The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that students understand how the materials connect the dimensions from chapter to chapter. The materials include four units comprising four to five chapters per unit. The Science Program Guide provides a recommended scope and sequence. The Unit Overview and Unit Map sections of the teacher materials provide information and support for teachers explaining how the chapters within a unit connect to each other. The Lesson Overview section of the teacher materials provides information and support for teachers that explains how the lessons within a chapter connect to each other. The first lesson of the unit (following the Pre-Unit Assessment) provides prompts that give context and goals for the entire unit. The first lesson of each subsequent chapter in the unit usually connects prior learning between the chapters in the unit. In three out of the four units in Grade 3, the final chapter connects to one or more disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) that are the focus of the unit, but not to the question presented in the Unit Map that provides context for the unit. While there are connections between chapters within each unit, there is not a connection between each unit and other units in the recommended sequence.

Examples of student learning experiences that demonstrate connections across chapters:

• In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, the Unit Map presents the question, “Why does Ergstown keep having blackouts?” Across this unit, students have multiple opportunities to apply scientific ideas about energy to solve design problems (SEP-CEDS-E4) as they figure out how energy can be transferred from place-to-place through electrical currents (DCI-PS3.A-E2) as they try to solve Ergstown’s blackout problem. In Chapter 1, students take the role of a systems engineer and are introduced to the blackout in fictional Ergstown. Throughout all of the chapters, students use simulations to determine what is causing the blackout and how better to balance the draw of electricity needed. Students learn about the electrical system of the town and try to explain what happened on the night of the blackout. Throughout this chapter and then again in Chapters 2 and 3, students conduct investigations to determine what caused the blackout and what happens when different variables are manipulated. As they manipulate these different variables, they construct explanations of cause, which they report back to the mayor of the town. In Chapter 3, students determine where electricity comes from within the town. In Chapter 4, students present their findings to the town and argue for the best solution to improve the electrical grid and reduce the number of blackouts.

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, the Unit Map presents the question, “Why is an increase in light affecting the health of Tokay geckos in a Philippine rain forest?” Across this unit, students have multiple opportunities to develop and use models (SEP-MOD-E4) to understand the relationship between light and the structures of the eye (DCI-PS4.B-E1, DCI-LS1.A-E1) and determine why increased light impacts the gecko populations. In Chapter 1, students take the role of conservation biologists to figure out why a population of geckos decreased after a new highway light was installed. Students investigate the senses of humans and animals (DCI-LS1.D-E1) to recognize how senses are used to survive in specific environments. In Chapter 2, students explore the relationship between light and the sense of sight; students use a digital simulation to model how light affects our ability to see an object. Students manipulate variables such as light, angle of light, and covering of objects to display a model allowing the object to be seen, then they observe and record the effects of various manipulations. Students learn that light must be present and angled so that it touches an object and reflects into the eye for an object to be seen (DCI-PS4.B-E1). In the final lesson of Chapter 2, students use information obtained through the models as well as data cards to write an explanation describing how light allows animals to see. In Chapter 3, students learn how light allows animals to see their prey. In Chapter 4, students use digital models to observe how different animals see with varying amounts of light to determine how animals can see at night. The models show that organisms rely on light entering the eye and structures in the eye processing the information and sending it to the brain. In Chapter 5, students plan an investigation about their own senses. While this connects to an understanding of internal and external structures serving various functions for behavior and survival, it does not directly connect to the unit’s question.

• In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, the Unit Map presents the question, “How can a mother dolphin and her calf communicate underwater when they cannot see each other? How can humans use patterns to communicate?” Across this unit, students have multiple opportunities to observe patterns in waves (CCC-PAT-E3) as they learn about waves and sound energy to figure out how a mother dolphin can communicate with her calf while underwater. In Chapter 1, students take the role of marine scientists and learn about dolphin communication and model how sound travels underwater. Students read several texts about waves and sound energy and how waves move in patterns. In Chapter 2, students use simulations to visualize sound energy and waves moving through different materials in different ways. Students use models to investigate particle collisions as sound energy moves and is transferred through water (DCI-PS3.B-E1, DCI-PS3.C-E). In Chapter 3, students use a simulation to learn about wave patterns and how wave amplitude and wavelength make specific sound patterns. Students listen to various dolphin calls and match them to wave diagrams. In Chapter 4, students address the second question in the Unit Map and learn about different forms of human communication.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they have an intentional sequence where student tasks increase in sophistication. Materials are designed with a recommended sequence and student tasks related to explaining phenomena and/or solving problems increase in sophistication within each unit and across the grade band.

Within the grade, the recommended sequence of units is Vision and Light, Energy Conversions, Waves, Energy and Information, and Earth’s Features, in that order. Within each of these units, there is a single anchor phenomenon that is presented to the students with investigative phenomenon utilized within the individual units. Although the units are provided in a recommended order, there is no specific increase of rigor as these units are presented. Approaches to the assessment of the different dimensions are also consistent and similar throughout each unit. However, the learning tasks within the unit increase in sophistication as students work towards explaining phenomena or solving problems.

Example of student tasks with increasing in sophistication within a unit:

• In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, students construct scientific explanations and arguments about how the rocks and fossils in Desert Rocks National Park can be used to infer the environmental history of the area. Students first look at evidence and learn how claims must be supported by evidence (SEP-ARG-E2). Students engage in discourse about their claims and write an argument about this area’s past (SEP-ARG-E4). As students gain more evidence about the rocky desert outcrop, they refine their arguments based on new evidence about what could have caused changes in the landscape (SEP-ARG-E1, SEP-ARG-E5). Students conduct investigations and use models to determine how rocks are formed and changed over long periods of time. They use evidence-based claims and scientific reasoning about earth systems to make an argument about the types of organisms in the area and the types of changes that could have occurred to the landscape to explain their disappearance (SEP-ARG-E4).

• In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, students study the properties of sound waves as they engage with various models. Initially, students read about and use a model to understand tsunamis, large waves, and compare stadium waves and spring toys as models to understand how energy moves in a wave-like motion (SEP-MOD-E4). Students then use a simulation where they play instruments and begin to observe the relationships between sounds and waveforms (SEP-MOD-E6). Students examine the relationships between collisions and sound using a simulator (SEP-MOD-E4) and through an investigation with coins and spring toys (SEP-MOD-E6). Students continue to use the sound simulator to manipulate wave forms to make connections between the shape of the waves and their impact on sound (SEP-MOD-E6). Throughout this unit, students engage in modeling with more sophistication as they explain the phenomenon by creating and revising a model for how sound travels underwater (SEP-MOD-E2).

In each K-5 grade level, there is one unit that emphasizes the practice of investigation, one that emphasizes the practice of modeling, and one that emphasizes the engineering practice of design. In addition, in Grades 3–5, there is also one unit that emphasizes the practice of argumentation. As students progress through the series, the materials connect learning of the three dimensions across the entire grade band. The way students engage with and use the three dimensions also increases in sophistication across the investigation, modeling, design, and argumentation units.

