Ledyard Public Schools

Grade 4 Science Curriculum

Unit of Study: PHYSICAL

Suggested Time: 8 Weeks

Content Standard 3.1 Materials have properties that can be identified and described through the use of simple tests. Heating and cooling cause changes in some of the properties of materials.

Essential Question:How does the structure of matter affect the properties and uses of materials?

Focus Question #1 How can we classify materials based on their physical properties?

Expected performances (B1)  The student will be able to:

a. define a physical property as a property that can be observed and measured.

b. identify and describe physical properties of materials (such as color, texture, shape, sinks or floats in water, magnetic, conducts heat, dissolves in water, etc.)

c. use measurement tools (tape measurers [metric/standard], balance scales, graduated cylinders.)

d. sort and classify materials based on conducting simple tests for:

• their solubility in water

• whether they sink or float

• conductivity of heat

• attraction to magnets

 

Required Activities:

Teacher notes:  Focus Questions 1 and 2 both deal with conductors and conductivity of heat.  Learning Experiences 3, 4, and 5 in Insights:  Changes of State can be used in either place.  They are listed in this document under Focus Question #2.

1. Students will use their senses and measurement tools to describe and record physical properties of materials.  “Describe Me!” (see Appendix)  (B1a,b,c  BINQ1,3,4,6,9,10)

Teacher notes:  As a safety note, do not have students test for taste.  Also, demonstrate the correct way to test for smell. It is suggested that students keep science journals/notebooks.  (Refer to teacher resource Science Notebooks, Writing About Inquiry by Brian Campbell for appropriate models for written response and scientific drawings.)

2. Students test and group materials to determine how they are affected when they are placed in water.  Students identify traits of materials in each group.  “Sink or Float” (see Appendix)  B1b,d  BINQ1,3,4,6,9,10)

Teacher notes:  Use “background information” from “What Sinks, What Floats” (see Appendix) to introduce the terms buoyancy and density AFTER the students have grouped their materials for sinking and floating.

3. Students test and group materials to determine how they are affected when a magnet is brought close to them.  They identify general traits of materials in both groups.  “Magnetic?”  (B1b,d  BINQ1,3,4,6,9,10)

Teacher notes:  Students should conclude that some items are magnetic, meaning that certain kinds of materials are attracted to iron or steel.

4. Students test and group materials to determine how they are affected when they are placed in water.  “State your Solution!” and “State Your Solution Part 2”  (see Appendix)  (B1b,d  BINQ1,3,4,6,9,10)

5. Students test and group materials to determine if they conduct heat and identify general traits of materials that are good and poor conductors of heat.  (B1b,d  BINQ1,3,4,6,9,10)

Teacher notes:  Use a cup with hot tap water as your source of heat to test for conductivity. Heat always travels from where there is more heat to where there is less heat.  Students should conclude that metals are good conductors of heat.

 

Assessment:

Given an object, students will examine and describe in writing its physical properties (such as color, texture, shape.)  Students will perform tests to determine if the object sinks or floats and dissolves in water, is magnetic and if it conducts heat.  Students will support their statements citing evidence from their testing.

 

Optional Activities:

Students create an object that will half sink and half float.

Focus Question #2 What is the effect of heating and cooling on water?

Expected performances (B2)  The student will be able to:

a. define the three states of matter as a solid, liquid and gas.

b. investigate the heating and cooling of water and explain how you can change water from one state to another.

c. describe the role of energy (heat) on the melting, evaporation, condensation and freezing of water.

 

Required Activities:

Teacher notes:  Mystery Substance must be prepared in advance.

