A science lab's observation cards have fallen on the floor, and students must sort them. The 16 cards on this three-page 4th grade worksheet range from thunder shaking windows to a battery running a toy. Each goes into one of four pathways from NGSS 4-PS3-2: sound, light, heat, or electric current. Two Think About It questions follow. The answer key places four cards in each column and suggests lightning hitting a tree as the hardest card to place.
4-PS3-2
“Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.”
The full 16-card sort, plus question 2, where students add their own sound, light, heat, and electric current examples.
The sheet gives sixteen everyday examples, including a spoon in hot soup, a dog barking in a canyon, a laser pointing at a screen, and a radiator warming cold air.
Students write each card under Sound Energy, Light Energy, Heat Energy, or Electric Current. The key puts exactly four cards in each column.
Question 1 asks which card was hardest to place in only one category and why. Question 2 asks for one new example of the student's own in each of the four categories.
Hands-on sort
Print the cards on card stock and cut them apart. Groups sort on the desk first, then copy their final answer into the grid.
Class discussion
Give question 1 real time. The key names lightning hitting a tree and the magnifying glass focusing sun as cards that fit two columns, so ask groups to defend where they put them.
Quick check
Collect question 2 on its own. Four original examples, one per column, show you which pathway each student is still unsure about.
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