Examples of student tasks increasing in sophistication across grade levels:

• Investigation Units: Each grade contains a unit focused on students developing the science practices related to investigations. Grade 3 and Grade 4 show continued increasing complexity and ask students to utilize practices within clearly defined investigations and topics, but Grade 5 does not show a clear increase over the previous two grades. In Grade 3, the Inheritance and Traits unit focuses on inherited traits and specifically asks “What is the origin of the traits of Wolf 44—a wolf that appears to be different from the rest of its pack?” Investigations throughout this particular unit focus on how traits are inherited. Students are investigating the process by which animals (different ones are utilized within the unit) inherit traits that are similar to and different from other animals. They use science and engineering practices (SEPs) to ask questions (SEP-ADQP-E3), investigate the phenomenon and other related information (SEP-INV-E3), and collect data on the topic to help inform their conclusions (SEP-CEDS-E1). In Grade 4, students build on their investigation skills with the Vision and Light unit, which focuses on how animals obtain information through their senses. This unit emphasizes the practice of asking of questions; students then need to investigate and collect information to answer a question (SEP-ADQP-E1, SEP-ADQP-E3) as well as use modeling to draw conclusions (SEP-MOD-E3, SEP-MOD-E4, and SEP-DATA-E2). The practices of asking questions and conducting investigations increase in complexity compared to Grade 3. The Grade 4 unit adds the use of data to the modeling process and investigation process around the phenomenon, which is an increase in the complexity from the prior investigation unit in Grade 3. Additionally, students continue to build the practice of constructing explanations and arguing from evidence. In Grade 5, the Patterns of Earth and Sky unit informs students that, “different sections of an ancient artifact show what the sky looked like from one location and depict different stars.” The phenomenon in this unit does not fully connect chapter-to-chapter, nor is there a clear unit to unit connection with prior grades. The Investigation aspects within this unit focus largely on the use of developing and using models (SEP-MOD-E3 and SEP-MOD-E4), but show no additional connections to the prior to units focused on investigations.

• Argumentation Units: Each grade contains a unit focused on students developing the science practices related to investigations. Grades 3–5 show continued increasing complexity and ask students to utilize practices related to argumentation. In Grade 3, students use data to make predictions about the climate and evaluate different types of evidence (SEP-ARG-E2) in the Weather and Climate unit. Students practice organizing evidence and making claims by engaging in evidence circles (SEP-ARG-E1). Students work in groups to review evidence provided by the teacher and make claims and write an argument together about the weather on three islands. These skills are built upon in Grade 4, Earth’s Features unit, when students collect evidence from a rocky outcrop to study fossils in this area and make claims about the area’s history. To explain the fossil phenomenon, students first learn that claims must be supported by evidence (SEP-ARG-E2); then, they engage in discourse about their claims and write an argument about this area’s past (SEP-ARG-E4). As students gain more evidence about the rocky desert outcrop, they refine their arguments based on new evidence about what could have caused changes in the landscape on their own (SEP-ARG-E1, SEP-ARG-E5). In Grade 5, Ecosystem Restoration unit, students examine a rainforest ecosystem and use investigations and models to collect their own data that supports their arguments (SEP-ARG-E4) about what factors could be impacting the lives of the organisms in the ecosystem that are not thriving. Students learn about the components of good argumentation and use scientific reasoning to discuss why the animals in the ecosystem are not thriving (SEP-ARG-E3). At the end of the series, students are using their arguments, that are inclusive of claims, evidence, and reasoning to justify a plan to restore the reforested rainforest (SEP-ARG-E5).

• Modeling Units: Each grade contains a unit focused on students developing the science practices related to modeling. Grades 3–5 show continued increasing complexity and ask students to utilize practices related to modeling. In Grade 3, the Balancing Forces unit introduces students to the unit phenomenon of the floating train. Students take on the role of an engineer and seek information to explain why the train floats; this requires students to explain balanced and unbalanced forces. By asking questions (SEP-ADQP-E4) across the entire unit, students explore and learn how different forces act on objects. Questions build on each other as students move throughout the unit. Students are also engaged in the use of the simulation to create models (SEP-MOD-E4). Some examples of models within the simulation have students demonstrating how a magnetic force causes the train to “float” and how balanced forces act on the train. Investigations outside of the simulation ask students to explore how gravity affects different objects pulling them towards the earth and to read about the use of a hoverboard. In addition to the use of models within these explorations, students continue to ask questions (SEP-ADQP-E4, SEP-INV-E1, SEP-INV-E3). In Grade 4, the Waves, Energy, and Information unit has students study the properties of sound waves to explain the phenomenon of sound moving through water. Students use tsunamis, stadium waves, and spring toys as models to understand wave-like motion (SEP-MOD-E4). Students use musical instruments, collision investigations, and a digital simulator (SEP-MOD-E4) to make connections between sounds and waves. By the end of the unit, students use models to manipulate waves and sounds and to make connections among waves, collisions, and sounds. Students continue to use the sound simulator to manipulate waveforms to make connections between the shape of the wave and its impact on sound (SEP-MOD-E6). To explain the phenomena, students creating and revising a model for how sound travels under water (SEP-MOD-E2). In Grade 5, the Modeling Matter unit has students use models to understand the forces among molecules (SEP-MOD-E3) and use digital simulations to make predictions about how molecules in salad dressing will behave. Students use and create models to make predictions about scientific phenomena.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they do not inappropriately include scientific content and ideas outside of the grade-level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). Across the grade, the materials consistently incorporate student learning opportunities to learn and use DCIs appropriate to the grade.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) for physical sciences. Across the grade, the materials include all of the associated elements of the physical science DCIs. These are found in two units: Waves, Energy, and Information and Energy Conversions.

Examples of grade-level physical science DCI elements present in the materials:

• PS3.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Designing a Wind Turbine, students engage in a design challenge to build a wind turbine. Students evaluate two different proposed solutions to determine which is the best for Ergstown; they determine which turbine spins the fastest, thus producing the most energy.

• PS3.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Sound on the Move, students use a simulation that shows how energy causes particles in different materials to move. Students relate the energy and vibrations to sound.

• PS3.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Electrical Energy, students engage in the use of a digital simulation to investigate electrical systems. Students visualize how energy flows from one place to another through electrical currents and gather evidence within the simulation about which devices have energy as an input.

• PS3.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.5: Forms of Energy, students create basic electrical systems that help to demonstrate that devices produce motion, sound, or light as energy outputs. Students use an LED bulb to demonstrate light as the output.

• PS3.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Visualizing How Sound Travels, students use a sound-simulation activity and connect vibrations with sound. Students then read a book about particle movement and learn that energy is transferred through particle collisions.

• PS3.B-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Visualizing How Sound Travels, students use a sound simulation activity and connect vibrations with sound. Students then read a book about particle movement and learn that energy is transferred through particle collisions helping to understand how energy is transferred from one object to another.

• PS3.B-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.4: Investigating Collisions, students use a spring toy and a coin collision investigation to model energy transfer and how during these particle collisions, energy is released as sound.

• PS3.B-E2: In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.4: Design Arguments About Devices, students read pages from It’s All Energy to learn that light is a form of energy that can be transferred from place to place. Later in the lesson, students use the Sim to compare the amount of light energy transferred by old streetlights and LED streetlights.

• PS3.B-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Electrical Energy, students engage in the use of a digital simulation to investigate electrical systems and how energy is transferred from one point to another. Students visualize how energy flows and gather evidence within the simulation about which devices have energy as an input.

• PS3.B-E3. In Grade 4, Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.5: Forms of Energy, students develop a basic electrical system within the simulation. Students use their reader to discuss how motion, sound, and light can be forms of output of electrical energy.

• PS3.C-E1: In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.4:Investigating Collisions, students push a nickel into a penny and observe that when the two objects collide, the contact forces transfer energy and change the motion of both the nickel and the penny.

• PS3.D-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.4: System Improvements, students gather and evaluate all evidence within the simulation from this unit to provide a solution to the problem in Ergstown, which involves understanding how energy is produced, stored, and transferred to locations that need energy.

• PS4.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.3: Warning: Tsunami!, students read a text about tsunamis to begin to learn about waves moving through water. Students then model waves with slinkies to begin to see that waves move in regular patterns.

