New Jersey Science — Grade 4
Comprehensive Course Syllabus
Course Overview
Our New Jersey Grade 4 Science course is designed around the 2026 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science (NJSLS-S). Grade 4 develops scientific understanding through energy, waves, light, sound, electricity, plant and animal structures, senses, fossils, rocks, erosion, Earth’s features, natural resources, environmental impacts, climate change, and engineering design.
Students learn science through investigations, models, evidence-based explanations, data analysis, and hands-on engineering challenges.
Scientific Investigation & Engineering Design
Scientific Questions
Students learn to ask testable questions about natural phenomena and identify problems that can be investigated or solved.
Observations & Measurements
Students make careful observations and use appropriate tools to collect measurements and scientific information.
Data Collection & Analysis
Students organize and analyze observations and measurements using tables, charts, graphs, and other representations.
Evidence-Based Explanations
Students use evidence from investigations to develop explanations and support scientific claims.
Engineering Design
Students define problems, develop possible solutions, test designs, analyze results, and improve solutions based on evidence.
Energy & Motion
Energy of Moving Objects
Students explore the relationship between the speed of an object and the energy associated with its motion.
Energy Transfer
Students investigate how energy can move from one place to another through sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
Energy & Collisions
Students investigate what happens to energy when objects collide and use observations to predict changes.
Forms of Energy
Students identify different forms of energy and explore how energy can be transferred or transformed.
Energy Conversion
Students investigate devices that convert energy from one form into another.
Sound & Waves
What Are Waves?
Students develop models to understand waves and recognize patterns in how waves move.
Wave Amplitude
Students explore amplitude and understand how the size of a wave relates to its energy.
Wavelength
Students identify wavelength patterns and compare waves with different wavelengths.
Waves & Object Movement
Students investigate how waves can cause objects to move or vibrate.
Sound Waves
Students explore sound as a form of energy that travels through vibrations and waves.
Light & Vision
Properties of Light
Students investigate how light travels and interacts with different objects and materials.
Reflection
Students explore how light reflects from surfaces and investigate how reflection helps us see objects.
Light & the Eye
Students develop a model explaining how light reflecting from objects enters the eye and allows objects to be seen.
Transparent, Translucent & Opaque Materials
Students compare how different materials transmit, block, or interact with light.
Light-Based Technologies
Students explore everyday technologies that use light, reflection, and patterns to perform useful functions.
Information Transfer & Technology
Patterns in Communication
Students explore how patterns can be used to represent and communicate information.
Encoding Information
Students investigate how information can be represented using symbols, patterns, signals, and codes.
Communication Systems
Students explore how devices use signals and patterns to transfer information from one place to another.
Comparing Communication Solutions
Students compare different ways of communicating information and identify advantages and limitations.
Plant & Animal Structures
External Structures
Students identify external structures of plants and animals and explain how these structures support survival.
Internal Structures
Students explore internal structures that help plants and animals grow, function, survive, and reproduce.
Structure & Function
Students investigate how the structure of a body part or plant feature is related to its function.
Plant Structures
Students examine roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and other structures and explore their roles in plant survival.
Animal Structures
Students explore structures such as limbs, teeth, claws, wings, shells, and other body parts and their functions.
Senses, Brain & Animal Responses
The Five Senses
Students explore how animals receive information from their surroundings through sensory systems.
Sensory Information
Students investigate how sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch provide information about the environment.
Brain Processing
Students learn that the brain processes information received through the senses.
Responses to Information
Students explore how animals respond differently to information received from their environment.
Structure, Function & Behavior
Students connect sensory structures and brain processing with behaviors that help animals survive.
Rocks, Fossils & Earth’s History
Rocks & Rock Layers
Students examine rocks and rock formations to understand evidence of changes that have occurred on Earth.
Fossils
Students learn how fossils provide evidence about organisms and environments from the past.
Fossils in Rock Layers
Students use patterns in fossils and rock layers to investigate changes in landscapes over long periods.
Earth’s Changing Landscape
Students explore how Earth’s surface has changed over time through natural processes.
Evidence of Earth’s Past
Students use rocks, fossils, maps, and observations as evidence to explain changes in Earth’s history.
Weathering, Erosion & Earth’s Surface
Weathering
Students investigate how rocks and Earth’s surface materials can be broken down by natural processes.
Erosion
Students explore how water, ice, wind, and vegetation can move Earth materials from one location to another.
Deposition
Students learn how transported materials can settle and accumulate in new locations.
Water, Ice & Wind
Students investigate how different natural forces affect landscapes over time.
Measuring Earth Surface Changes
Students make observations and measurements to collect evidence of weathering and erosion.
Maps & Earth’s Features
Reading Geographic Maps
Students use maps to identify and describe Earth’s physical features.
Landforms
Students identify mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, and other major landforms.
Bodies of Water
Students identify oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, and other bodies of water and examine their geographic relationships.
Patterns of Earth’s Features
Students analyze maps to identify patterns in the locations and distributions of Earth’s physical features.
Creating Scientific Maps
Students create simple maps and models to represent geographic information and physical features.
Natural Resources, Energy & Environment
Natural Resources
Students identify natural resources such as water, soil, forests, minerals, and fossil fuels.
Energy Resources
Students learn that energy and fuels are obtained from natural resources and are used for many human activities.
Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources
Students compare resources that can be naturally replenished with resources that are limited.
Human Use of Resources
Students investigate how people use natural resources for transportation, electricity, manufacturing, food, and other needs.
Environmental Effects
Students explore how the use of natural resources can affect air, water, land, ecosystems, and communities.
Natural Hazards, Climate & STEM Solutions
Natural Earth Processes
Students explore natural processes such as erosion, flooding, storms, earthquakes, and other events that can affect people and communities.
Natural Hazard Impacts
Students investigate how natural hazards can affect homes, communities, infrastructure, and the environment.
Climate & Environmental Change
Students develop an age-appropriate understanding of how climate and environmental conditions can affect people and natural systems.
Reducing Environmental Impacts
Students explore ways people can reduce the environmental impacts associated with energy use and natural-resource consumption.
Engineering Solutions
Students generate and compare possible solutions that can reduce the effects of natural Earth processes and environmental changes on people.
Teaching Methodology
Our Grade 4 Science classes focus on scientific investigation, evidence-based reasoning, energy, Earth systems, life science, environmental awareness, and engineering design. Students learn through:
Learning Outcomes
By the end of Grade 4, students will be able to:
Assessment & Progress Tracking
Student progress is evaluated through: