- Anchorage School District
- Overview & Services
- Elementary Science
- Fourth Grade Science
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Fall Kit: Energy and Computer Science
Students explore how mechanical energy works, and the relationship between force and motion. Students experiment with kinetic and potential energy, and energy transfer. Electrical energy is explored through the design and assembly of both series and parallel circuits with wires and batteries. Students are introduced to computer science, and learn how binary code can produce numbers, letters, and images. If possible, students will embed coding experience throughout the unit at code.org and/or participate in the Hour of Code.
Fall Topics
- Force, Motion and Energy
- Energy Transformations
- Electrical Energy
- Electrical Circuits
- Introduction to Computer Science
- Codes and Cyphers
- Binary Digits
- Black & White and Color Image Representation
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Spring Kit: Interdependence
Students learn about watersheds as a dynamic, interconnected physical and biological system. Students study how nonliving components of a watershed, such as water and soil, interact with living components, such as salmon. Students learn that energy for life on Earth comes from the sun, and that this energy cycles through food webs as it is passed among producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students develop awareness of how changing environmental conditions affect organisms, and there is variablity in how different species are able to adapt and survive. Human impacts on soil and water resources and watershd ecosystems are investigated. Students also learn how science can be applied to lessen impacts and/or restore habitat.
Spring Topics
- Watersheds
- Freshwater Reservoirs on Earth
- The Importance of Soil
- Food Webs
- Salmon: Habitat, Life Cycle, Adaptations, Inheritance
- Biodiversity
- Human Impacts on Watersheds