Utah's fourth grade science in the four equal strands of the RISE blueprint: organisms, energy, waves and the sky.
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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education. Bank checked October 13, 2026.
The real test: RISE science, grade 4
Time limit
None
Blueprint
8 clusters: 2 on each of the four strands, 25% of the test each. The blueprint gives no number of questions.
Strands
4.1 Organisms Functioning in Their Environment, 4.2 Energy Transfer, 4.3 Wave Patterns, 4.4 Observable Patterns in the Sky.
How it is given
On a computer, adaptive and not timed. The blueprint calls it a matrix-designed test: each student is assessed on a subset of the standards in a strand.
Subjects in grade 4
English language arts, mathematics and science. Grade 4 is the first grade with a summative RISE science test.
Scores
A scale score and one of four proficiency levels: Below Proficient, Approaching Proficient, Proficient or Highly Proficient.
Spring 2027 window
March 9 to June 4, 2027 for the summative tests. Each district or charter school tests within 8 weeks of that window.
Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment 10
A dog once found food behind a shed. Weeks later it walks straight to the same spot. What is the dog using to guide its action?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.2 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
A fossil footprint is three times as long as the footprint of a living lizard. What can a scientist infer from the fossil?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.3 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
A fossil trilobite has body structures much like those of a living horseshoe crab, an ocean animal. What does this suggest about the trilobite?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.3 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
A rose stem is covered in thorns. A student claims the thorns help the plant survive. Which observation is the best evidence for the claim?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.1 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
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Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment, continued
A squirrel smells a fox nearby and darts up a tree. Which list puts the steps in order?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.2 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
A trout has gills. Which job do gills do for the fish?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.1 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
Fossils of tropical plants are found in an Arctic area. Which explanation does this evidence support?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.4 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
On a cliff, a rock layer with marine shell fossils lies above a layer with land plant fossils. What does this pattern show about the area?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.4 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
Some kinds of plants and animals that once lived on Earth can no longer be found. What gives scientists evidence of what they were like?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.3 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
Which of these is an internal structure of a deer?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.1.1 (Strand 4.1: Organisms Functioning in Their Environment)
Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer 10
A bowler wants the ball to hit the pins with more energy. Without changing the ball, what should the bowler do?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.1 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A moving shopping cart bumps an empty cart that is standing still. The first cart slows down and the second cart starts to roll. What happened?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.2 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A solar oven is a box lined with shiny foil that cooks food in sunlight. Which energy change does it make?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.4 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A student rolls a ball into a paper cup three times and records how far the cup is pushed: slow roll 5 centimeters, medium roll 12 centimeters, fast roll 20 centimeters. What do the data show?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.1 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A student sprinkles salt on a drum and plays music from a speaker beside it. The salt jumps. What is this evidence of?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.3 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A student wires a battery to a small motor, and the motor spins a fan blade. What carries energy from the battery to the motor?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.3 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A team tests an alarm built to ring when a door moves. It rings when the door is slammed but not when the door opens slowly. What should the team do next?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.4 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
A toy car hits a wall and stops with a loud bang. What happened to some of the car's motion energy?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.2 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
Two identical marbles roll across a table. Marble A rolls fast and marble B rolls slowly. Which statement is true?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.1 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
Which question could a student answer by rolling one marble into another at different speeds?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.2.2 (Strand 4.2: Energy Transfer)
Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns 10
A drawing shows wave A with peaks 2 centimeters apart and wave B with peaks 6 centimeters apart. Which statement is true?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.1 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
A lamp is on in a room. Which path does light take so that a girl can see her shoe?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.2 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
A model of sight has an arrow drawn from a tree to a person's eye. What does the arrow stand for?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.2 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
A student lays a ruler along a diagram of a wave and reads the distance between two neighboring peaks. Which part of the wave pattern is that?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.1 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
