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Fifth grade science typically begins with mutliple hands on experiences for students to review concepts from previous years. These experiences also support students building strong habits for tracking observations and recording data. As well as, establishes important understandings of concepts that will be essential for the new concepts we'll explore today throughout the year. Two of these experiences are about collecting data related to magnetism and electrical conductors. Students record data and create models to show their understandings of these concepts.
Other experiences exploring matter have included "Boo Bubbles," where students can observe bubbles made with dry ice to support the understanding that gas is made up of small units that may be too small to see without using additional science tools. This experience is always supported by kind families who donate dry ice, which takes some extra effort to obtain.
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A companion activity that students love is exploring bubbles on the table. The liquid will be flat on a surface, but students see they can expand the liquid by adding gas. Students then draw models to show the present properties from the experiment and the physical change that takes place.
Throughout the year, students build upon their skills of collecting data and using science tools. The images on the right are from a heat experiment, to understand how different substances conserve heat energy. This experiment takes place at the beginning of the school year, but is essential for key understandings during our Space Systems and Earth's Systems Units, which take place in the winter and spring respectively.
When we study Space Systems, students explore how proximity to a star and the amount of sunlight and atmosphere impact temperatures on planets in the solar system.
During the Earth's Systems Unit, students create models to show how different spheres of the Earth interact. An example we experiment with is how the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact when warming atmospeheric temperatures cause glaciers to melt.
A favorite summative project for students has been the opportunity to design their own experiment exploring chemical or physical changes. The pictures below are a physical change example of the left, where students continuous added rubberbands to a watermelon until the pressure cause the watermelon to explode. On the right, students use their own directions with the support of a family volunteer to cause a chemical change, known as "Elephant's Toothpaste." Other projects have included a DIY lava lamp, baking, slime, and volcanoes.
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