Grade 4 science is 17 NGSS standards, and seven of them are about energy and waves. That is the largest concentration in any elementary science year, and it is where the year’s difficulty sits: energy is invisible, it is described with a word children already use loosely, and nearly every intuitive thing they believe about it is wrong.
Like grade 3, none of these standards say “know”. They say use evidence to construct an explanation, develop a model, make observations, design, test and refine a device. You cannot meet them by reading about energy.
The year runs about 65 to 95 hours at home, best in two 45-minute blocks a week rather than daily slices.
The 17 standards
Fourteen carry a grade 4 label. The other three are the same 3-5-ETS1 engineering design standards that apply across grades 3 to 5. If you did a design project in grade 3, this is the year to revisit it at a higher standard rather than start a new one.
| Topic | Standards | Codes |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 4 | 4-PS3-1 to 4-PS3-4 |
| Waves and their Applications | 3 | 4-PS4-1 to 4-PS4-3 |
| Engineering Design (band) | 3 | 3-5-ETS1-1 to 3-5-ETS1-3 |
| Earth’s Systems (weathering and erosion, maps) | 2 | 4-ESS2-1, 4-ESS2-2 |
| Earth and Human Activity (energy resources, hazards) | 2 | 4-ESS3-1, 4-ESS3-2 |
| Structures and Processes (plants, animals, senses) | 2 | 4-LS1-1, 4-LS1-2 |
| Earth’s Place in the Universe (rock layers) | 1 | 4-ESS1-1 |
The contrast with grade 3 is sharp. Grade 3 was ten standards of biology in a general-science wrapper; grade 4 is seven standards of physics plus earth science, with life science down to two. If a child loved grade 3 science and dislikes grade 4, that is why, and it is worth naming out loud rather than treating as a motivation problem.
The three hard ones
4-PS4-2, how seeing works
Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
The misconception: that seeing is something the eye does to the world, rather than something light does to the eye. It is startlingly persistent and it survives into adulthood in a large fraction of people.
The wrong answer it produces: ask a child to draw how they see a chair and they draw an arrow from the eye to the chair. Or they draw light from a lamp onto the chair and stop, with nothing reaching the eye at all. The standard says the model must include light reflecting and entering the eye, and it says that because both halves get dropped.
The reteach: a completely dark room. Ask what they can see. Nothing. Then a torch pointed at an object, not at their eyes. The arrows have to go lamp, object, eye, and drawing that three-arrow path is the model the standard asks for.
4-PS3-1 and 4-PS3-2, energy as a thing versus a quantity
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object, and make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat and electric currents.
The misconception: that energy is a substance objects contain and use up, like fuel in a tank.
The wrong answer it produces: ask where the energy went when a rolling ball stopped and the child says “it got used up”. The same child will say a battery “runs out of electricity”. It is the grade 3 forces misconception grown up: something invisible drained away, rather than moved somewhere else.
The reteach: always ask where did it go, never where did it go wrong. Rub hands together and feel the heat. Hold a plate near a warm mug. The transfer standard is the one to lean on: energy that appears to vanish has always turned up as heat, sound or light somewhere, and the child can usually detect it.
4-ESS2-1, weathering and erosion are two different things
Make observations or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind or vegetation.
The misconception: that weathering and erosion are the same word twice.
The wrong answer it produces: the child uses them interchangeably, and then cannot answer questions that depend on the distinction. Asked what wind does to a rock, they say “erodes it” whether the rock is being broken up in place or carried away.
The reteach: two verbs, kept apart from day one. Weathering breaks, erosion carries. Shake gravel in a jar to break it, then pour water through a tray of soil to carry it. Two activities, twenty minutes, and the distinction sticks because the child did each one separately.
The engineering standards, second time around
The 3-5-ETS1 band standards are the same three you had in grade 3, and grade 4 gives you a natural way to raise the bar because 4-PS3-4 asks the child to design, test and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.
That is a full design cycle inside a physical science standard, so run it as the ETS project rather than as a separate activity. A simple energy-converting device, tested, measured and improved, covers 4-PS3-4 and all three ETS standards in one project. 4-PS4-3 (compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information) can join it as a second, shorter one.
And the same warning as grade 3: these standards are filed under the band, not the grade. Searching for grade 4 standards will not show them.
How long this actually takes at home
About 65 to 95 hours. Where it goes:
- Investigations, models and building: about half. The energy and waves standards are almost entirely hands-on.
- Reading and explanation: about a third.
- Recording and comparing solutions fills the rest.
What to cut when it runs long. 4-ESS2-2 (patterns in maps) and 4-ESS3-1 (energy and fuels from natural resources) are research-shaped and compress well. Do not cut the light model or the energy transfer observations: both are misconception repair and neither works as reading.
Readiness check
- Does “energy” mean anything specific to them? Ask. If it means “being lively”, that is your starting point and it is completely normal at nine.
- Can they draw a labeled diagram? Three standards ask for a model, and a model at grade 4 is usually a drawing with arrows and labels.
- Fair testing. Do they understand changing one thing at a time? 3-5-ETS1-3 names controlled variables explicitly, so if grade 3 skipped it, teach it here.