• PS4.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Exploring Sound Waves, students use a simulation, view a video about stadium waves, and practice “doing the waves” to see that water barely moves, only up and down, as the energy of a wave passes through water.

• PS4.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.1: Investigating Amplitude, students use a sound-wave simulator to explore how changing a sound wave’s height (amplitude) changes the volume of the sound.

• PS4.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Investigating Wavelength, students create a reed-like instrument using a straw to explore pitch and then connect the idea of pitch to wavelength by manipulating a simulation.

• PS4.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Human Communication, students read a text, Patterns in Code, to learn that humans use codes and digitized information to transmit messages over long distances.

• PS4.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Communicating with Codes, students use a code communicator to communicate an image to a classmate from across the room by sending a message using binary code.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) for life sciences. Across the grade, the materials include all the associated elements of the Life Science DCIs. All of the life science DCI elements are found in one unit: Vision and Light.

Examples of grade-level life science DCI elements present in the materials:

• LS1.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Investigating Light, students engage in a digital simulation that manipulates light to affect what the eye is able to see. Students observe that our eye is a structure that sends information to our brain to affect our behavior, survival, and actions.

• LS1.D.E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.2: Introducing Animal Senses, students participate in a class activity where they use a variety of their senses. Students then look at a series of images and conduct a class discussion regarding what actions and responses would be associated with the images.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) for earth and space sciences. Across the grade, the materials include all the associated elements of the Earth and Space Science DCIs. All of the earth and space science DCI elements are found across all units in Grade 4.

Examples of grade-level earth and space science DCI elements present in the materials:

• ESS1.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Environmental Change, students use a simulation to order rock layers. They work with diagrams to apply ideas about how geologists infer the order of past environments. Students complete an investigation in the sim, which enables them to connect the order in which rock layers formed to the order of past environments in a location.

• ESS1.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.5: Students’ Arguments, students use maps of the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes to infer how those geological occurrences correlate to local, regional and global patterns of rock formations.

• ESS2.A-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Rocky Wonders, students read the book Rocky Wonders and discuss causes of erosion, how erosion shapes land, and how water, wind, ice, and plants can cause erosion.

• ESS2.B-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.5: Students’ Arguments, students are reminded that geologists use maps to figure out what might have happened in the past. Students view maps of the United States and the world; they use the maps to identify land and water features, identify locations of volcano and earthquake activity, and identify ocean ridges and trenches.

• ESS2.E-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Seeing Like a Shrimp an Smelling Like a Snake, students read how sense receptors help the star-nosed mole survives in its environment; students discuss this survival strategy and also discuss how the mole changes its environment as it digs tunnels. In Lesson 4.6, students reflect on how humans change the environment when they build roads or other structures.

• ESS3.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.1: Investigating Energy Sources, students read pages from the book It’s All Energy to learn about different fuels that humans use for energy, including renewability, cost, and environmental impacts. Students then relate these energy sources back to how Ergstown gets its energy.

• ESS3.B-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.3: Warning: Tsunami!, students learn about tsunamis, ways to detect tsunamis, and plans to help people escape from tsunamis.

The instructional materials reviewed Grades 3–5 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-band and grade-level disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) for engineering, technology, and applications of science (ETS) and all associated elements. In Grade 3, no performance expectations (PEs) are associated with physical, life, or earth and space science DCIs that also connect to an ETS DCI. However, the materials do include opportunities for students to engage with ETS elements in this grade.

Examples of ETS DCI elements present in the Grade 3 materials:

• ETS1.A-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Planning Designs, students learn solutions to a problem may be limited by available materials and resources (constraints), and that the success of a solution is determined by how well it meets specific criteria. Students are presented with a design challenge of developing a robot that will remove invasive species. Students are given a list of criteria that the robot must do and have the constraint of a limited amount of materials to use.

• ETS1.B-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Planning Designs, students learn that it is important to research a problem before beginning to design a solution, and that testing a solution involves investigating how well the design performs. Students use books and videos to research how a giraffe’s neck allows it to successfully get food and how the shape of the giraffe’s teeth allow it to grind-up its food. Students test their solutions to determine how well the teeth on their design performs.

• ETS1.B.E2. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Preparing for Natural Hazards, students learn the importance of testing designs to identify failure points, then use those tests to determine where to improve their design. Students build a hurricane-proof structure to meet a set of criteria, then perform a series of tests to determine if their structures meet that criteria. Students come back together and discuss the features of each of their designs that were effective and ineffective each performance test.

• ETS1.B-E3. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Planning Designs and Lesson 4.3: Making and Testing Designs, students learn that communicating with peers about proposed solutions is an important part of the design process, and shared ideas can lead to improved designs. Students communicate their design ideas before constructing their robot. In Lesson 4.3, students share their results of their tests on their design and then use the shared ideas from the class to improve their design.

In Grade 4, two PEs are associated with physical, life, or earth and space science DCIs that also connect to an ETS DCI. The materials include opportunities for students to engage with these ETS elements in this grade.

Examples of the Grade 4 grade-level ETS DCI elements present in the materials:

• ETS1.A-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.3: Exploring Systems, students learn that solutions to a problem may be limited by available materials and resources (constraints) and that the success of a solution is determined by how well it meets specific criteria. Students build a simple electrical system model that is powered by a solar panel using materials that are provided to them in a bag.

• ETS1.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.4: System Improvements, students learn that testing different designs can help them determine which solves the problem. Students share data from their design tests with their classmates. Students use a listening strategy to provide input on the designs. After this, students receive a memo from the mayor asking them to consider two potential designs and recommend one.

In Grade 5, no PEs associated with physical, life, or earth and space science DCIs connect to an ETS DCI. However, the materials do include opportunities for students to engage with ETS elements in this grade.

Examples of ETS DCI elements present in the Grade 5 materials:

• ETS1.A-E1. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.7: Design Freshwater Collection Systems, students learn that solutions to a problem may be limited by available materials and resources (constraints) and that the success of a solution is determined by how well it meets specific criteria. Students are challenged to design a system that will provide fresh water from salt water. They discuss constraints that engineers would face with this design and then are presented with constraints on the materials they can use. Students also determine that providing fresh water would be the indication of success.

• ETS1.B-E1. In Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Investigating Dissolving: Why do some salad dressings have sediments and others do not?, students begin to design a salad dressing that must have particles dissolve. Past lessons contribute to the research that must be done before designing a solution. Testing is also done to see how the dressing performs with various ingredients.

• ETS1.B-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Iterating on Freshwater Collection Systems, students discuss how testing their designs can identify failure points and this information can be used to determine what aspects of the design needs to be improved. Students measure how much freshwater their initial systems collect. Students then identify where their design failed and record which aspects of their design did not work and which aspects succeeded. Students improve their design based on the test results. This includes an explanation of why they think these successes and failures occurred.

• ETS1.B-E3. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Iterating on Freshwater Collection Systems, students learn that communicating with peers about proposed solutions is an important part of the design process, and that shared ideas can lead to improved designs. After completing their design of a freshwater collection system, students participate in an Engineer’s Jigsaw routine to see other groups’ designs and discuss their successes and failures. Students gather information from the jigsaw routine about how they can redesign their own systems. They discuss these plans in their groups and then improve their design.

The Grades 3–5 band includes three DCI PEs that are designed to be taught at any point across the grade band. These PEs include five elements. The materials provide opportunities to engage with ETS DCIs and their elements in all three grades within this band.

Examples of the 3–5 grade-band ETS DCI elements present in the materials:

• ETS1.A-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Preparing for Natural Hazards, students learn that solutions to a problem may be limited by available materials and resources (constraints) and that the success of a solution is determined by how well it meets specific criteria. Students are tasked to design a structure that would be protective against the damage caused by a hurricane. Students are given a specific amount of tape, craft sticks, straws, scissors, and a single index card to build a structure to meet a set of criteria. Their structure must hold a penny above water, stay upright through wind and rain, be stable, and fit in a given container.

