Colorado Academic Standards

Colorado Department of Education

Colorado Academic Standards Online

Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.

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clear Content Area: Science - 2019 // Grade Level: Fourth Grade // Standard Category: 2. Life Science

Science - 2019

Fourth Grade, Standard 2. Life Science

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More information icon Prepared Graduates:

  • 5. Students can use the full range of science and engineering practices to make sense of natural phenomena and solve problems that require understanding how individual organisms are configured and how these structures function to support life, growth, behavior and reproduction.

More information icon Grade Level Expectation:

1. Organisms have both internal and external structures that serve various functions.

More information icon Evidence Outcomes:

Students Can:

  1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior and reproduction. (4-LS1-1) (Clarification Statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lungs, brain and skin.) (Boundary Statement: Stress at this level is on understanding the macroscale systems and their functions, not the microscopic scale.)
  2. 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. (4-LS1-2) (Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on systems information transfer.) (Boundary Statement: Does not include the mechanisms by which the brain stores and recalls information or the mechanism of how sensory receptors function.)

More information icon Academic Contexts and Connections:

More information icon Colorado Essential Skills and Science and Engineering Practices:

  1. Construct and argument with evidence, data, and/or a model. (Engaging in Argument from Evidence) (Personal: Initiative/Self-direction)
  2. Use a model to test interactions concerning the functioning of a natural system (Engaging in Argument from Evidence) (Personal: Initiative/Self-direction)

More information icon Elaboration on the GLE:

  1. Students can answer the question: How do internal and external structures support the survival, growth, behavior and reproduction of plants and animals?
  2. LS1:A Structure and Function: Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior and reproduction.
  3. LS1:D Information Processing: Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.

More information icon Cross Cutting Concepts:

  1. Systems and System Models: A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions.

Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us