A sequence for a flexible year
- Energy and speed (4-PS3-1), starting concrete: fast things hit harder.
- Energy transfer (4-PS3-2, 4-PS3-3), with the “where did it go” question running throughout.
- The design project (4-PS3-4 plus 3-5-ETS1-1 to 3), which is the anchor of the year. Build, test, measure, refine.
- Waves (4-PS4-1), amplitude and wavelength, with water and rope.
- Light and seeing (4-PS4-2), the dark room and the three-arrow model.
- Transferring information (4-PS4-3), a short second design comparison.
- Weathering, then erosion (4-ESS2-1), taught as two separate verbs with two separate activities.
- Rock layers and fossils (4-ESS1-1) and map patterns (4-ESS2-2), which pair naturally.
- Energy resources and natural hazards (4-ESS3-1, 4-ESS3-2), the research pair, which land better after the physics is done.
- Plant and animal structures, and senses (4-LS1-1, 4-LS1-2), the two life science standards, good as a change of pace mid-year.
The split-grade case
Grade 4 science is the easiest subject in the whole curriculum to run across mixed ages, for two specific reasons.
- The ETS standards are banded across grades 3 to 5, so siblings in three different grades can genuinely work on the same design project and all be meeting their own standards.
- Doing does not require reading. Read the material aloud and a child two years behind in reading meets every grade 4 science standard.
The one thing that does gate: the energy standards assume the grade 3 forces work happened. A child who still thinks a ball stops because it runs out of force will not get anywhere with energy transfer, so check that first.
Evidence and records for this grade
Grade 4 is a testing year in North Dakota, though as with most state testing it covers reading and math rather than science.
Worth keeping:
- The design project, documented across its cycle. First attempt, what failed, what changed. That documentation is the ETS standards, and a finished device without it is not.
- The light model drawing. A dated diagram with the three arrows is the clearest single piece of evidence in the year.
- Photos of the weathering and erosion activities, labeled with which was which.
See what goes in a homeschool portfolio, and printable packs for dated paper from a subject that mostly makes photographs.
The honest summary
Seventeen standards, about 80 hours, and a year that pivots to physics. Seven of the seventeen are energy and waves, which is why a grade 3 biology enthusiast can suddenly go off science, and saying that out loud helps.
Two repairs carry the year. Seeing is light arriving at the eye, not the eye reaching out, and the fix is a dark room and a three-arrow drawing. Energy is not used up, it moves, and the fix is asking where it went until the child starts looking for the heat. Everything else in grade 4 is ordinary, and there is a satisfying amount of building in it.
The other grade 4 guides are math and English, and the previous science year is grade 3 science. For getting a reluctant child into the building work, interests as a gateway to the curriculum.
Sprout Lessons builds standards-aligned lessons for grades K–12. Start free.
Next Generation Science Standards © 2013 Achieve, Inc. NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd; this product is not endorsed by WestEd or the lead states. Accessed via the Common Standards Project (accessed 2026-07-16). Standard counts in this guide were taken from that dataset, not written from memory. Not every state has adopted NGSS: check your state department of education for the standards that apply to you.
FAQ
Why does my child draw an arrow from the eye to the object?
Because they think seeing is something the eye does to the world rather than something light does to the eye. It is startlingly persistent and survives into adulthood in a large fraction of people. The standard requires a model showing light reflecting from an object and entering the eye, and children drop one half or the other. Fix it in a dark room: ask what they can see with no light, then use a torch on an object so the arrows must go lamp, object, eye.
Why does my child say the energy got used up?
They think energy is a substance objects contain and burn through, like fuel in a tank. The same child says a battery runs out of electricity. It is the grade 3 forces misconception grown up: something invisible drained away rather than moved somewhere else. Always ask where did it go rather than what went wrong, then rub hands together or hold a plate near a warm mug so the heat is findable.
What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
Two verbs. Weathering breaks rock, erosion carries the pieces away. Children use them interchangeably and then cannot answer anything that depends on the distinction. Teach them as two separate twenty-minute activities on different days: shake gravel in a jar to break it, pour water through a tray of soil to carry it.
How many NGSS standards are in grade 4 science?
Seventeen: fourteen carrying a grade 4 label plus the three 3-5-ETS1 engineering design standards that apply across grades 3 to 5. Four are energy, three are waves, two each are Earth systems, Earth and human activity and life science, and one is rock layers. Seven of seventeen being physics makes grade 4 the biggest physics concentration in elementary.
Why is my child suddenly less interested in science in grade 4?
Often the subject shift rather than motivation. Grade 3 is ten standards of biology in a general science wrapper; grade 4 is seven standards of physics with life science down to two. A child who loved grade 3 science may simply prefer living things, and naming that out loud helps more than treating it as an attitude problem.
Why can I not find the engineering standards for grade 4?
They are filed under the 3-5 band rather than under grade 4, so searching by grade will never return them. They are the same three you had in grade 3, which is an advantage rather than a repetition: revisit the project at a higher standard instead of starting a new one, and use 4-PS3-4 as the vehicle since it already asks for design, testing and refinement.