ESS.4.3.2: Engage in argument from evidence to explain how humans can adapt…
Engage in argument from evidence to explain how humans can adapt their behavior to live in changing environments (e.g. recycling wastes, establishing rain gardens, planting native species to prevent flooding and erosion).
The North Carolina Standard Course of Study, Science (2023) outcome ESS.4.3.2 (Earth and Human Activity) for Grade 4 says: “Engage in argument from evidence to explain how humans can adapt their behavior to live in changing environments (e.g. recycling wastes, establishing rain gardens, planting native species to prevent flooding and erosion).” These 2 Fieldbook units teach it hands-on, with everyday materials and a printable teacher guide and student sheet for every lesson. Official wording: North Carolina Standard Course of Study, Science (2023).
Earth Day Investigations: Make Your School Better Grades 4–6 · partly supports this outcome
Four hands-on investigations into the school's own garbage, shade, water and electricity. Each one ends with students taking a real, evidence-based recommendation to the principal or caretaker.
- What's in our garbage? 50–60 min
Teams wear gloves to sort one day of classroom waste into landfill, recycling and compost, weigh each pile and graph the results. They use the numbers to recommend one change to the principal or caretaker.
- How much water does a dripping tap waste? 45–60 min
The class counts drips per minute from a slow-dripping tap, catches and measures the water, then scales it up to a day and a year. Students use the math to recommend how the school should report and fix drips.
Living with Water: Salt, Rice and the Mekong Grades 4–5 · partly supports this outcome
Science and English together, for English learners (CEFR A2–B1). Three investigations from Vietnam: how salt farmers turn the sea into salt, how rice terraces stop a mountain washing away, and how a house in the Mekong Delta stays dry in the flood season.
- How do rice terraces stop a mountain washing away? 60 min, or two 35-minute periods
Science and English together, for English learners at CEFR A2–B1. Teams make model hillsides from soil in trays: a bare slope, a terraced slope and a slope with plant cover. They pour the same storm of rain on each, measure the muddy water that runs off, and use the evidence to advise a mountain village in northern Vietnam.
- How can a house stay dry when the Mekong floods? 60 min, or two 35-minute periods
Science and English together, for English learners at CEFR A2–B1. Teams design and build a model house on stilts or on a floating base, then test it as the teacher raises the water in a tub and makes waves. They use their results to advise a village in the Mekong Delta.
Printable practice for ESS.4.3.2
These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to ESS.4.3.2 is partial.
- Living with Water: Salt, Rice and the Mekong workbook included with the unit
4 readings, 2 practice pages, 1 word wall, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.
- Restless Earth: Fossils, Soils, Volcanoes and Plates workbook included with the unit
1 word wall, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 reading, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.
- Rocks and Erosion: How Land Changes Shape workbook included with the unit
2 readings, 1 English-support page, 1 practice page, 1 unit review, 1 unit test, with answer keys.
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Compared with NGSS: 4-ESS3-2 (partial).
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