Standard #: SC.4.P.9.1


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Identify some familiar changes in materials that result in other materials with different characteristics, such as decaying animal or plant matter, burning, rusting, and cooking.


General Information

Subject Area: Science
Grade: 4
Body of Knowledge: Physical Science
Big Idea: Changes in Matter - A. Matter can undergo a variety of changes.

B. Matter can be changed physically or chemically.

Clarification for grades K-5: The target understanding for students in the elementary grades should focus on Big Ideas A and B.

Clarification for Grades 6-8: The target understanding for students in the middle grades should begin to transition the focus to: C. When matter changes chemically, a rearrangement of bonds between the atoms occurs. This results in new substances with new properties.

Date Adopted or Revised: 02/08
Content Complexity Rating: Level 1: Recall - More Information
Date of Last Rating: 05/08
Status: State Board Approved
Assessed: Yes

Related Courses

Course Number1111 Course Title222
5020050: Science - Grade Four (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7720050: Access Science Grade 4 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current))
5020110: STEM Lab Grade 4 (Specifically in versions: 2016 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))


Related Access Points

Access Point Number Access Point Title
SC.4.P.9.In.1 Observe and describe properties of materials that have been changed into other materials, such as decayed leaves of a plant.
SC.4.P.9.Su.1 Indicate differences in materials that have been changed into other materials, such as rust on a can.
SC.4.P.9.Pa.1 Recognize changes in observable properties of materials.


Related Resources

Lesson Plans

Name Description
Cooking Up Chemistry

Students will explore through fiction/nonfiction texts and hands-on activities that materials can be altered to change some of their properties. In an extension lesson, students can also explore how other forms of energy (besides electricity) can be used to cook food.

Holey Rusted Metal!

Students will conduct a guided inquiry lab involving the chemical change that creates rust. This lab is meant to be set up in one day and then observed over the course of 3 weeks.

Did It Change?

Through demonstrations and lab/investigate rotations, students will explore physical and chemical changes.

Physical and Chemical Changes in the Digestion Process

This lesson demonstrates how students can determine the cause and effect relationship in the digestion process. Students will be able to determine where chemical and physical changes occur in the digestion process and support their findings from an informational text. This lesson provides students with an opportunity to apply their knowledge of physical and chemical changes in matter to the process of digestion.

“Chemical Changes: Rusting and Tarnishing” In this integrated ELA lesson, students will determine the cause and effect relationship for types of metals that experience rusting and tarnishing. The students can also compare and contrast the chemical changes of rusting and tarnishing, which will help them further understand how matter can change. This integrated lesson will help students apply comprehension skills to better understand informational text.
Change Matters: Physical and Chemical Changes

This lesson demonstrates how students can apply the process of comparing and contrasting to demonstrate the similarities and differences between physical and chemical changes in matter. The students will then compare and contrast these changes, assisting them in understanding the different ways matter changes.

Chemical Changes: Burning This lesson demonstrates how students can apply the process of identifying main idea and supporting details to show the different ways burning can chemically change matter. The students can identify these changes and discuss the details that support these changes, which will help them further understand how burning matter is considered a chemical change.

Original Student Tutorial

Name Description
Changes In Materials

Identify some familiar changes in materials that result in other materials with different characteristics in this interactive tutorial.

Teaching Ideas

Name Description
An Apple a Day

Students are presented with an apple and are asked to draw it. In each subsequent class period they are asked to draw the same apple again. In this way, they watch and record the changes the apple goes through as it decays.

Bury Your Trash This activity will allow students to bury various pieces of trash in a plotted area of land outside. After approximately two to three months, the trash will be uncovered to allow the students to investigate what types of materials biodegrade in soil.
Exploring A Decomposition Community In this classroom lab setting, students will construct Decomposition Columns from two-liter plastic bottles. Students will gather organic material and observe activity in the column. Students will record observations and construction steps in their science notebook.
Investigating Changes In Matter In this chemistry lab, students will observe a variety of physical and chemical changes in matter.
Sorting Our Way to pH In this indoor lab activity students will be given a large variety of objects to sort into categories. After practice and discussion, they will then sort food items, first based on their five senses, then by studying their reactions when placed in red cabbage juice. Students document their predictions, observations, the results of their work and their conclusions.

Unit/Lesson Sequence

Name Description
Chemical Change Investigations | Inquiry in Action In this series of 10 investigations, students gain experience with the evidence of chemical change - production of a gas, change in temperature, color change, and formation of a precipitate. Students begin by observing that similar-looking powders can be differentiated by the way they react chemically with certain test liquids. Students then use their chemical tests and observations to identify an unknown powder and, in a follow-up activity, to identify the active ingredients in baking powder. Students continue to explore chemical change by using a thermometer to observe that temperature either increases or decreases during chemical reactions. Then they control these reactions by adjusting the amount of reactants. In another set of activities, students use the color changes of red cabbage indicator to classify substances as acids or bases, neutralize solutions, and compare the relative acidity of two different solutions. Students conclude the investigation by comparing a precipitate to one of the reactants that formed it. Students see that a new substance was created during the chemical reaction. Information and questions about photosynthesis and cellular respiration are included as examples of chemical changes on pages 316-318 of this resource.

Student Resources

Original Student Tutorial

Name Description
Changes In Materials:

Identify some familiar changes in materials that result in other materials with different characteristics in this interactive tutorial.



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