A student tests two ways to send a code across a field. Flashlight flashes were read correctly 9 times out of 10 and hand claps 4 times out of 10. What should the student conclude?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.3 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
At night a ship signals another ship with long and short flashes of a lamp. What carries the message?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.3 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
Two friends on facing hills want to send messages on a sunny day with no electronics. Which solution uses a wave pattern?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.3 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
Two students shake a rope. First they make small shakes. Then they make big shakes at the same pace. What changes in the rope's wave?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.1 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
What does the amplitude of a wave measure?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.1 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
Why can you not see a ball inside a completely dark closet?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.3.2 (Strand 4.3: Wave Patterns)
Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky 10
A class measures a flagpole's shadow three times in one day: 9 a.m. 6 meters, noon 2 meters, 3 p.m. 5 meters. When was the shadow shortest?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
Every 24 hours a city goes from daylight to darkness and back to daylight. Which motion of Earth causes this pattern?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
Every hour a class traces the shadow of a fence post in chalk. By afternoon the tracings point a different way than they did in the morning. What is this evidence of?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
How long does Earth take to make one complete turn on its axis?NASA Space Place, What Causes the Seasons?; Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
In January a student sees a certain group of stars high in the evening sky. In July that group cannot be found at night. What causes the change?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
The Sun and the points of light in the night sky are all stars. Why does the Sun appear so much larger and brighter?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.1 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
The Sun appears to rise, cross the sky and set. What is really moving to make this daily pattern?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.2 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
Suppose the Sun were as far away as the other stars in the night sky. How would it look from Earth?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.1 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
Two street lamps are equally bright. One is across the street and one is ten blocks away, and the far lamp looks dimmer. How is this like the stars?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.1 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
Which word names both the Sun and the points of light in the night sky?Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (June 2023), Standard 4.4.1 (Strand 4.4: Observable Patterns in the Sky)
How this list was compiled: Outline: Utah RISE Science Grades 4-5 Blueprints, the grade 4 table (clusters and percent of the test for each strand), on the Utah RISE portal, https://utahrise.org/resources (https://utahrise.org/content/contentresources/en/Science-Gr-4-5-Public-Facing-Blueprints.pdf), read 2026-10-13. Each question names the standard it practices in the Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards (Utah State Board of Education, June 2023), grade 4, https://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/_science_/UtahSEEdStandards.pdf, read 2026-10-13; the fact in an answer is one the standard or its strand text gives, or is read from the data in the question. One question on the length of a day rests on a public page named under the answer and opened 2026-10-13: NASA Space Place, What Causes the Seasons?, https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/. Test facts: RISE Testing: A Guide for Utah Families (June 2026), Making Sense of RISE Scores (June 2026) and RISE Testing Overview (October 2025), linked from https://schools.utah.gov/assessment/assessments/rise, read 2026-10-13. No training test, benchmark module or released item was opened. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from Utah's published science standards. Nothing is copied or reworded from a RISE test, a training test, a benchmark module, a released item or another practice test.
How it works
Unofficial practice for Utah's grade 4 RISE science test: 40 questions, 10 on each of the four strands the state's blueprint weighs equally. None is taken from a RISE test or training test. Not affiliated with the Utah State Board of Education.
Read the full guide
What the grade 4 RISE science test covers
The blueprint gives each of the four grade 4 SEEd strands two clusters, a quarter of the test. Strand 4.1 is organisms in their environment: body structures, senses, fossils and rock layers. Strand 4.2 is energy transfer: speed, collisions, sound, light, heat and electric current. Strand 4.3 is wave patterns, with amplitude, wavelength and how reflected light lets us see. Strand 4.4 is patterns in the sky: the Sun as a star, shadows, day and night.
Two topics fourth grade leaves out
Utah's grade 4 standards stop short of two things on purpose: why Earth has seasons, and how color relates to wavelength. Both wait for grades 6 to 8, so neither is asked here.
Many grade 4 standards ask for evidence. When a question gives measurements, read them before the choices.
Questions and answers
Is there a RISE science test in 4th grade?
Yes. Grade 4 is the first year of RISE science. The State Board gives summative science tests in grades 4 to 10, and its resource guide for 2026-2027 notes there is no summative science test for grade 3.
How many questions are on the 4th grade RISE science test?
The blueprint counts clusters, not questions: 8 clusters, 2 for each strand. It is a matrix-designed test, so each student is assessed on a subset of the standards in a strand.
Is the Utah RISE science test timed in 4th grade?
No. The State Board's guide for families lists not being timed among the features of RISE assessments. The test also adapts to the student's level.
Is there a Utah RISE practice test for 4th grade science from the state?
The Utah RISE portal has training tests that cover a range of grades and show the online tools and question types. They give no score. The box under the questions links to them. This page is separate and unofficial.