Fifth Grade

As the culminating grade in elementary school, the entire year draws upon patterns and understandings developed in prior grades. Students look at phenomena from previous grades from the central theme of the exchange of energy and matter within systems... The year progresses through systems of different scales from tangible systems with chemicals in plastic zip bags up to the scale of ecosystems and then to the interacting subsystems of the entire planet... and tracking the flow of energy or matter within a system it focuses on the input of energy into the Earth system from the Sun and other stars in the sky.

The entire year has an emphasis on developing and applying models... Using pictorial models like concept mapping allow students to represent their mental models and be very explicit about how the different components in the system interact and exchange energy and matter.

(CA-NGSS Framework, Chapter 4, 2016)