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Utah · Utah SEEd · Grade 4

4.1.4: Engage in argument based on patterns in rock layers and fossils found…

Engage in argument based on patterns in rock layers and fossils found in those layers to support an explanation that environments have changed over time.

The Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards outcome 4.1.4 (Earth and Space Sciences) for Grade 4 says: “Engage in argument based on patterns in rock layers and fossils found in those layers to support an explanation that environments have changed over time.” This Fieldbook unit teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials and a printable teacher guide and student sheet for every lesson. Official wording: Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards.

Restless Earth: Fossils, Soils, Volcanoes and Plates Grades 4–7 · partly supports this outcome

Press model fossils and read a cliff of layers, shake a jar of soil and watch it sort itself by grain size, plot real volcanoes and earthquakes on a world map to find the edges of Earth's plates, then move model plates and test a building on a shake table. Four hands-on lessons that build on Rocks and Erosion.

  • How do fossils form, and what can they tell us? 55–70 min

    Teams press shells and leaves into clay to make a mould and a salt-dough cast, build a cliff of coloured layers with a different model fossil in each, and swap cliffs to work out which layer is oldest. They then read a cliff of real fossils and explain that a place once under the sea is now dry land.

Printable practice for 4.1.4

These pages practise a closely related idea; the match to 4.1.4 is partial.

Need just this outcome? Build a custom pack from these pages, with its answer key, in about a minute. Custom packs come with All-access and school licences.

Compared with NGSS: 4-ESS1-1 (partial).

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