AC9S4U02 Year 4 Science

AC9S4U02 – Year 4 Science: Earth and space sciences

Strand

Science understanding

Substrand

Earth and space sciences

This Content Descriptor from Year 4 Science provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

identify sources of water and describe key processes in the water cycle, including movement of water through the sky, landscape and ocean; precipitation; evaporation; and condensation

Elaborations

• identifying everyday examples of precipitation (rain or snow), evaporation (wet washing or paint drying) and condensation of water (water droplets on a cold water bottle)
• identifying local water sources and exploring how they change over time, such as rain puddles that evaporate or a local creek that flows faster after rain
• exploring where tap water comes from and predicting what happens to water that goes down the drain
• exploring a game or simulation of the water cycle, identifying key processes and creating their own representation of the water cycle
• recognising that clouds are tiny water droplets suspended in air, observing a ‘cloud in a bottle’ demonstrated by a teacher and discussing what conditions are needed for clouds to form and for rain or snow to fall
• exploring First Nations Australians’ connections with and valuing of water and water resource management
• recognising First Nations Australians’ knowledges and understandings of evaporation and how the effect of evaporation can be reduced to conserve water, such as by covering surfaces

Show 1 more elaboration

• considering why we are encouraged to save and recycle water, and actions people can take to reduce water consumption and waste

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 4 ASSCIY4

Year 4 Science Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 4 students identify the roles of organisms in a habitat and construct food chains. They identify key processes in the water cycle and describe how water cycles through the environment. They identify forces acting on objects and describe their effect. They relate the uses of materials to their properties. They explain the role of data in science inquiry. They identify solutions based on scientific explanations and describe the needs these meet. Students pose questions to identify patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations. They plan investigations using planning scaffolds, identify key elements of fair tests and describe how they conduct investigations safely. They use simple procedures to make accurate formal measurements. They construct representations to organise data and information and identify patterns and relationships. They compare their findings with those of others, assess the fairness of their investigation, identify further questions for investigation and draw conclusions. They communicate ideas and findings for an identified audience and purpose, including using scientific vocabulary when appropriate.