• ETS1.B-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, lesson 4.2: Planning Designs, students learn that it is important to research a problem before beginning to design a solution and that testing a solution involves investigating how well the design performs. Students use books and videos to research how a giraffe’s neck allows it to successfully get food and how the shape of the giraffe’s teeth allow it to grind-up its food. Students test their solutions to determine how well the teeth on their design performs.

• ETS1.B-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Iterating on Freshwater Collection Systems, students discuss how testing their designs can identify failure points and this information can be used to determine what aspects of the design needs to be improved. Students measure how much freshwater their initial systems collect. Students then identify where their design failed and record which aspects of their design did not work and which aspects succeeded. Students improve their design based on the test results. This includes an explanation of why they think these successes and failures occurred.

• ETS1.B-E3. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Iterating on Freshwater Collection Systems, students learn that communicating with peers about proposed solutions is an important part of the design process, and that shared ideas can lead to improved designs. After completing their design of a freshwater collection system, students participate in an Engineer’s Jigsaw routine to see other groups’ designs and discuss their successes and failures. Students gather information from the jigsaw routine about how they can redesign their own systems. They discuss these plans in their groups and then improve their design.

• ETS1.C-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.4: System Improvements, students learn that testing different designs can help them determine which solves the problem. Students share data from their design tests with their classmates. Students utilize a listening strategy to provide input on the designs. After this, students receive a memo from the mayor asking them to consider two potential designs and recommend one.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 4 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level science and engineering practices (SEPs) and associated elements. Across the grade level, the units fully incorporate all the grade-level SEPs but do not incorporate all elements associated with grade-level performance expectations. One element is missing (SEP-DATA-E4). In addition, opportunities for students to fully meet the grade-band endpoint for the element SEP-MOD-E4 are missing; the materials do not require students to develop their own models.

Across the grade, students are provided opportunities to engage with the SEPs multiple times and in multiple contexts. Students repeatedly engage with grade-band elements of SEPs multiple times across the units; students have multiple opportunities to conduct investigations, use models, analyze data, and obtain information from text or other media to support explanations they construct about phenomena.

Examples of SEP elements associated with grade-level performance expectations present in the materials:

• AQDP-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, students look at examples of river canyons and compare them to the outcrop; they ask questions about what could have caused differences in rock layers, leading to additional evidence-collection.

• MOD-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.4: Modeling Erosion: Speed, students use the stream table model to construct their ideas about erosion and continue to investigate the question, “What affects the amount of rock that water can erode?” Students discuss how they could use the Erosion Model to test how the speed of water affects erosion.

• MOD-E6. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.3: How Sounds Can Differ, students use a digital simulation model where they manipulate wave patterns to show that changes in wavelength and amplitude affect a sound’s volume and pitch.

• INV-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Investigating What Different Animals See, students use a digital simulation to observe what animals can see using various amounts of light.

• DATA-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Exploring Rock Formation and Environment, students collect data about rock samples, read about the rock types they’ve observed, and use the simulation to consider the question, “How do rocks provide information about what an environment was like in the past?” Students observe two rock samples⁠—conglomerate and sandstone⁠—and record their observations about how sedimentary rocks differ. Students share preliminary ideas about where the rocks may have formed.

• CEDS-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Sound on the Move, students collect data during a teacher-led investigation where they listen to how sounds change when they move through different materials. They use their observations to explain how different materials can impact how sound travels.

• CEDS-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.1: Investigating Energy Sources, students gather evidence and information to explain why the hospital lights and devices continue to work during a blackout. In this activity, students are examining evidence and asking questions about why the hospital still has electricity.

• CEDS-E5. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Blackout!, students determine construct circuits and make them fail. Another group analyzes the failed circuit to determine what is the failure point and provides solutions for fixing the circuit. Students then apply this understanding to the blackout problem in Ergstown and compare multiple solutions for minimizing the town’s blackouts.

• ARG-E4. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.6: Discussing Dolphin Communication, students synthesize information they have gathered through digital models, investigations, and scientific texts to formulate a claim about how dolphins communicate with one another underwater. As a class, students engage in a science forum to explain this phenomenon and support their arguments with evidence and data.

• INFO-E4. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.3: Investigating Animal Senses, students obtain information from text to explain how animals use their senses to acquire food and survive.

Example of SEP elements associated with grade-level performance expectations partially present in the materials:

• MOD-E4. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Energy Converters, students use a digital simulation to manipulate variables (pupil size and amount of light) to model how the amount of light entering the eye affects the ability to see. Students do not have opportunities to develop their own models.

Example of SEP elements associated with grade-level performance expectations not present in the materials:

• DATA-E4. Analyze data to refine a problem statement or the design of a proposed object, tool, or process.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grades 3–5 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level science and engineering practices (SEPs) and associated elements. Across the grade band, the units fully incorporate all the SEPs and elements associated with the performance expectations (PEs) within the 3–5 grade band.

Across the grade band, students are provided opportunities to engage with the SEPs multiple times and in multiple contexts. Students repeatedly engage with grade-band elements of SEPs multiple times across the units; students have multiple opportunities to conduct investigations, develop and use models, analyze data, and obtain information from text or other media to support explanations they construct about phenomena. Many SEP elements were met multiple times across the units and grade levels.

Examples of SEP elements associated with performance expectations within the 3–5 grade band present in the materials:

• AQDP-E3. In Grade 3, Unit: Balancing Forces, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.1: Discovering Non-Touching Forces, students ask questions about what causes the train to rise and how magnets are part of the train moving. Students then investigate the questions they had as they manipulate the magnets in different ways.

• AQDP-E5. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Planning Designs, students define the design problem of building a robot that will remove an invasive plant species from a tree. Students develop a system, in the form of a robot, to solve their design problem. Students work within the criteria of an effective removal and the constraints of materials available for their system.

• MOD-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.4: Modeling Erosion: Speed, students use the stream table model to construct their ideas about erosion and continue to investigate the question, “What affects the amount of rock that water can erode?” Students discuss how they could use the Erosion Model to test how the speed of water affects erosion.

• MOD-E4. In Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.5: Models of Emulsifiers, students use a digital simulation and knowledge from this unit to create a nanoscale drawing that highlights the behavior of molecules in solutions. Students are able to predict how molecules will behave even though we are not able to see them.

• MOD-E6. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.3: How Sounds Can Differ, students use a digital simulation model where they manipulate wave patterns to show that changes in wavelength and amplitude affect a sound’s volume and pitch.

• INV-E1. In Grade 5, Unit: Earth’s Systems, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.7: Designing Freshwater Collection Systems, students are introduced to a hands-on design challenge: to design and build freshwater collection systems that will get freshwater from saltwater and then collect the freshwater for people to use. Students control variables by using the same amount of hot, colored salt water. Students all have the same amount of time. The measurement technique of the resulting fresh water is identical. Students do two trials, the second one after revisions of their devices. Students reflect on what they have learned so far to help them design their systems, identifying evaporation and condensation as processes that can distill freshwater from saltwater.

• INV-E3. In Grade 3, Unit: Environment and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Making and Testing Designs, students make and test their first test-versions of the neck design, share their designs and test results with another pair, and then revise their test-versions based on new ideas. Students are reminded of the procedure for neck-testing, take turns testing their giraffe-inspired necks, and record test data in their notebooks. Students share their designs and test results with another pair, and then record their new data about their designs. Students make a second test-version of the robot necks and test them.

