Grade 4 Lesson plan
Three Ways to Keep Bramley Ford Road Above the Flood
A 55-minute grade 4 lesson comparing a raised road, a wider culvert, and an upstream holding pond against the same criteria chart for a fictional flooded crossing.
NGSS · Grade 4
4-ESS3-2 Compare solutions that reduce impacts of natural Earth processes
Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.
Clarification statement: Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake resistant building and improving monitoring of volcanic activity.
Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.
Why water teaches this standard well
Floods sit squarely inside this standard's assessment boundary, making flood protection the most water-relevant path through it. Students can generate and test competing designs, such as levees, detention ponds, and elevated buildings, and compare how each protects a model town from the same storm.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement and assessment boundary, and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
5 materials aligned to 4-ESS3-2
Lesson plans
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Brookvale School's Flooded Bus Loop: A Rain Garden Design Lesson
A grade 4 engineering lesson where students define the flooding problem at a school bus loop and compare two rain garden designs to slow the runoff.
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Protecting Fenwick's Water Plant From a Flood: Two Solutions
A grade 4 lesson where students compare a levee and a detention pond to protect a fictional town's water treatment plant.
Classroom activities
Grade 4 Classroom activity
Marlowbend's Storm Day: A Stormwater Placement Game
A grade 4 team game in which students spend a fixed credit budget placing rain gardens, barrels, and porous pavement on a town grid to keep two low corners dry.
Projects
Grade 4 Project
A Spillway for Pebblecreek Pond: A Grade 4 Flood Design Project
A four-session grade 4 project where teams build a model earth dam, watch it wash out in a storm pour, then design and fair-test a spillway on a token budget.