Grade 4 - 4-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

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Disciplinary Core Ideas

 LS1.A: Structure and Function
• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. (4-LS1-1)

LS1.D: Information Processing
• Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions. (4-LS1-2)

Performance Expectations Students who demonstrate understanding can:

4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.  [Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.]

4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on systems of information transfer.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the mechanisms by which the brain stores and recalls information or the mechanisms of how sensory receptors function.]
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Use the Template and Resource Links to Fulfill NGSS

l. Goals:

1. Understand that plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
   
2. Understand that different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.

Essential Questions:

1. What are the internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction for plants and animals?
2. Which sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain?
3. How are animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions?
   NGSS Note: Think, question, entertain ideas.

Plant Adaptations For Pollination And Seed Dispersal
Plant Structure - The Parts of a Plant and Flower
Helping Baby Survive

A. Read about the different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain.

Special Senses

B. Examples of Models (depicts the concepts expressed in the reading):

lV. Experiments, Activities, Model-making (Critical Thinking)

Inquiry related to adaptations for internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.

 Authentic Performance Activities facilitate a student's understanding of a lesson's usefulness in real life. They are also an Understanding by Design (UbD) assessment tool. Focus questions act as pre- and post-assessment indicators of the activity's effectiveness.

Adaptations - Authentic Performance

Human Structure and Function - Critical Thinking

V. Summarize Knowledge - Enduring Understandings

1. Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction.
   
2. Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain.
3. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.
   
   

Vl. Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS) - Grade 4

Disciplinary Core Ideas

 LS1.A: Structure and Function
• Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. (4-LS1-1)

LS1.D: Information Processing
• Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions. (4-LS1-2)

Science and Engineering Practices

Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to building and revising simple models and using models to represent events and design solutions.
• Use a model to test interactions concerning the functioning of a natural system. (4-LS1-2)

Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Engaging in argument from evidence in 3–5 builds on K–2 experiences and progresses to critiquing the scientific explanations or solutions proposed by peers by citing relevant evidence about the natural and designed world(s).
• Construct an argument with evidence, data, and/or a model. (4-LS1-1

Crosscutting Concepts
Systems and System Models
• A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions. (4-LS1-1),(4-LS1-2)

Performance Expectations

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.  [Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.]

4-LS1-2. Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on systems of information transfer.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include the mechanisms by which the brain stores and recalls information or the mechanisms of how sensory receptors function.]

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

W.4.1     Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. (4-LS1-1)
SL.4.5     Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. (4-LS1-2)

Mathematics
4.G.A.3  Recognize a line of symmetry for a two-dimensional figure as a line across the figure such that the figure can be folded across the line into matching parts. Identify line-symmetric figures and draw lines of symmetry. (4-LS1-1)

Articulation of DCIs across grade-levels:
1.LS1.A (4-LS1-1); 1.LS1.D (4-LS1-1); 3.LS3.B (4-LS1-1); MS.LS1.A (4-LS1-1),(4-LS1-2); MS.LS1.D (4-LS1-2)