1. Students will explain that matter occupies space and has mass and describe the three states of matter.  “What are the States of Matter?”  Students will also gather data and categorize a mystery substance.  Learning Experience #1 Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 17 – 33  (B2a  BINQ1,3,4,5,9,10)

2. Students investigate the change from solid to liquid.  “Melting:  Changing from a solid to a liquid”  Learning Experience #2  Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 35 – 49  (B2b,c  BINQ1,2,3,4,5,9,10)

3. Students design and conduct investigations involving changing a solid to a liquid.  Using student collected data, students will plot line graphs.  Using graphing software, students generate graphs to verify their results.  Learning Experiences #3, 4, 5  Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 51 – 94  (B2b,c  BINQ1,3,4,5,6,9,10)  (Technology Standard 3)

4. Students investigate the changes in matter from liquid to gas.  “What Happens Next?  Evaporation”  Learning Experience #7 Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 103 – 113  (B2b,c  BINQ1,3,4,6,9)

Teacher notes:  Learning experience 9 relates the process of evaporation to cooling our bodies, but is optional.

5. Students investigate the changes in matter from gas to liquid “Going Back:  Condensation”  Learning Experience #10 Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 141 – 153  (B2b,c  BINQ1,3,6)

6. Students investigate the changes in matter from liquid to solid “Freezing”  Learning Experience #12  Insights:  Changes of State, pgs. 165 – 183  (B2b,c  BINQ1,3,4,5,6,9,10)

 

Assessment:

Given a scenario involving changes of states of matter, students explain and defend their thinking in writing using scientific vocabulary and the use of diagrams.  (see Appendix for Unit test:  States of Matter, Part A, B, and assessments sections 2 and 3.)

Teacher notes:  In Assessment section 3 – choose 2 scenarios to discuss in class.  Use the other 2 scenarios as an assessment.

 

Vocabulary

• Atom – smallest particle of a substance that has all the properties of that substance

• Buoyant force – upward push of a liquid on an object

• Condensation – process in which a gas changes back to a liquid

• Conduction – the movement of heat between objects that touch each other

• Density – amount of mass in a known volume of an object

• Evaporation – process in which a liquid changes to a gas or vapor

• Freezing – change to a solid state by removal of heat

• Gas – a state of matter that has no size or shape of its own; it fills whatever container it is in

• Liquid – a state of matter that has no definite shape but has a definite volume

• Magnet – an object that attracts iron and other magnetic materials

• Mass – the amount of matter in an object

• Matter – the material that everything is made of

Melting – process of changing from a solid to a liquid

• Solid – a state of matter that has a definite size and shape

• Solubility – a measure of how much of one substance will dissolve in another substance

• Volume – the amount of space that an object takes up

 

Optional Activities:

Any additional Learning Experience from Insights:  Changes of State

 

Resources Needed:

Student:

Teacher:

Internet:

Resource page for Grade 4 students:  http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/textbook/4gradecover.html

Student resource:  http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/sciber00/7th/matter/sciber/intro.htm

Teacher resource:  http://www.stf.sk.ca/teaching_res/library/teach_mat_centre/tmc/p10630/p10630.htm

Student activities:  http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/wondernetdisplay.html?DOC=wondernet%5Cgrownups%5cgu_solutions.html

 

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Health: Ask students to think about the types of clothing they wear to keep them warm in cold weather.  What features of this clothing help to insulate the body?

Language Arts: Use adjectives to describe properties. Write conclusions. Participate in both oral explanations and listening.

Mathematics: Use measurement tools (thermometer, scales, tape measures, graduated cylinders) to work with mass, volume, length and temperature. Graph and analyze data. Tell students that one inch of water produces about ten inches of snow.  Have students use this ratio to convert rainfall to snowfall or vice versa.

Technology: Use websites to investigate how a dehumidifier works. Use websites to find out who Celsius and Fahrenheit were and when they invented their scales.

 

PHYSICAL Materials List:

1.  Describe Me!:  Tape measures (from math kits – in./cm.), balance scales and weight, balloons, Cuisenaire square (from math kit), 2x4 cm. small cubes (from math kit), small styrofoam ball, small container of colored water, small container of soda, small container of play dough, pumice, small metal sphere, marble

2.  Sink or Float?:  Same materials as above

3.  State your Solution:  Clear plastic cups, powdered Kool-Aid, food coloring (blue and yellow), sugar, sand, cornstarch, sawdust

4.  Magnetic:  Bar, horseshoe and round magnets

 

Bold face indicates CORE expected performances to be assessed by CMT.

 

Ledyard Public Schools

Approved by Instructional Council on 4/10/2006