THE INTERMEDIATE GRADES SCIENCE – FOURTH THROUGH SIXTH GRADES Many American schools don’t teach enough science in grades four to six. “Students come to junior high with poor and varied backgrounds,” explains one science teacher. “You spend so much time catching up on the basics, you can’t always cover what is expected.” In order to avoid problems later, the school must teach the fundamentals now. At this stage, students should continue to encounter a mix of physical, life, and earth sciences. Now their studies go a bit deeper. For example, children in grades K-3 should have learned about how plants grow, what they need to survive, and what main structures like roots, stems, and leaves do. Students in grades four to six are ready for a basic introduction to photosynthesis. They also study plant anatomy in more detail, learning about stamens and pistils and such. You’ll probably see some review of subjects introduced in earlier grades as students move to deeper levels of understanding. You should notice other signs of increasing sophistication. Teachers work on bringing greater organization to children’s knowledge. For example, students learn about the five kingdoms of living things, and that scientists have organized the earth’s geologic...