Science and Technology/Engineering

21 Grade 4

Lauren Weiss and Margaret Krone

Matter and Energy

In grade 4, students observe and interpret patterns related to the transfer of matter and energy on Earth, in physical interactions, and in organisms. Students learn about energy—its motion, transfer, and conversion—in different physical contexts. Grade 4 students interpret patterns of change over time as related to the deposition and erosion in landscape formation. They study today’s landscapes to provide evidence for past processes. Students learn that animals’ internal and external structures support life, growth, behavior, and reproduction. They work through the engineering design process, focusing on developing solutions by building, testing, and redesigning prototypes to fit a specific purpose. Each domain relates to the use of matter and energy over time and for specific purposes.[1] [2]

 

4-LS. Life Science

LS1. From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

  • 4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that animals and plants have internal and external structures that support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction. Animal structures can include legs, wings, fins, feathers, trunks, claws, horns, antennae, eyes, ears, nose, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories

Anatomy and Life Cycle
Animal Behavior

Falcon Curriculum Essential Question

How do falcons’ internal and external structures that support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction?

Materials
For Instructors For Students
  • About Falcons
  • Falcon Curriculum videos
  • Falcon Cam livestream
  • Journals
  • Pencils
  • Coloring materials
Sample Plan

This lesson should be taught in March-June when the falcon cam livestream is available. If that is not possible, you can use the prerecorded falcon cam clips.

Hand out the journals. Explain that students will be studying falcons through the falcon cam livestream and will use the journals to document observations.

As a class, go through the About Falcons sections and the Falcon Curriculum videos. Note important vocabulary needed to make accurate observations, including Life Cycle and Behaviors vocabulary. You can either hand out a glossary or have students put them in the back of their journal themselves.

Fill out the falcon worksheet and take notes on the internal and external structures covered in About Falcons and the Falcon Curriculum videos.

Give them a standard way to document each observation and do the first few as a class:

  1. Date
  2. Time (Start watching – end watching)
  3. Weather
  4. What happens in the nest box
    1. Adult falcons present?
      1. Can you identify if it’s the male, female, or a floater?
      2. What behaviors are they exhibiting, and what internal and external structures are they using? (Pair bonding? Prey deliveries? Incubation? Nest defense? Preening? Loafing? Sleeping?)
    2. Offspring?
      1. Eggs present?
        1. When were they laid? (Check the @DuBoisFalcons Twitter account for the most accurate information about that)
        2. How many?
        3. What do they look like?
        4. Are they being incubated? (Hard incubation does not start until the second-to-last egg is laid.)
        5. Are they being enfluffeled?
        6. Do you see signs of hatching? (Approximately 28 days to hatch) Have students estimate when the eggs will hatch.
      2. Chicks present?
        1. When did they start hatching? When did they hatch?
        2. How many?
        3. What do they look like?
        4. What behaviors are they exhibiting, and what internal and external structures are they using? (Prey deliveries? Preening? Sleeping? Scooting? Walking?)
        5. Banding?
          1. Mark down the bands of each chick and whether it’s a male or female.
        6. Do you see signs of getting ready to fledge? (Juvenile feathers, branching, lots of flapping exercises, etc.) Have students estimate when the chicks will fledge.
      3. Juveniles present?
        1. When did they fledge?
        2. What do they look like?
        3. What behaviors are they exhibiting, and what internal and external structures are they using?

Follow @DuBoisFalcons for updates, and tweet if students have any questions about the nesting season. Additionally, as a class, participate in the chick naming contest. The contest is always announced on Twitter on Banding Day.

 

4-PS. Physical Science

PS3. Energy

  • 4-PS3-1. Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.
  • 4-PS3-3. Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories

Anatomy and Life Cycle
Animal Behavior

Falcon Curriculum Essential Question

How do peregrine falcons fly so fast?

Materials
For Instructors For Students
  • About Falcons: Flight
  • About Falcons: Prey and Hunting
  • Falcon Curriculum: Flight videos
  • Falcon Curriculum: Prey and Hunting videos
Sample Plan

Read About Falcons: Flight and Prey and Hunting. Watch the Falcon Curriculum: Flight and Falcon Curriculum: Prey and Hunting videos. Talk about how the design of the falcon allows it to be the fastest animal on Earth when diving, and how it gains energy into the dive by flapping it’s wings very fast and then tucking them in to become more aerodynamic. Talk about what happens when the falcon stoops on prey and collides with it.

Do the Audubon for Kids Paper Airplane Birds activity.

 

4-ETS. Technology/Engineering

ETS1. Engineering Design

  • 4.3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out tests of one or more design features of a given model or prototype in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify which features need to be improved. Apply the results of tests to redesign a model or prototype.
  • 4.3-5-ETS1-5(MA). Evaluate relevant design features that must be considered in building a model or prototype of a solution to a given design problem.
Falcon Curriculum Core Categories

Anatomy and Life Cycle
Animal Behavior

Falcon Curriculum Essential Question

How can we use the aerodynamics of birds’ flight to improve engineering designs?

Materials
For Instructors For Students
  • About Falcons: Flight
  • About Falcons: Prey and Hunting
  • Falcon Curriculum: Flight videos
  • Falcon Curriculum: Prey and Hunting videos
Sample Plan

This lesson is to be taught in conjunction with 4-PS3-1 and 4-PS3-3.

Once the students have done the Audubon for Kids Paper Airplane Birds activity, have them design their own paper airplanes. Test for flying longest, fastest, etc. Have them try the same design using different sizes, shapes, and thickness/weight of paper.

  1. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (2022). SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING Grades Pre-Kindergarten to 12 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework. https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html ↵
  2. Falcon Curriculum Common Core Standards mapping by Margaret Krone. Falcon Curriculum Lesson Plans by Lauren Weiss. © 2022 CC BY 4.0 ↵
  3. ForTheBirds! Audubon for Kids, 2020. https://www.audubon.org/news/these-paper-airplanes-fly-birds ↵
  4. ForTheBirds! Audubon for Kids, 2020. https://www.audubon.org/news/these-paper-airplanes-fly-birds ↵

License

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Grade 4 by Lauren Weiss and Margaret Krone is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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