CA 4th & 5th Sci. Standards
The following is a listing of the California Science Content
Standards adopted in October 1998.  A complete listing of all grade level
standards may be found at the following website:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/index.asp


4th Grade CA Science Standards
Physical Sciences
1. Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful
applications in everyday life. As a basis for understanding this concept:  
   a. Students know how to design and build simple series and parallel
circuits by using components such as wires, batteries, and bulbs. 
   b. Students know how to build a simple compass and use it to detect
magnetic effects, including Earth’s magnetic field. 
   c. Students know electric currents produce magnetic fields and know how to
build a simple electromagnet. 
   d. Students know the role of electromagnets in the construction of electric
motors, electric generators, and simple devices, such as doorbells and earphones.
   e. Students know electrically charged objects attract or repel each other.
   f. Students know that magnets have two poles (north and south) and that
like poles repel each other while unlike poles attract each other.
   g. Students know electrical energy can be converted to heat, light, and motion.

Life Sciences
2. All organisms need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for
understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know plants are the primary source of matter and energy
entering most food chains.
   b. Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores,
omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may
compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.
   c. Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and
microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals.

3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for
survival. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know ecosystems can be characterized by their living and
nonliving components. 
   b. Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants
and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. 
   c. Students know many plants depend on animals for pollination and seed
dispersal, and animals depend on plants for food and shelter. d.? Students
know that most microorganisms do not cause disease and that many are beneficial.

Earth Sciences
4. The properties of rocks and minerals reflect the processes that formed
them. As a basis for understanding this concept:
   a. Students know how to differentiate among igneous, sedimentary, and
metamorphic rocks by referring to their properties and methods of formation
(the rock cycle).
   b. Students know how to identify common rock-forming minerals (including
quartz, calcite, feldspar, mica, and hornblende) and ore minerals by using a
table of diagnostic properties.

5. Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape Earth’s land surface. As a
basis for understanding this concept:
   a. Students know some changes in the earth are due to slow processes, such
as erosion, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides,
volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
   b. Students know natural processes, including freezing and thawing and the
growth of roots, cause rocks to break down into smaller pieces.
   c. Students know moving water erodes landforms, reshaping the land by
taking it away from some places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and
mud in other places (weathering, transport, and deposition).


5th Grade CA Science Standards
Physical Sciences
1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter
in the world. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know that during chemical reactions the atoms in the reactants
rearrange to form products with different properties. 
   b. Students know all matter is made of atoms, which may combine to form
molecules.
   c. Students know metals have properties in common, such as high electrical
and thermal conductivity. Some metals, such as aluminum (Al), iron (Fe),
nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au), are pure elements;
others, such as steel and brass, are composed of a combination of elemental
metals.
   d. Students know that each element is made of one kind of atom and that the
elements
are organized in the periodic table by their chemical properties.
   e. Students know scientists have developed instruments that can create
discrete images of atoms and molecules that show that the atoms and molecules
often occur in well-ordered arrays.
   f. Students know differences in chemical and physical properties of
substances are used to separate mixtures and identify compounds.
   g.Students know properties of solid, liquid, and gaseous substances, such
as sugar (C6H12O6), water (H2O), helium (He), oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), and
carbon dioxide (CO2). 
   h. Students know living organisms and most materials are composed of just a
few elements.
   i. Students know the common properties of salts, such as sodium chloride
(NaCl).

Life Sciences
2. Plants and animals have structures for respiration, digestion, waste
disposal, and transport of materials. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know many multicellular organisms have specialized structures
to support the transport of materials.
   b. Students know how blood circulates through the heart chambers, lungs,
and body and how carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) are exchanged in the
lungs and tissues.
   c. Students know the sequential steps of digestion and the roles of teeth
and the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and colon
in the function of the digestive system.
   d. Students know the role of the kidney in removing cellular waste from
blood and converting it into urine, which is stored in the bladder.
   e. Students know how sugar, water, and minerals are transported in a
vascular plant.
   f. Students know plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy from sunlight
to build molecules of sugar and release oxygen.
   g. Students know plant and animal cells break down sugar to obtain energy,
a process resulting in carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (respiration).

Earth Sciences
3. Water on Earth moves between the oceans and land through the processes of
evaporation and condensation. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know most of Earth’s water is present as salt water in the
oceans, which cover most of Earth’s surface.
   b. Students know when liquid water evaporates, it turns into water vapor in
the air and can reappear as a liquid when cooled or as a solid if cooled below
the freezing point of water.
   c. Students know water vapor in the air moves from one place to another and
can form fog or clouds, which are tiny droplets of water or ice, and can fall
to Earth as rain, hail, sleet, or snow.
   d. Students know that the amount of fresh water located in rivers, lakes,
undergroundsources, and glaciers is limited and that its availability can be
extended by recycling and decreasing the use of water.
   e. Students know the origin of the water used by their local communities.


4. Energy from the Sun heats Earth unevenly, causing air movements that result
in changing weather patterns. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know uneven heating of Earth causes air movements (convection
currents).
   b. Students know the influence that the ocean has on the weather and the
role that the water cycle plays in weather patterns.
   c. Students know the causes and effects of different types of severe weather. 
   d. Students know how to use weather maps and data to predict local weather
and know that weather forecasts depend on many variables. 
   e. Students know that the Earth’s atmosphere exerts a pressure that
decreases with distance above Earth’s surface and that at any point it exerts
this pressure equally in all directions.

5. The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the Sun in
predictable paths. As a basis for understanding this concept: 
   a. Students know the Sun, an average star, is the central and largest body
in the solar system and is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.
   b. Students know the solar system includes the planet Earth, the Moon, the
Sun, eight other planets and their satellites, and smaller objects, such as
asteroids and comets.
   c. Students know the path of a planet around the Sun is due to the
gravitational attraction between the Sun and the planet.