• DATA-E1. In Grade 5, Unit: Earth’s Systems, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Making Sense of Where Raindrops Form, students begin by predicting which areas of the atmosphere in a simulated landscape will have the most condensation. They use The Earth System Simulation to collect data on where and at what temperatures water vapor condenses in the atmosphere. They then graph their data set in The Earth System Data Tool to look for patterns, concluding that more condensation occurs high in the atmosphere because it is colder there.

• DATA-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Exploring Rock Formation and Environment, students collect data about rock samples, read about the rock types they’ve observed, and use the simulation to consider the question, “How do rocks provide information about what an environment was like in the past?” Students observe two rock samples⁠—conglomerate and sandstone⁠—and record their observations about how sedimentary rocks differ. Students share preliminary ideas about where the rocks may have formed.

• DATA-E4. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Making and Testing Designs, students test their initial design for the RoboGrazer. Students measure and record the length of the robot neck and test how many leaves are touched within 30 seconds. Students share their data with classmates, analyzing which designs best met the criteria. Students then use that information to refine their designs.

• MATH-E3. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 1, Lessons 1.2 and 1.3, students learn that data needs to be accurately recorded to recognize and predict patterns. Students perform a short experiment to determine the most effective way to measure rain data and collect temperature data. While students record and graph quantities to address scientific questions related to volume and temperature, they don’t specifically use quantities related to area, weight, or time.

• MATH-E3. In Grade 5, Unit: Earth’s Systems, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Making Sense of Where Raindrops Form, students use The Earth System Simulation to collect data on where and at what temperatures water vapor condenses in the atmosphere. They record and graph temperature, atmosphere height, and number of molecules for various landscapes to show that water vapor condenses at colder, higher elevations. Students then use the information from different condensation patterns on the different landscapes to future out why more water vapor gets cold over the west side of the island. While students record and graph quantities to address scientific questions, they don’t specifically use quantities related to area, volume, weight, or time.

• CEDS-E2. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.2: Dangerous Weather Ahead, students use evidence from a text, Dangerous Weather Ahead, from a digital simulation, Weather and Climate Practice Tool, and from weather maps to construct an explanation about why natural disasters happen in some areas and not in others.

• CEDS-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.1: Investigating Energy Sources, students gather evidence and information to explain why the hospital lights and devices continue to work during a blackout. In this activity, students are examining evidence and asking questions about why the hospital still has electricity.

• CEDS-E5. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 4, students construct circuits and make them fail. Another group analyzes the failed circuit to determine what is the failure point and provides solutions for fixing the circuit. Students then apply this understanding to the blackout problem in Ergstown and compare multiple solutions for minimizing the town’s blackouts.

• ARG-E4. In Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Investigating Dissolving, students use evidence from a digital simulation along with observations from a lab on dissolving to support the argument that molecules exist and are moving, but are too small to see. This data also supports the argument that molecules have charges and specific arrangements that influence the solubility of substances.

• ARG-E6. In Grade 3, Unit: Environments and Survival, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.5: Presenting Design Arguments, students learn that they will participate in a Biomimicry Engineering Conference in which they will present design arguments for how their RoboGrazer designs meet the criteria. Students prepare their arguments by reviewing their test data and describing how their designs meet each of the criteria. Then the engineering conference begins, and students present their designs and design arguments and listen to others present.

• INFO-E4. In Grade 5, Unit: Ecosystem Restoration, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.3: Matter Makes it All Up, students use information from a digital simulation model and the text, Matter Makes it All Up, to describe how animals use food to grow.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grades 3-5 meet expectations that they incorporate all grade-level crosscutting concepts (CCCs) and associated elements. Across the grade band, the units incorporate all of the elements associated with the performance expectations within the 3-5 grade band.

Across the grade band, students have multiple opportunities to engage with the grade-level CCCs that are implicitly connected to SEPs or DCIs as they build toward grade-level performance expectations. For example, students have frequent opportunities to conduct investigations or use a model to observe or test cause and effect relationships (SEP-MOD-E6), such as when they observe that mixing two substances can cause a new substance to form (DCI-PS1.B-E1). Students have multiple opportunities to use tests to gather evidence to support or refute ideas; however, opportunities to explicitly discuss this idea (CCC-CE-E1) are limited. When the materials provide opportunities to make the crosscutting concepts explicit for students, this is generally through sentence frames to help students use targeted CCCs, or through teacher prompts that provide explicit connections and guide student discussions about how scientists and engineers use different CCCs to answer scientific questions or solve engineering problems.

Examples of CCC elements associated with performance expectations within the 3-5 grade band present in the materials:

• PAT-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Discovering Climate Through Data, students analyze monthly weather data organized in graphs from three different places over the course of three years. Students analyze yearly patterns and recognize that the repetitive patterns represent the climate for that area.

• PAT-E2. In Grade 3, Unit: Inheritance and Traits, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Investigating Sparrow Offspring, students use the knowledge of inheritance patterns obtained throughout the unit to make predictions of the sparrow offspring that will result from designated parents.

• PAT-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Sedimentary Rock Formation, students investigate rock samples and patterns of rock formation in the simulation to learn about how sedimentary rock forms. Students use a simulation to investigate the patterns of sedimentary rock formation. Students observe rocks forming in the simulation and record their observations about how this process happens. In doing so, students begin to make sense of the patterns that water and sediment have in a rock formation. Finally, students reflect on the information they gathered from the simulation by making a prediction of how the rock samples they observed at the beginning of the lesson may have formed.

• CE-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Balancing Forces, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.1: Exploring Forces in a Chain Reaction, students watch a video about chain reactions, develop their own set of chain reactions, and explain how different forces caused each reaction. Throughout the series of reactions, students are demonstrating the relationships of the components in the series of interactions in a system. Teacher prompts focus students on what caused each object to start moving and the effect of the movement, additionally, they help students understand that scientists use cause and effect relationships to test and explain change or relationships.

• CE-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Exploring Rock Formation and Environment, students observe two samples of sedimentary rock to see what information they give about the environment in which they formed and discuss what caused the different properties of each sample to determine if they were formed in the same way. Students use the cause-and-effect relationship to explain change. SYS-E2. In Grade 3, Unit: Environment and Survival, students examine population data for two snail species where one is thriving and one is not. After reflecting on survival in snails and other organisms in particular environments, students describe the snail’s environment in terms of the different components and their interactions as they examine snail population data across different environments and with various predators. Students think about the causes of these differences and predict what would happen if another organism was introduced to the system.

• SPQ-E1. In Grade 5, Unit 2: Modeling Matter, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.5: Making Sense of Solubility, students read information about molecules to understand that they exist at a small scale then use a simulation that models varying degrees of solubility to evaluate explanations of two solutions and discuss what is happening at the molecular level.

• SPQ-E1. In Grade 5, Unit: Patterns in the Night Sky, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Distances to the Stars, students investigate why stars look so small. Students use the simulation to investigate the distance from earth to the sun and to other stars. Students use the data that was collected to create a scale model of the earth, sun, and four other stars as they build understanding that natural systems can be immensely large.

• SPQ-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: students use the Earth’s Features Sim to explore how various processes on earth can occur over very long time periods.

• SPQ-E2. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.2: Future Weather on Three Islands, students perform a short experiment to determine the most effective way to measure rain data. As they measure rainfall and compare varying data with other groups, they learn that standard units are vital when communicating measurements.

• SYS-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Environment and Survival, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.2: Investigating Needs for Survival, students consider what organisms need to survive; they complete the Investigating Needs for Survival activity and investigate an organism with particular needs. Students read about four different environments (systems) and consider whether their organism can meet its needs in each of the four systems. Students start to think about the relationship between an organism and the system it is a part of.

