Grade 4 science, unit by unit

What should fourth grade science cover, and can it be done at the kitchen table?

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The question this course asks again and again is where the energy went. Energy, Waves, and Living Systems: Grade 4 Science has nine units and 24+ hours, mostly flashlights, mirrors, string, cups, a rope, and a tray of sand for a stream table. No science background is needed on your side.

The nine units

Energy on the Move. Waves Carry the Pattern. Light and How We See. Sound and Vibration. Senses and Information. Built to Survive: Structures in Plants and Animals. Made on Purpose. Earth's Changing Surface. Resources, People, and Trade-offs.

Marbles, dominoes and ramps

In Unit 1 your child strikes dominoes with marbles, builds a bulb-and-battery circuit and runs a fair test on ramp height, changing only that. The question each time is where the energy went, and the guide treats 'it just stopped' as the shrug the whole course is built to replace.

A wave that does not travel

Unit 2 uses a rope, a spring and water. The guide has your child tie yarn to one spot on a shaken rope and watch only that spot, which moves up and down in place while the wave travels on.

Light into the eye, sound into the ear

Unit 3 settles the common idea that light shoots out of the eye, then uses mirrors to send a flashlight beam around an obstacle. Unit 4 covers vibration, pitch against loudness, and a string-and-cup telephone tested at different string tightness.

Eyes, ears, spines and stomachs

Unit 5 generalizes eyes and ears into stimulus, organ, signal, brain and response, and compares human senses to eagle eyesight, bat hearing and shark electroreception. Unit 6 widens that to cactus spines, roots and stomachs.

Made on purpose, then a changing surface

Unit 7 covers organisms designed to stay alive, alike because of one Maker, how a canyon forms fast, and a young earth. Unit 8 covers weathering, erosion and rock layers, with a stream table that tests how flow rate changes erosion.

What this is not

It is not a once-a-week enrichment. The guide plans five days a week, about 50 minutes a day, and warns that the doing part often runs long and messy.
It is not neutral on origins. Unit 7 teaches one Maker and a young earth, so a family that wants another view of earth history should read that unit first.
It is not a unit-skipping course. The guide calls it a chain, and says Unit 9's argument about a dam becomes an opinion exercise if the units before it are skipped.

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Questions parents ask

What do I need to gather?

Mirrors, flashlights, string, cups, a battery and bulb, a rope, a stopwatch and a shallow tray for a stream table. The guide calls it mostly kitchen-table material.

What should my child know first?

Run a fair test by changing one thing, record trial number and time in a two-column table, and tell which of two bars is taller on a chart. The guide also asks you to find out whether your child draws light coming out of the eye.

What is the slowest part?

The claim, evidence and reasoning paragraph that closes each unit. The guide says children can usually say the idea out loud well before they can write it, so talk it through first.

What does it cost?

$29 a month or $290 a year for every child. The first 30 days are free with no card.

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