for the units within Fourth Grade Complete. The questions for discussion of the concepts incorporate new vocabulary words that become part of your child’s usable vocabulary and stimulate higher-level thinking skills. The child utilizes a scientific method to perform experiments and demonstrations. The included enrichment activities reinforce the skills in a fun or challenging way.

• Use a microscope or magnifying glass to observe objects.
• Draw a diagram of observations.
• Use a scientific method.
• Learn about static electricity.
• Demonstrate static electricity.
• Define, recognize, and build a closed circuit with and without a switch.
• Test to determine whether materials are conductors or insulators.
• Recall the parts of a hydroelectric power station.
• Learn about floodplains.
• Make a floodplain model.
• Demonstrate refracted white light, and produce a rainbow.
• Learn about bones.
• Identify the purpose of the bones in our bodies.
• Demonstrate understanding of the skeletal system by designing a model skeleton.
• Understand the function of the spine and spinal cord.
• Learn about a famous person with a spinal injury.
• Learn about muscles.
• Make a model of a muscle pair.
• Perform large muscle exercises.
• Identify muscles of the body.
• Learn about muscle diseases.
• Understand the importance of healthy living.
• Acquire skills to live safely and reduce health risks.
• Recall the four food groups, and evaluate diet for good nutrition.
• Make a food consumption chart.
• Recall the four food groups, and evaluate diet for good nutrition.
• Understand the relationship of nutrition to body composition and physical performance.
• Make a periscope.
• Make a flow chart.
• Identify the parts of an insect.
• Understand the life cycle of an insect.
• Understand the life cycle of a frog.
• Use the sense of smell to identify objects.
• Learn the symptoms and effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
• Use simple logic to develop a strategy.
• Learn about Down syndrome.
• Draw a diagram and make a model of a cell.
• Identify the parts of a cell.
• Differentiate between living and non-living things.
• Classify living things.
• Learn characteristics of birds.
• Identify the parts of an egg.
• Learn about trumpeter swans.
• Make a Venn diagram.
• Research to gain new information.
• Understand how thunderstorms form.
• Demonstrate lightning.
• Understand that God gives animals instincts which help them survive.
• Make a food chain.
• Understand that plants and animals progress through life cycles of birth, growth and development, reproduction, and death; the details of these life cycles are different for different organisms.
• Learn about the life cycle of a penguin.
• Know that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants and animals.
• Classify objects.
• Make observations, and describe the weather.
• Understand that the world was created by God, and how we should take care of it.
• Explore the world through observation and experimentation.
• Make predictions and draw conclusions based on patterns or evidence.
• Apply physics principles: potential and kinetic energy, inertia, force, friction.
• Observe and apply Newton’s Laws of Motion.
• Discover how water pressure affects the flow of water.
• Create a simple pendulum, and understand the forces that cause a pendulum to swing.
• Recognize the characteristics and habitats of various types of animals.
• Recognize and create simple and compound machines.
• Understand the process of a water cycle.
• Learn about computers.
• Learn about computer programmers.
• Develop a simple understanding of an algorithm using computer-free exercises.
• Write an algorithm to complete a specific task.
• Apply computational thinking to design an algorithm and to solve problems.
• Develop an understanding of four key techniques to computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms.
• Use models and simulation to explore complex problems.
• Read and write code.
• Draw an object using pixels.
• Examine connections between elements of mathematics and computer science including binary numbers, logic, sets, and functions.
• Make a model of sedimentary layers.
• Make a model of sedimentary rock.
• Observe osmosis.