• SYS-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: The Earth System, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Investigating the Movement of Water Vapor, students examine how the shape of the land and movement of water vapor within the atmosphere affects rainfall. Students consider the island’s shape, landscape, direction of wind, and compare that to other islands using the online simulation and then use the simulation program to model what factors affect how water vapor moves in the air. Students describe each component of this system and how they interact to produce the patterns of rainfall.

• EM-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: Ecosystem Restoration, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.5: Modeling How Animals Use Plant Matter, students use a simulation and a text about alligators to understand how animals grow from food at a molecular level. In the simulation, students track the volume of matter eaten to see that the matter that animals consume help the animals grow or becomes waste. Students begin to understand how matter moves within an ecosystem.

• EM-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.4: Exploring Sound Waves, students are introduced to energy moving through the water as they examine the wave patterns caused by tsunamis. They learn that the water (the matter) hardly moves as energy is transferred but rather as the energy wave moves through, water moves perpendicularly, not with the wave. The students then look at how the energy from the waves causes damage as it approaches land. The waves impact land and energy is transferred to objects as the wave moves over them, causing additional energy transfer, sound, and damage. They model this by simulating a sports stadium wave and “pass” energy to one another.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grades 3–5 meet expectations that they incorporate NGSS connections to the nature of science (NOS) and engineering. The NOS and engineering elements are represented and attended multiple times throughout the grade-band units. They are used in correlation with the content and not used as isolated lessons. The NOS and Engineering elements are used in a variety of fashions throughout the units including videos, readings, and class discussions. Although most of the elements are present in the lessons, they are not explicitly called out in the instructional material.

Examples of grade-band connections to NOS elements associated with SEPs present in the materials:

• VOM-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Crow Scientist, students read a text describing the investigations of a wildlife biologist. Students read about the scientist asking questions about crow behavior and then determining how to investigate the questions.

• VOM-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: Ecosystem Restoration, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.3: Differences in Soil, students read about an ecologist in A Walk in the Woods, and how that scientist uses various methods to collect data about soil composition and health. Students then use the ecologist's data to make claims about soil health.

• BEE-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Weather and Climate, Chapter 2, Lesson 2.2: Seeing the World Through Numbers, students read about organizing data to better make sense of it. In the text, Seeing the World Through Numbers, students read about a boy and his friends and how they compare temperature patterns from around the world. They then discuss how the patterns can help people make predictions about weather.

• BEE-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Seeing Sound, students read the text, Seeing Sound, and discover the different ways that scientists use tools to visualize sounds to make sense of the world. Students discuss how tools and technologies are important for helping these professionals accurately see sound.

• OTR-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Inheritance and Traits, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Scorpion Scientist, students read a book called, Scorpion Scientist. The text describes a scientist gathering evidence that can be used to identify new species of scorpions. The scientist asks questions and performs investigations to seek answers on how to classify the new species and if that classification will result in changes to classification of current identified scorpions.

• ENP-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Balancing Forces, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Discussing Gravity Acting Between Two Objects, students use a reading strategy related to setting a purpose for reading and complete a Gravity Anticipatory Chart to record their understanding and questions about gravity. Within the Reader, Handbook of Forces, students read about gravity and how it is a force that acts on objects without touching. Students read about how objects such as the earth exert a force called gravity that pulls you towards it.

• ENP-E2. In Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Science You Can’t See, students read text describing how science and scientists can describe the ocean floor, atomic structure, and other natural events we can not see.

Examples of grade-band connections to NOS elements associated with CCCs present in the materials:

• WOK-E1. In Grade 3, Unit: Inheritance and Traits, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.1: Scorpion Scientist, students read a text that describes how a scientist asks questions and investigates to answer their questions, and how this can lead to answers. The text also describes answers leading to more questions to gain new knowledge.

• HE-E2. In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.2: Crow Scientist, students read a text where a wildlife biologist describes the team he works with to conduct investigations.

• HE-E3. In Grade 5, Unit: Modeling Matter, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.7: Break It Down, students read text describing how scientists separate mixtures to provide water and save lives.

• HE-E4. In Grade 3, Unit: Environment and Survival, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.1: Pre Unit Assessment, students read the book, Biomimicry, which is about scientists who study organisms to get ideas for solutions to design problems. The teacher leads discussion about how engineers design solutions to problems and that they use their imaginations to get design ideas from observing organisms’ traits.

Examples of grade-band connections to ENG elements associated with CCCs present in the materials:

• INTER-E3. In Grade 5, Unit: Earth’s Systems, Chapter 3, Lesson 3.4: Iterating on Freshwater Collection Systems, students discuss how the engineers in the book revised their designs for pumps using the same process that the students use to improve their freshwater reclamation models.

• INTER-E4. In Grade 5, Unit: Earth’s Systems, Chapter 2: Why does more rain form over West Ferris than East Ferris?, students read text and discuss how engineers use the design process to plan, make, and test water treatment systems.

• INFLU-E1. In Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Chapter 1, Lesson 1.1: Pre Unit Assessment, students discuss what happens when the power goes out in Ergstown and within the discussion, the teacher helps students make connections to the ideas that an engineers’ work is determined by people’s want and needs, and that people’s lives and interactions are influenced by the technologies that engineers develop.

• INFLU-E3. In Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy and Information, Chapter 4, Lesson 4.3: Communicating with Codes!, after discussing the various ways that humans communicate with one another, students create a communication plan and use codes to communicate with one another. Students recognize that, although humans can be far apart, they can still communicate and interact across long distances by using new technology.

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grade 4 meet expectations for providing teacher guidance with useful annotations and suggestions for how to enact the student materials and ancillary materials, with specific attention to engaging students in figuring out phenomena and solving problems. Materials provide comprehensive guidance that will assist the teachers in presenting the student and ancillary materials. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview introduces a real-world problem, which serves as the anchor phenomenon, and its relevance to our lives. It also gives an overview of how students will build knowledge in order to solve a new problem.

• The Teacher Guide, The Progress Build explains how knowledge about the phenomenon deepens as the students progress through the unit, specifically noting bolded statements.

• The Teacher Guide, Getting Ready to Teach specifically details what the teacher needs to do to prepare Before You Present the Lesson, While You Present the Lesson, and After You Present the Lessons.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Digital Resources, Classroom Slide|Powerpoint and the Google Slides suggest teacher talk and teacher actions.

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Step-by-Step provides the instructional strategy and precise teacher talk and teacher action. 

• All Chapters, Lessons, Lesson Brief, Activity, Instructional Guide, Teacher Support provides background information about the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards featured in the activity as well as the Rationale behind the teacher action and instructional suggestions. 

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.”

• All lessons, Overview, Lesson at a Glance briefly describe student activities and suggested time allocation for each activity. 

The instructional guides for each lesson from Grade 4 include suggestions about instructional strategies and guidance for presenting the content, which often includes identifying, with limited room for more targeted approaches to addressing student naive conceptions. Examples from all units include:

• The Teacher Guide, Progress Build Section(s) provide prior knowledge (preconceptions) that students may bring to the lesson, foundational knowledge needed for student understanding and growth throughout the lesson, and progress build levels describing conceptual growth that students are expected to experience throughout the unit.

• The Teacher Guide, Eliciting and Leveraging Student’s Prior Knowledge, Personal Experiences, and Cultural Backgrounds, supports teachers by introducing the phenomenon and consistently eliciting students' initial ideas related to the phenomenon. Also, this resource provides support for teachers to document ideas throughout the units on a class chart for ongoing reference and to help students add, revise, and reflect on their ideas. 

