Looking closely
Grade 4 science is about connections and evidence: forces that act across a gap, Earth's systems affecting one another, bodies built for particular lives, and — running through all of it — what counts as evidence and how a design gets better by being tested.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 4
The subject: Science
- Investigate how waste is managed and the effects it has on the environment.
- Investigate the non-contact forces of gravity and magnetism.
- Analyze the connections between Earth's systems — land, air, water and living things — and explore ways to conserve them.
- Relate the outer structures and sense organs of living things to what they do.
- Investigate how objects in space are part of daily life.
- Examine design processes and how they are used to solve problems.
- Investigate the role of data and evidence in science.
Non-contact is the new idea. Every force in Grade 3 needed touching; gravity and magnetism act across a gap, which is genuinely strange, and it is worth letting a child be puzzled by it for a while before explaining.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Non-contact force | A push or pull that acts without touching. Gravity and magnetism are the Grade 4 ones. |
| Gravity | The pull between objects with mass. Earth's gravity is why things fall and why we have weight. |
| Magnetism | The push or pull of a magnet. It acts on only a few materials — mainly iron and steel — and not on most metals. |
| Poles | The two ends of a magnet, north and south. Opposite poles attract; the same poles repel. |
| Earth's systems | Land (the geosphere), water (the hydrosphere), air (the atmosphere) and living things (the biosphere). |
| Conservation | Using something carefully so there is still some later: water, soil, habitat, energy. |
| Waste management | What happens to things once thrown out: reducing, reusing, recycling, composting, landfill, and special handling for hazardous waste. |
| Structure and function | What a body part is like, and what it is for. An owl's big forward-facing eyes are a structure; judging distance in dim light is the function. |
| Sense organ | A body part that detects something: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin — and whiskers, antennae and a snake's tongue. |
| Design process | Define the problem, brainstorm, plan, build, test, improve. The testing and improving are the point. |
| Evidence | Observations and measurements that support an idea. Alberta asks where data came from and what it can and cannot show. |
Land
Rock, soil, mountains. Called the geosphere.
Water
Rivers, lakes, ice, rain. The hydrosphere.
Air
The atmosphere: wind, weather, the gases we breathe.
Living things
Plants, animals, people. The biosphere.
What to do at home
- Go on a magnet hunt — A fridge magnet on everything in the kitchen. Most metals do not stick, which surprises almost everyone — and some coins do while others do not.
- Drop two things at once — A ball and a crumpled sheet of paper, from the same height. Then an open sheet. Gravity pulls on both; air is what makes the difference.
- Sort a week of rubbish — Recycling, compost, landfill and the odd battery. Where each goes depends on your town, and finding out the rules is part of it.
- Watch the Moon for two weeks — Draw its shape each clear evening. The pattern is the oldest calendar there is.
- Look for the northern lights — On a clear, dark night away from city lights, especially in northern Alberta. They are caused by particles from the Sun meeting the upper air — space in daily life, literally.
- Ask what a body part is for — A cat's whiskers, a beaver's tail, a moose's long legs. Every structure is an answer to a problem in that animal's life.
Sheets you can print for this
- Will it stick? — a magnet test
- Where does it go? — sorting waste
- Four systems, always connected — land, water, air, living things
- Built for the job — structure and function
- Moon journal — space in daily life
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.