4th Grade Science Updates

4th Grade Science Unit 1

Science:

Unit 1: Vision and Light

Over the course of this unit, students investigate the role that animal senses, primarily vision, play in survival as they try to understand a realistic fictional problem with a real organism. They investigate why there is a decline in the number of Tokay geckos living in one area of a rain forest in the Philippines. Humans change the environments in which we live in many ways—clearing forests to make roads and build houses, removing species of plants and animals that are dangerous to humans, installing lights to make it easier to see at night, and so on. Often these changes affect other species’ survival in unanticipated ways. Examples of this are changes humans make to the environment that impact how animals in the same environment are able to use their senses to get information. Throughout their investigations, students use an interactive digital simulation that allows them to explore two key ideas: how light travels in a way that allows an animal to see and how an animal’s internal structures work together to process information and form an image the animal can recognize. In addition, students engage in hands-on activities, reading, and discourse as they learn how animal eyes function, discovering that some animals see well in bright light and others see well in low light. Woven throughout the unit is a focus on the crosscutting concept of Structure and Function. Students investigate the questions What are animals’ sensory structures and how do they help animals survive? and What are the different structures within the eye and how do they help an animal see? Over the course of the unit, students learn that highway lights were installed on a road in the rain forest in order to make nighttime driving safer for humans. Students’ investigations help them explain the anchor phenomenon of why more light at night is affecting the survival of the Tokay geckos.

Chapter 1: How does a Tokay gecko get information about its environment? 

Chapter 2: How does light allow a Tokay gecko to see its prey?

Chapter 3: How does a Tokay gecko know that it is looking at its prey?

Chapter 4: How could more light at night make it hard for a Tokay gecko to see its prey?

Chapter 5: How do our senses help us understand our environment?