NB G4 Scientific Literacy case studies
NB G4 Scientific Literacy · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The New Brunswick Grade 4 Scientific Literacy Assessment is a provincial check-in on how well nine- and ten-year-olds can use science ideas, not merely recall them. Students in Grade 4 across the province write it during class time, and the questions grow out of the provincial science curriculum: living things, matter and energy, Earth and space, the skills of investigation, and the ways science connects to technology, society and the environment. The NB G4 Scientific Literacy case studies are 5 cases and about 2,883 words.
1The Shaded Tray: What Really Limited the Bean Plants?
Okafor's Grade 4 class is growing bean plants in the school greenhouse to test the claim that plants need light to grow. Two trays were planted on the same day with the same seeds and the same soil mix.
596 words, about 3 min2Two Bottle Heaters and a Passing Cloud
Two teams of Grade 4 students each built a solar water heater from a clear plastic bottle painted black inside and filled with 500 mL of water. Team A wrapped its bottle in a clear plastic sleeve; Team B left its bottle open to the air.
550 words, about 3 min3Three Runs on the Stream Table
Students built a 1-metre stream table on a 15° slope and packed it with a mixture of sand and clay. They ran 2 litres of water per minute for 6 minutes and weighed the sediment caught in a tray at the bottom: 40 g.
559 words, about 3 min4The 84-Centimetre Bounce
A group tests which ball bounces highest. They drop a tennis ball, a rubber ball, and a golf ball from 100 cm onto a concrete floor and read the top of the first bounce against a ruler taped to the wall.
597 words, about 3 min5Refill Stations or Bottled Water?
Lincoln Primary School uses about 720 plastic water bottles per week, 500 mL each, bought through a vending contract at 0.35 per bottle. The contract runs three more years.
581 words, about 3 min