With regard to addressing how to support students in figuring out phenomena and/or solving problems, the materials support the teacher in seeing connections between the phenomena and questioning, but miss the opportunity to clearly articulate/illustrate how the students’ understanding of the phenomenon deepens throughout. Evidence of connections between phenomena and questioning includes:

• The Teacher Guide, Unit Overview, Printable Resources, Coherence Flowcharts provide teachers with a graphic organizer for each chapter in the unit “that helps students see the connections between the phenomena and questions that drive students’ experiences, the evidence they gather, the ideas they figure out, and the new questions that those ideas generate.” 

• Within each Activity, there is also an Instructional Guide with step-by-step guidance that is present for teachers to support their understanding of which Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) are the focus and how to support students in using them as students figure out the phenomena or solve the problems. 

All units conclude by asking students to apply the knowledge acquired throughout the unit to a new problem. Teachers are provided support via the PowerPoint slides and include suggested teacher talk to frame how engineers solve problems, in context with the ideas students learned and also teacher action to help students consider and discuss solutions.

The materials reviewed for Amplify Science Grades 4 meet expectations for containing adult-level explanations and examples of the more complex grade-level concepts and concepts beyond the current course so that teachers can improve their own knowledge of the subject. The materials include support for teachers to develop their own understanding of grade-level concepts and content knowledge beyond the scope of the current course. 

Support for teacher understanding is present across all units. The Teacher Guide section, Science Background provides adult-level science background related to the unit. This section contains expository explanations of scientific background for the three dimensions of NGSS pertaining to the unit, with grade-level appropriate student background as well as common preconceptions by both students and adults. The Teacher Guide explicitly states that the information is meant to guide the teacher in teaching the correct content, but is not meant as student-facing material.

Also in the Teacher Guide, Planning For the Unit, Digital Resource Tab, Unit Map, there is an outline of the expected student practices for each Chapter. It presents a Chapter guiding question with an explanation for the teacher regarding how the students will develop understanding through lesson activities. 

The Teacher Guide, Science Background provides detailed adult-level science background regarding each unit’s science content along with a description of the extent to which this content is to be shared with students. The Science Background section includes cited references to inform teachers of the pedagogical research-based approaches to support grade-level content delivery as it is presented in the materials. In the Connections to Future Learning section of the Science Background, there is support for teacher content knowledge beyond scope of the current course. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Planning for the Unit, Science Background, Connections to Future Learning, there are detailed paragraphs on how this content connects to learning to come in middle school as well as high school. It provides adult level explanations about energy such as "In middle school, students expand their understanding of energy in a system to include potential energy, which is defined as stored energy. Examples of potential energy include the energy in a charged battery, the energy in a compressed spring, the energy of a skateboard at the top of a ramp, the energy stored in a magnetic field when two repelling magnets are pushed together, and the energy stored in substances (e.g., glucose and oxygen) that can be released in a chemical reaction. One thing all these different examples have in common is that, unlike with kinetic energy, we cannot directly observe evidence of this energy until it has been transferred into another form."

The materials reviewed for Amplify Grade 4 meet expectations for including standards correlation information, including connections to college- and career-ready ELA and mathematics standards and that explain the role of the standards in the context of the overall series. The materials contain NGSS correlation information in multiple locations. All grades contain examples in the Teacher Guide:

• Planning for the Unit and Standards at a Glance include a listing of the NGSS Performance Expectations (PEs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), DIsciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) addressed in the Unit. 

• Teacher References, 3-D Statements outline three-dimensional statements for the unit level, the chapter level, and the lesson level of each unit for all grades.  

• Lesson Guide, Overview, and Standards sections provide a listing of the NGSS PEs, SEPs, and CCCs that are addressed in the lesson. The Lesson Progression at the beginning of each unit shows how each NGSS standard connects to and builds upon the previous grade level.  

The materials also include an explanation for the role of the NGSS standards in the context of the overall series. The Teacher Guide, Teacher Reference, Standards and Goals lists the PEs, SEPs, DCIs and CCCs that are covered in the unit. This section also provides an explanation of the core ideas across the K-8 grade span of the materials in a subsection titled “Trajectory of Core Ideas.”

The materials also provide lists of corollary Common Core ELA and mathematics standards. The Teacher’s Guide, Planning for the Unit, Standards at a Glance  and Standards and Goals (under Teacher References) all list the corollary Common Core ELA (CCSS-ELA) and Common Core Math (CCSS-Math) standards addressed in each unit. Lesson Guide, Lesson Brief, and Standards include a list of the CCSS-ELA and CCSS-Math addressed in each lesson. The materials offer suggested connections with ELA and/or Math and consistently provide specific explanations regarding how the standards are aligned with the context of the lesson and/or series. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Earth's Features, Teacher References, Standards and Goals there is detailed information that describes the connections to common core English Language Arts and the Math standards. For ELA it states, “CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Students have the opportunity to refer to details and examples in texts as they practice noticing and making inferences while reading. For example, in Lesson 1.2, students learn how geologists use observations and inferences as they read the book, Clues from the Past, and practice observing and making inferences of their own while they read. In Lesson 2.1, students practice making inferences about Devils Postpile in the book, Through the Eyes of a Geologist.” Also, for Math it states, “CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Throughout this unit, students have multiple opportunities to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them as they use various hands-on models and the Earth’s Features Sim to investigate processes that impact rock formation.”

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing explanations of the instructional approaches of the program and identification of the research-based strategies. The materials explain the instructional approaches of the program. Evidence of this can be found throughout the grades, units and lessons. In each Unit Overview, Teacher References, and Standards and Goals section the materials explain an instructional approach that incorporates the strategies of Do, Talk, Read, Write, and Visualize in coordination with the NGSS crosscutting concepts (CCCs) and the disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) associated with the specific unit of instruction. These strategies are further explained in each Lesson with more explicit detail.  Examples at the Grade 4 level include:

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.2, Activity 1 Hands on Using Senses to Get Information demonstrates “Do” by providing an investigation in which students use their senses. The Teacher Support section provides the rationale for the pedagogical goals of providing first hand experiences. “In this unit students explore senses through a variety of investigations, including this sensing investigation and later investigations with a physical model called the Mystery Box. By referring to the evidence students gather from firhand observations, students learn important science ideas, as well as gain experience using language to express these ideas.” 

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.3, Activity 2 Reading: Investigating Animal Senses demonstrates “Read” by introducing the Partner Reading routine and teaching students how to ask questions as they read. 

• In Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.4, Activity 1 Critical Juncture: Writing to Reflect demonstrates “Write” by asking students to reflect and write independently about what they understand about the key science concept at this point in time. Once they are finished writing, they share their reflections with a partner.

The materials provide some explanation for the research-based strategies that are used in the design of the program. While the Program Guide, Science Program Guide, Designed for the NGSS, and Program Development sections explain the Do, Talk, Read, Write, Visualize pedagogical approach that drives Amplify Science, there is a missed opportunity to incorporate explicit citations or references in the teacher materials. Instead, the references for “Research Behind the Program'' exist on a website outside of the teacher materials.

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing a comprehensive list of supplies needed to support instructional activities. In the Teacher’s Guide, Unit Overview, Planning for the Unit, Materials and Preparation section for each unit, a thorough list of the materials needed over the course of each chapter and lesson is present. Every list includes the quantity needed to support a class of 36 students, a description of each item and in which lessons the item(s) will be used. It also contains a comprehensive list of materials that need to be provided by the teacher or school, the quantity needed, item description and the lessons requiring these materials.

In addition to the unit overview, each Lesson Brief contains a lesson-level Materials and Preparation section outlining the materials needed for the class, groups of students and/or individual students and preparations needed before the start of each lesson. 

