Science Secular Homeschool Curriculum Skills List | Fourth Grade

Science concepts create the themes for some of the units within Fourth Grade Complete. The activities and experiments teach the grade-level skills in a fun and engaging way.

• Use a microscope or magnifying glass to observe objects.
• Draw a diagram of observations.
• Use a scientific method.
• Learn about static electricity.
• Demonstrate static electricity.
• Define, recognize, and build a closed circuit with and without a switch.
• Test to determine whether materials are conductors or insulators.
• Recall the parts of a hydroelectric power station.
• Learn about floodplains.
• Make a floodplain model.
• Demonstrate refracted white light, and produce a rainbow.
• Learn about bones.
• Identify the purpose of the bones in our bodies.
• Demonstrate understanding of the skeletal system by designing a model skeleton.
• Understand the function of the spine and spinal cord.
• Learn about a famous person with a spinal injury.
• Learn about muscles.
• Make a model of a muscle pair.
• Perform large muscle exercises.
• Identify muscles of the body.
• Learn about muscle diseases.
• Understand the importance of healthy living.
• Acquire skills to live safely and reduce health risks.
• Recall the four food groups, and evaluate diet for good nutrition.
• Make a food consumption chart.
• Recall the four food groups, and evaluate diet for good nutrition.
• Understand the relationship of nutrition to body composition and physical performance.
• Make a periscope.
• Make a flow chart.
• Identify the parts of an insect.
• Understand the life cycle of an insect.
• Understand the life cycle of a frog.
• Use the sense of smell to identify objects.
• Learn the symptoms and effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
• Use simple logic to develop a strategy.
• Learn about Down syndrome.
• Draw a diagram and make a model of a cell.
• Identify the parts of a cell.
• Differentiate between living and non-living things.
• Classify living things.
• Learn characteristics of birds.
• Identify the parts of an egg.
• Learn about trumpeter swans.
• Make a Venn diagram.
• Research to gain new information.
• Understand how thunderstorms form.
• Demonstrate lightning.
• Understand that animals have instincts which help them survive.
• Make a food chain.
• Understand that plants and animals progress through life cycles of birth, growth and development, reproduction, and death; the details of these life cycles are different for different organisms.
• Learn about the life cycle of a penguin.
• Know that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants and animals.
• Classify objects.
• Make observations, and describe the weather.
• Understand how we should take care of the world.
• Explore the world through observation and experimentation.
• Make predictions and draw conclusions based on patterns or evidence.
• Apply physics principles: potential and kinetic energy, inertia, force, friction.
• Observe and apply Newton’s Laws of Motion.
• Discover how water pressure affects the flow of water.
• Create a simple pendulum, and understand the forces that cause a pendulum to swing.
• Recognize the characteristics and habitats of various types of animals.
• Recognize and create simple and compound machines.
• Understand the process of a water cycle.
• Learn about computers.
• Learn about computer programmers.
• Develop a simple understanding of an algorithm using computer-free exercises.
• Write an algorithm to complete a specific task.
• Apply computational thinking to design an algorithm and to solve problems.
• Develop an understanding of four key techniques to computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms.
• Use models and simulation to explore complex problems.
• Read and write code.
• Draw an object using pixels.
• Examine connections between elements of mathematics and computer science including binary numbers, logic, sets, and functions.
• Make a model of sedimentary layers.
• Make a model of sedimentary rock.
• Observe osmosis.