What does a student learn in StateMississippi,GradeGrade 4,SubjectScience?

Living things are organized in levels, from tiny cells up to tissues, organs, and whole body systems. Students learn how each level builds on the one below it.

Students learn how the body's major systems, like the heart, lungs, and bones, each do a specific job and work together to keep a person healthy and moving.

Students research how systems work together (like a water cycle or a simple machine), then apply that idea to the human body by identifying which organs team up to form a single organ system.

Students look at how body systems team up to keep a person alive. They collect and share findings on how the digestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems, along with others, work together to handle everything from breathing and moving to fighting off illness.

Students build models of body systems like the heart-and-blood system or the digestive system, then explain what each system does on its own and how the systems work together to keep the body running.

Students learn the difference between diseases your body can catch from others (like the flu) and diseases that develop from inside the body (like diabetes). They explain how each type interferes with how a body system works.

Students read nonfiction sources to explore how doctors, scientists, and researchers discover new ways to keep the body healthy, from vaccines and exercise to mental health habits.

Students learn how living things make more of their own kind and how traits like eye color or leaf shape get passed from parent to offspring.

Every living thing follows a pattern from birth to growth to reproduction. Students study how familiar animals like frogs, lizards, and birds, along with common plants, each follow their own version of that cycle.

Students look at how plants and animals are born, grow, reproduce, and die, then explain how those patterns are alike and different across species.

Students compare the life cycles of animals and plants, such as a frog or butterfly, by drawing or labeling diagrams that show how each organism is born, grows, reproduces, and dies.

Students learn how things move, what makes them speed up or slow down, and where energy comes from and goes. Think pushes, pulls, ramps, and bouncing balls.

Students learn where heat and electricity come from and how they are used every day. They also explore which materials, like metal wire or wood, pass electricity and heat along easily and which ones block it.

Students compare three ways heat is made: burning fuel, rubbing surfaces together, and running electricity through a wire. They read, observe, and share what they find about how each process releases heat.

Students test everyday materials, like plastic, metal, and wood, to find out which ones let electricity flow through them and which ones block it.

Students build or draw models that show how heat or electricity can turn into something else, like movement, sound, or light. A toaster turning electricity into heat is one example.

Students build a working circuit by connecting a battery, wires, and a light bulb or buzzer so electricity can flow in a complete loop. They draw or diagram how the current travels through each part.

Students research real inventors and discoveries, like the light bulb or the battery, and explain how those breakthroughs changed the way people use electricity today.

Students design and build a device that changes one form of energy into another, such as a solar oven that turns sunlight into heat or a simple circuit that lights a bulb. Then they test it, find what isn't working, and improve it.

Light is a form of energy that travels and can be reflected, bent, or absorbed by different materials. Students learn why a mirror bounces light back, why a straw looks bent in water, and why dark surfaces get warmer in sunlight.

Students show, using a prism or similar experiment, that white light splits into a rainbow of colors. This builds on Isaac Newton's discovery that sunlight isn't pure white but a mix of every color we can see.

Students explain why we can see objects: light either comes from the object itself or bounces off it into our eyes. Without light, nothing is visible.

Students build or draw models to show what happens when light hits an object: it can bounce back, bend as it passes through, or be soaked up by the material.

Students shine light at different materials and watch what happens: does light pass straight through, filter partway through, or get blocked completely? They plan the test, run it, and explain what they observed.

Sound is a form of energy that travels in waves. Students learn what affects how sound behaves, including pitch and volume, and how those properties change depending on the source producing the sound.

Students test how changing the length of a string, the size of an object, or the force of a tap changes a sound's pitch or loudness. They plan the experiment, collect the results, and compare what they find.

Students measure and compare sounds to figure out how faster or slower vibrations change pitch, and how bigger or smaller vibrations change volume. The data comes from real observations, not just descriptions.

Students learn about scientists who made discoveries in sound and how it travels, such as the inventor of the telephone and the physicist who first described how air pressure shapes the way sound moves.

Students learn how Earth's parts work together: how water moves through the sky and oceans, how weather patterns shift, and how land changes over time through forces like wind and rain.

The sun heats water on Earth's surface, turning it into vapor that rises, forms clouds, and falls back as rain or snow. Students learn how the sun keeps this cycle moving.

The water cycle is powered by the sun. Students build or draw models to show how sunlight turns water into vapor, how that vapor forms clouds, and how water falls back to Earth as rain or snow.

Weather is what happens outside today. Climate is the pattern of weather a place sees over many years. Students learn to tell the difference and explain why some places are warm year-round while others have distinct seasons.

Students read weather data like temperature, rainfall, and wind speed to predict what the weather will do next. They practice the same thinking meteorologists use to forecast storms, cold snaps, and clear skies.

Students study weather maps and years of temperature and rainfall records to explain why one region is hotter, wetter, or drier than another. The focus is on patterns across a large area over a long stretch of time, not just one day's forecast.

Students build their own weather tools, like a rain gauge or wind vane, then test and improve them. The work follows real engineering steps: spot the problem, design a solution, build it, and fix what doesn't work.

Natural events like floods and earthquakes reshape the land over time. Human activities like farming and construction do the same. Students study how both forces change coastlines, mountains, and the ocean floor.

Students look at real data (photos, maps, charts) to explain how forces like storms, earthquakes, and erosion change the land, then predict what those forces might do next.

Waves and tides constantly move sand and water along the coast, reshaping beaches, islands, and sheltered bays over time. Students build models to show how this movement carves out or fills in different coastal landforms.

Students build a science argument using real examples, like a factory polluting a river or a community planting trees, to explain how human choices change the land, water, or air around us.

Students research how air, land, and water work together to keep living things alive. A healthy forest, for example, depends on soil, rainfall, and the gases in the air all doing their part at once.

Students research severe weather like thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes, then explain what people can do to stay safer when those storms hit.

Students identify natural resources like water, soil, and minerals and explain how people use them for energy, building, and food.

Students learn where energy comes from, such as sunlight, wind, and fuel, and weigh how well each source works against the problems it can cause.

Students sort and compare data about fuels like coal and oil, looking at how much energy each one produces and how much pollution it releases.

Students research how energy can be made without burning fuel, using sources like wind, sunlight, or moving water. They compare options and explain how clean energy works.