Students learn more about how muscles work and how biomedical engineers can help keep the muscular system healthy. Following the engineering design process, they create their own biomedical device to aid in the recovery of a strained bicep. They discover the importance of rest to muscle recovery and that muscles (just like engineers!) work together to achieve a common goal.

Using gumdrops and toothpicks, students conduct a large-group, interactive ozone depletion model. Students explore the dynamic and competing upper atmospheric roles of the protective ozone layer, the sun's UV radiation and harmful human-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons).

Working as if they are engineers who work for (the hypothetical) Build-a-Toy Workshop company, students apply their imaginations and the engineering design process to design and build prototype toys with moving parts. They set up electric circuits using batteries, wire and motors. They create plans for project material expenses to meet a budget.

CSDE Model Curricula Quick Start GuideEquitable and Inclusive Curriculum  The CSDE believes in providing a set of conditions where learners are repositioned at the center of curricula planning and design. Curricula, from a culturally responsive perspective, require intentional planning for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the development of units and implementation of lessons. It is critical to develop a learning environment that is relevant to and reflective of students’ social, cultural, and linguistic experiences to effectively connect their culturally and community-based knowledge to the class. Begin by connecting what is known about students’ cognitive and interdisciplinary diversity to the learning of the unit. Opposed to starting instructional planning with gaps in students’ knowledge, plan from an asset-based perspective by starting from students’ strengths. In doing so, curricula’s implementation will be grounded in instruction that engages, motivates, and supports the intellectual capacity of all students.Course Description:  In Grade 4, instructional time should focus on three critical areas: (1) developing understanding and fluency with multi-digit multiplication, and developing understanding of dividing to find quotients involving multi-digit dividends; (2) developing an understanding of fraction equivalence, addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators, and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers; (3) understanding that geometric figures can be analyzed and classified based on their properties, such as having parallel sides, perpendicular sides, particular angle measures, and symmetry. Upon completion of this course students will have the ability to: Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems; Gain familiarity with factors and multiples; Generate and analyze patterns; Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers; Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic; Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering; Build fractions from unit fractions; Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions; Solve problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements; Represent and interpret data; Geometric measurement: understand concepts of angle and measure angles; and Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles. Aligned Core Resources:Core resources is a local control decision.  Ensuring alignment of resources to the standards is critical for success.  There are tools that are available to assist in evaluating alignment, such as CCSSO’s Mathematics Curriculum Analysis Project and Student Achievement Partner’s Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool.  In addition EdReports and Louisiana Believes are two sources of completed reviews for a variety of resources.  Connecticut is currently working on providing additional alignment guidance for the most frequently used resources across the state. Aligned Core Programs:  The CSDE in partnership with SERC has engaged with providers of high-quality vetted resources to provide additional alignment guidance to the CSDE model curriculum.  High-quality instructional resources are critical for improving student outcomes. The alignment guidance is intended to clarify content and support understanding for clear implementation and coherence. Materials selection is a local control decision and these documents have been provided from participating publishers to assist districts in implementation. Use of the materials from these publishers is not required. These aligned core programs meet expectations as reported by EdReports. If your resource is not listed below, you are encouraged to review EdReports to ensure the alignment of your resource to the Connecticut Core Standards. Strong alignment of curricula and instructional materials have the potential to support student engagement of meaningful grade level content daily and teacher growth.  Achievement First Math Grade 4enVisions Grade 4Eureka Grade 4Fishtank Plus Math Grade 4HMH into Math Grade 4Imagine Learning Illustrative Mathematics Grade 4i-Ready Math Grade 4Reveal Math Grade 4Financial Literacy Connections:The State of Connecticut is committed to implementing high-quality Financial Literacy instruction at all grade levels beginning in kindergarten. Financial Literacy supports students’ academic performance in several subject areas. The K-5 Model Math Curricula embeds tasks that align the mathematical content and skill to the essential Financial Literacy concepts such as income, spending, saving, investing, credit and risk.  The concepts contained in the learning tasks are designed to be rich, hands-on activities with developmentally appropriate real-world connections.  The tasks are identified by grade level and embedded in the appropriate units so that students can demonstrate mastery of what they need to know and be able to do by the end of their K-5 school experience. In this way, elementary students will be prepared to build upon Financial Literacy knowledge as they advance through middle and high school. Additional Course Information:  Major work of Grade 4 mathematics focuses on multiplication and division of whole numbers and fractions including concepts, skills, and problem solving. Fluencies expected for Grade 4 include:    Add/subtract within 1,000,000  Habits of Mind/SEIH/Transferable Skills Addressed in the Course: The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe the thinking processes, habits of mind, and dispositions that students need to develop a deep, flexible, and enduring understanding of mathematics. They describe student behaviors, ensure an understanding of math, and focus on developing reasoning and building mathematical communication. Therefore, the following should be addressed throughout the course: Make sense of problems & persevere in solving them Reason abstractly & quantitatively Construct viable arguments & critique the reasoning of others Model with mathematics Use appropriate tools strategically Attend to precision Look for & make use of structure Look for & express regularity in repeated reasoning 

Unit Overview/Summary - FOCUS: This unit focusses on operations and algebraic thinking as well as number and operations in base ten.  Learning in this unit will enable students to: Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems; and Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic. 

