Grade 4 Engineering & Physics

32 of 36 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: Energy and Machines

• MUST COVER 1.1 Potential and Kinetic Energy: The Switchback Railway · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.2 Stored Energy on Wheels: Leonardo’s Spring Cart and a Rubber-Band Car · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.3 Waterwheels and Windmills: John Smeaton’s Model Tests · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.4 A Chain-Reaction Machine: Rube Goldberg and the Design Process · unit test

Unit 2: Bridges

• MUST COVER 2.1 Why Triangles? The Howe, Pratt and Warren Trusses · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.2 Truss Against Beam: Wendel Bollman and a Craft-Stick Load Test · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.3 The Forth Bridge: Giant Cantilevers · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.4 Hanging from Chains: Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge · unit test

Unit 3: Buildings

• MUST COVER 3.1 Wood, Stone, Brick, Concrete and Steel: Monier’s Flowerpots · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.2 Roman Concrete and the Pantheon Dome · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.3 Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.4 Earthquakes and a Shake Table · unit test

Unit 4: Electricity

• MUST COVER 4.1 Volta’s Pile and a Lemon Battery · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.2 Joseph Henry’s Electromagnets and the Electric Motor · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.3 Edison’s Light Bulb: Testing Thousands of Filaments · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.4 Switches and Circuit Diagrams · unit test

Unit 5: Public Utilities

• MUST COVER 5.1 The Electric Grid: William Stanley’s Transformers · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.2 Water Towers and Water Pressure · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.3 Hoover Dam: Taming a River · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.4 Joseph Bazalgette and London’s Sewers · unit test

Unit 6: Boats and Ships

• MUST COVER 6.1 Archimedes’ Principle Measured · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.2 Hull Design and Stability: Samuel Plimsoll’s Line · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.3 Robert Fulton’s Clermont: Steam on the River · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.4 Canals and Locks: The Erie Canal · unit test

Unit 7: Flight

• MUST COVER 7.1 The Four Forces: Sir George Cayley · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.2 The Wing and Angle of Attack: Otto Lilienthal · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.3 The Wright Brothers’ Wind Tunnel · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.4 Propellers and Helicopters: Spinning Wings · unit test

Unit 8: Robots and Coding

• MUST COVER 8.1 The Jacquard Loom and Punch Cards · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.2 Algorithms and Block Coding: Grace Hopper and the First Bug · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.3 Sensors and Feedback: From Ctesibius’s Water Clock to Robots · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.4 A Syringe-Hydraulic Robot Arm and the Family Engineering Fair · unit test

Unit 9: Toy Lab: The Physics of Play OPTIONAL unit

• OPTIONAL 9.1 The Super Soaker: Lonnie Johnson and Air Pressure
• OPTIONAL 9.2 The Returning Boomerang: Spin and Lift
• OPTIONAL 9.3 The Pogo Stick: Springs and Energy
• OPTIONAL 9.4 Loop-the-Loop Tracks: Energy and the Loop

From the course’s own 36-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Grading: Builds (effort, fair testing and the improve round) 40%, Engineer’s notebook (predictions, data tables, sketches, conclusions) 20%, Unit reviews 15%, Portfolio builds 25%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69. Below 60: redo the build or review with help.