Fourth grade science topics taught in this first semester class include:
1. Energy 
2. Waves and their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
3. From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

The Next Generation Science Standards (nextgenscience.org) will be used to guide course instruction and ensure learners have the needed skills for second semester and 5th grade.

In keeping with the Next Generation Science standards, science and engineering practices along with crosscutting concepts will be incorporated as learners participate in class. For example, when learners study energy they will create a model to demonstrate how energy is transferred from one object to another (engineering). They will research how improve existing technologies or develop new ones (crosscutting concept).

Specific weekly objectives for this course:

1. Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents. 
2. Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
3. Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another. 
4. Complete student presentations of project assigned in week 3. 
5. Identify the properties of waves. 
6. Continue the study of the properties of waves. 
7.  Compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information. (Drums sending coded information through sound waves, using a grid of 1’s and 0’s representing black and white to send information about a picture, and using Morse code to send text.)
8. Apply scientific ideas to design, test and refine a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move. 
9. Complete student presentations assigned in week 10.
10. Describe the structure and function of plants.
11. Create a model of a plant to show it's structure and their functions. 
12. Review the semester and celebrate a great class. 

The class will be structured as teacher facilitated and interactive. Learners will be engaged in games, discussions, videos and hands-on projects. My teaching style is relaxed and inclusive. I encourage learner participation and questions. The classroom is 'ours' not 'mine'. Learners will have many opportunities to interact with me and their classmates each week.