4-LS1-2 lessons
Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
The Next Generation Science Standards code 4-LS1-2 asks students to: “Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.” These Fieldbook lessons teach it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Your Senses: How Does Your Body Know? Grade 4
- Where is your skin most sensitive? 45–60 min
Students use a bent paper clip to touch the skin with one point or two, and find the smallest gap they can feel as two on the fingertip, palm, back of the hand and forearm. Then they explain why fingertips are built for reading the world.
- Why do you have two eyes? 45–60 min
Students try to touch a pen cap to a pen tip ten times with one eye covered and ten times with both eyes open, then make a dot vanish into their own blind spot. They explain what two eyes give the brain that one eye can't.
- Can your nose change what you taste? 45–60 min
With eyes closed and noses pinched, students try to name the flavour of a jelly bean and tell a cube of apple from a cube of potato. Then they let go of their noses and explain why most of what we call taste is really smell.
- How do animals sense what we can't? 60 min
Students read about whiskers, echolocation and owl ears, build a paper cone 'owl ear' and test whether it helps them find where a sound comes from. Then they define a problem and invent a sensor or tool inspired by an animal.
NGSS is used as written in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, so the code 4-LS1-2 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
More NGSS standards for Grade 4
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