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for embedding clear science safety guidelines for teachers and students across the instructional materials. In the Unit Overview, Printable Resources section, an Investigation Notebook is provided for student use. Each Investigation Notebook contains a section titled, “Safety Guidelines for Science Investigations.” It is important to note that teachers should always locate and adhere to local policies and regulations related to science safety in the classroom. In each Unit Overview, Materials and Preparation, Materials at a Glance section, there is a reminder: “Note: Check and follow your district’s safety regulations pertaining to the use of proper equipment and procedures for students participating in hands-on science activities.”  

Additional safety notes are located in the teacher print or digital materials within lessons which have specific safety notes for the teacher to communicate to students.

One example of an additional safety note includes:

• Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, Lesson 1.2, Overview, Digital Resources provides a PDF entitled “Careful Smelling” that provides students with steps on how to smell substances correctly during an investigation as well as an illustration of the process.

The assessment materials for Grade 4 are comprehensively designed and aligned within the Units. It is clear for teachers where the assessments are, the type of assessments that are provided, and to what standard(s) each assessment opportunity is intended to be aligned. For instance, in the Grade 4 Teacher’s Guides, any unit, Teacher References, Assessment System, each assessment opportunity throughout the Unit is listed in a chart in relation to the Lesson, type of assessment, and NGSS standard intended to be assessed. In addition, in the Teacher Guide for every Grade 4 Unit, under Printable Resources, there is a document titled 3-D Assessment Objectives This document contains the 3-D Statements and accompanying objectives, their pertinence in the unit, and the type of assessment aligned to that objective. “Each table includes the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) included in that Performance Expectation and specifies the location of assessments associated with these three dimensions.”

The materials provide information detailing how assessments build toward the standards for the grade level or band. In the Teacher Guide of each Unit, Teacher Reference, Assessment System, Monitoring Progress section, there is a discussion of Critical Juncture Assessments with an outline of each Critical Juncture concept and assessment in each Unit. The Critical Juncture assessments provide the teacher with specific three-dimensional statements to assess before moving forward in the Lessons. Lessons that provide Critical Junctures or On-the-Fly Assessments also provide an Assessment Guide or a Hands-On Flextension Lesson Guide in the Lesson Brief, Overview, Digital Resources section which states the DCI, SEP, and CCC.

In addition to listing intended standards alignment in the Teacher Guide of all Units, Teacher References, Assessment System, and the Formative and Summative Assessment Opportunities sections list the DCI, SEP, and the CCC addressed in each assessment. These also include strikethroughs of the portion of the standard that is not assessed in the Unit. While strikethroughs indicate which portion of the standard is not being assessed, there is a missed opportunity to state how the assessments contribute to building toward the end of grade-level performance expectations.

The materials for Amplify Grade 4 meet expectations for providing an assessment system with multiple opportunities throughout the grade, course, and/or series to determine students' learning, sufficient guidance for teachers to help them interpret student performance, and suggestions for following-up with students. 

Examples include:

• In each Unit, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment provides three rubrics, one each for the DCI, SEP, and CCC as well as questions to support teachers in determining students’ initial understanding of the standards identified for each assessment. For example, Grade 4, Unit: Energy Conversions, Lesson 4.6, Lesson Overview, Digital Resources, Assessment Guide: Assessing Students’ End-of-Unit Design Arguments About Solutions for Ergstown’s Electrical System provides three rubrics for scoring and guiding teachers in interpreting student responses. Rubric 1 focuses on assessing students’ performance of the practices of engaging in argument from evidence and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Rubric 2 focuses on assessing students’ understanding of science ideas encountered in the unit. Rubric 3 focuses on assessing students’ understanding of the crosscutting concept systems and system models. 

• Further, the Assessment Guide for the End-of-Unit Assessment rubrics include suggestions for Follow-Up. For example, in Grade 4, Unit: Vision and Light, End-Of-Unit Assessment Guide found in the Digital Resources for the lessons with End-of-Unit Assessments and Investigation Assessments there is detailed information that "shows specific suggestions for follow-up with students who need additional support based on the results of the assessment." There are follow up activities suggested for each rubric. Each rubric addresses the SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs that were assessed. The rubric provides follow-up questions for the teacher to ask the students, such as "If students do not show understanding that an animal sees when light from a source reflects off an object and enters the animal’s eyes: • Remind students of when they used the Vision and Light Simulation to investigate how light allows an animal to see an object in Lesson 2.4,  Activity 1. • Ask, “What happened when light from a source went straight into the predator’s eye?” [The predator could not see its prey.] “What happened when light that reflected off the prey went into the predator’s eye?” [The predator could see its prey.]  “How does light allow an animal to see something?”  [Light reflects off the object and then goes into the animal’s eyes.] • Connect to the End-of-Unit Assessment. Ask, “How does light help a Tokay gecko see its prey?” [Light reflects off the prey and then goes into the Tokay gecko’s eyes.]" 

• The Embedded Formative Assessments, The Critical Juncture, and On-the-Fly Assessments, provide guidance on what to look for and how to tailor instruction if students do not demonstrate understanding. The guidance can be found by clicking on the Hummingbird Icon in the Activity containing a formative assessment. Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Lesson 1.2, Activity 3, Hummingbird Icon Embedded Formative Assessment, On the Fly Assessment 1: Making Observations states, “Listen for whether students are noticing similarities or differences in the patterns of the different waves…Probe for misunderstandings by asking questions such as Can you explain your drawing to me?,..If students are having trouble describing what they are observing, you might have students who can accurately draw and describe the motion to students who are finding it challenging. ” Another example can be found in Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Lesson 1.5, Activity 3, Critical Juncture Assessment 1: How Does a Wave Travel? which suggests teachers to circulate the room and pay attention as students label diagrams, it points out specifics to look for but does not guide the teacher on follow up with students if something is not up to par. The publisher does suggest allowing some students to orally explain but does not give context on how to select which students or how to assess orally. Also, Grade 4, Unit: Earth’s Features, Lesson 3.4, Activity 2, Embedded Formative Assessment, Critical Juncture Assessment 3: Order of Environments suggests that for students that don’t understand the concept the teacher is to refer back to the simulation in Activity 1.  The teacher works through the simulation as students take note of the environments and rock types.  The simulation allows the teacher to move time forward and backward so students can see the progression of rock formation and the types of environments that can influence rock type.

• In each Unit, Unit Overview, Teacher References, the Embedded Formative Assessments detail the targeted learning objectives and how students will demonstrate the targeted standards under the heading Look Fors as well as the next steps teachers should take when students do not demonstrate understanding under the heading Now What? The Grade 4, Unit: Waves, Energy, and Information, Unit Overview, Teacher References, Embedded Formative Assessments states that students who have difficulty describing their observations may draw a model rather than explain it or listen to others explain it.

The materials for Grade 4 meet expectations for providing assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate the full intent of grade-level standards and elements across the series. The assessment system consistently incorporates the three dimensions. The assessment system also provides a variety of assessment types, but constructed response is the predominant modality. The Pre-Assessment, On-the-fly, Critical Juncture, and End-of-unit assessments require written responses. They assess the DCIs CCCs, and SEPs. There is a missed opportunity for students to demonstrate all of the SEPs, but there is a consistent focus on the practices of constructing explanations, argumentation, and modeling. Both versions (A and B) of the summative assessment ask students to provide written explanations. Version B provides students with sentence starters. Examples of assessments in this grade can be found in the reports for Indicators 1b and 1c.

In addition to summative assessments, Conversation rubrics found throughout the resources offer prompts, look fors, and/or suggestions for how to evaluate students but most focus on a singular dimension. There are rubrics that provide questions to develop understanding of students’ ability to demonstrate each dimension. The rubrics provide partial scores for partial student answers.