Students learn about nanocomposites, compression and strain as they design and program robots that compress materials. Student groups conduct experiments to determine how many LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT motor rotations it takes to compress soft nanocomposites, including mini marshmallows, Play-Doh®, bread and foam. They measure the length and width of their nanocomposite objects before and after compression to determine the change in length and width as a function of motor rotation.

The goal is for students to understand the basics of engineering that go into the design of a sneaker. The bottom or sole of a sneaker provides support, cushioning, and traction. In addition the sole is flexible and can have some fashion based functions such as cool colors and added height. The sneaker is a well-engineered product, utilizing a variety of materials to create a highly functional, useful shoe. This unit focuses on having the students select specific design requirements, such as good traction or lots of cushioning, and then select from a variety of materials to build a model shoe with the same design criteria.

In this 25-day module of Grade 4, students extend their work with whole numbers.  They begin with large numbers using familiar units (hundreds and thousands) and develop their understanding of millions by building knowledge of the pattern of times ten in the base ten system on the place value chart (4.NBT.1).  They recognize that each sequence of three digits is read as hundreds, tens, and ones followed by the naming of the corresponding base thousand unit (thousand, million, billion).

**NOTE: The New York State Education Department shut down the EngageNY website in 2022. In order to maintain educators' access, nearly all resources have been uploaded to archive.org and the resource links above have been updated to reflect their new locations.**

Building on the programming basics learned so far in the unit, students next learn how to program using sensors rather than by specifying exact durations. They start with an examination of algorithms and move to an understanding of conditional commands (until, then), which require the use of wait blocks. Working with the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots and software, they learn about wait blocks and how to use them in conjunction with move blocks set with unlimited duration. To help with comprehension and prepare them for the associated activity programming challenges, volunteer students act out a maze demo and student groups conclude by programming LEGO robots to navigate a simple maze using wait block programming. A PowerPoint® presentation, a worksheet and pre/post quizzes are provided.

As part of a design challenge, students learn how to use a rotation sensor (located inside the casing of a LEGO® MINDSTORMS ® NXT motor) to measure how far a robot moves with each rotation. Through experimentation and measurement with the sensor, student pairs determine the relationship between the number of rotations of the robot's wheels and the distance traveled by the robot. Then they use this ratio to program LEGO robots to move precise distances in a contest of accuracy. The robot that gets closest to the goal without touching the toy figures at the finish line is the winning programming design. Students learn how rotational sensors measure distance, how mathematics can be used for real-world purposes, and about potential sources of error due to gearing when using rotation sensor readings for distance calculations. They also become familiar with the engineering design process as they engage in its steps, from understanding the problem to multiple test/improve iterations to successful design.

Using new knowledge acquired in the associated lesson, students program LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots to go through a maze using movement blocks. The maze is created on the classroom floor with cardboard boxes as its walls. Student pairs follow the steps of the engineering design process to brainstorm, design and test programs to success. Through this activity, students understand how to create and test a basic program. A PowerPoint® presentation, pre/post quizzes and worksheet are provided.

Students follow the steps of the engineering design process to create their own ear trumpet devices (used before modern-day hearing aids), including testing them with a set of reproducible sounds. They learn to recognize different pitches, and see how engineers must test designs and materials to achieve the best amplifying properties.

This task presents an incomplete problem and asks students to choose numbers to subtract (subtrahends) so that the resulting problem requires different types of regrouping. This way students have to recognize the pattern and not just follow a memorized algorithm--in other words, they have to think about what happens in the subtraction process when we regroup. This task is appropriate to use after students have learned the standard US algorithm.

In this activity, students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. The compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space.

Students learn about electric motors and rotational sensors. They learn that motors convert electrical energy to mechanical energy and typically include rotational sensors to enable distance measuring. They also learn the basics about gear trains and gear ratios. Students create a basic program using the LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT interface to control a motor to move a small robot. Then, through a 10-minute mini-activity, they make measurements and observations to test a LEGO rotation sensor's ability to measure distance in rotations. This prepares them for the associated activity during which they calculate how many wheel rotations are needed to travel a distance. A PowerPoint® presentation, worksheet and pre/post quizzes are provided.