How is using partial products to find the product of two 2 digit factors similar to how you have used partial products in the past? how is it different? 4th grade question

Partial product is a method of doing multiplication in math.  The reason it’s called “partial product” or “partial answer” (the word “product” means answer in multiplication just like “sum” means answer in addition) is because you are doing many “parts” of a larger multiplication.  To get to the final answer, you must add up all “parts”. I hope that this is the answer that you were looking for and it has helped you.