Unit Overview/Summary:  

Summary  

The unit organizes performance expectations around the theme of energy transfer and information transmission. Instruction developed from this unit should always maintain the three-dimensional nature of the standards, but recognize that instruction is not limited to the practices and concepts directly linked with any of the unit performance expectations. 

Connections between unit Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs)  

The idea that energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through sound, light, or electric currents (PS3.A as in 4-PS3-2) connects to the idea that electric currents can be used locally to produce motion, sound, heat, or light; the currents may have been produced to begin with by transforming the energy of motion into electrical energy (PS3.B as in 4-PS3-4).  

Just as energy can be transferred from place to place, digitized information can be transmitted over long distances without significant degradation. High-tech devices, such as computers or cell phones, can receive and decode information—convert it from digitized form to voice—and vice versa (PS4.C as in 4-PS4-3) 

Unit Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs)

Instruction leading to this unit of PEs will help students build toward proficiency in elements of the practices of planning and carrying out investigations (4-PS3- 2) and constructing explanations and designing solutions (4-PS3-4 and 4-PS4-3). Many other practice elements can be used in instruction. 

Unit Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs)

Crosscutting concepts have value because they provide students with connections and intellectual tools that are related across the differing areas of disciplinary content and can enrich their application of practices and their understanding of core ideas. As such, they are a way of linking the different domains of science.

Instruction leading to this unit of PEs will help students build toward proficiency in elements of the crosscutting concepts of Patterns (4-PS4-3) and Energy and Matter (4-PS3-2 and 4-PS3-4). Many other crosscutting concepts elements can be used in instruction. All instruction should be three-dimensional.