Grade 4 Science
9 units matched to the Ontario Curriculum.
Overall expectations
- A1 STEM Investigation and Communication Skills: Use a scientific research process, a scientific experimentation process, and an engineering design process to conduct investigations, following appropriate health and safety procedures
- A2 Coding and Emerging Technologies: Use coding in investigations and to model concepts, and assess the impact of coding and of emerging technologies on everyday life and in STEM-related fields
- A3 Applications, Connections, and Contributions: Demonstrate an understanding of the practical applications of science and technology, and of contributions to science and technology from people with diverse lived experiences
- B1 Relating Science and Technology to Our Changing World: Assess impacts of human activities on habitats and communities, and analyse actions for minimizing negative impacts and enhancing positive ones
- B2 Exploring and Understanding Concepts: Demonstrate an understanding of habitats and communities and of interrelationships among the organisms that live in them
- C1 Relating Science and Technology to Our Changing World: Assess the impacts on society and the environment of technological innovations related to light and sound
- C2 Exploring and Understanding Concepts: Demonstrate an understanding of light and sound as forms of energy that have specific characteristics and properties
- D1 Relating Science and Technology to Our Changing World: Evaluate the impacts of various machines and their mechanisms on society and the environment
- D2 Exploring and Understanding Concepts: Demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles and functions of machines and their mechanisms
- E1 Relating Science and Technology to Our Changing World: Assess the social and environmental impacts of geological processes and of human uses of rocks and minerals
- E2 Exploring and Understanding Concepts: Demonstrate an understanding of rocks, minerals, and Earth’s geological processes
Units
Unit 1
Habitats & Communities
Habitats as places that meet the needs of living things, communities of interacting species, why habitats have limits, how species depend on each other, and how human actions can help or harm.
Expectation: B1.1, B1.2, B2.1, B2.2, B2.7 · habitats and communities, what limits their size, and how people affect them
Unit 2
Food Chains & Webs
Producers, consumers and decomposers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, how energy moves along a food chain, and why a food web is a more complete picture.
Expectation: B2.3, B2.4, B2.5 · producers, consumers and decomposers, food chains and webs, and animal diets
Unit 3
Adaptations
Features such as webbed feet, thick fur, camouflage, big ears and water-storing stems, and how each helps a plant or animal survive in a particular habitat.
Expectation: B2.6 · structural adaptations of plants and animals that help them survive in their habitats
Unit 4
Light
Natural and artificial light, things that make light and things that reflect it, shadows, transparent, translucent and opaque materials, mirrors, refraction, and how light technology affects people and wildlife.
Expectation: C1.1, C1.2, C2.1–C2.3, C2.6–C2.8 · light sources, how light travels, reflects, is absorbed and bends, and how technology uses light
Unit 5
Sound
Vibrations and sound waves, pitch and volume, how sound travels through different materials but not through empty space, echoes and absorbing sound, how we hear, and how noise and sound devices affect people and animals.
Expectation: C1.1, C1.2, C2.4, C2.5, C2.8 · how vibrations make sound waves that travel through a medium, and how technology uses sound
Unit 6
Machines in Our Lives
Levers, wheels and axles, pulleys, gears, ramps and wedges, naming a mechanism's parts (such as the fulcrum), and comparing the effects of machines on daily life and the environment.
Expectation: D1.1, D1.2, D2.1, D2.2 · machines and their parts, and how machines affect people and the environment
Unit 7
Gears, Levers & Motion
Rotary, linear and back-and-forth motion, how gears of different sizes change speed, how pulleys and levers change force and direction, and how a bicycle moves.
Expectation: D2.3, D2.4, D2.5 · how mechanisms transfer and change motion, speed, direction and force
Unit 8
Rocks & Minerals
How igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks form, the rock cycle, and testing minerals for hardness, streak and lustre. Many Ontario rocks, like those of the Canadian Shield, are igneous and metamorphic.
Expectation: E2.1–E2.3 · the three kinds of rock and how they form, rock and mineral properties, and sorting by tests
Unit 9
Fossils, Mining & Earth Processes
How fossils form and what they tell us, everyday uses of rocks and minerals, mining in Ontario (nickel at Sudbury, salt near Windsor and Goderich), recycling, and how earthquakes, volcanoes and mining affect people and the environment. First Nations, Métis and Inuit geological knowledge is not covered here.
Expectation: E1.1, E1.2, E2.4, E2.5 · everyday uses of rocks and minerals, fossils, and how geological processes and mining affect people and the environment
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