5th Grade

Students inquire about states, properties, and transformations of matter

Students explain forces, motions, and their interactions.

Students investigate energy and how it is transferred and transformed within and between systems.

Students analyze the interconnected systems that include the planet Earth, our Solar System, our Galaxy, and the Universe.

Students explain planet Earth as a complex and dynamic system of rock, water, air, and living things

Students assess the interrelated cycles and forces that shape Earth’s surface, including human interaction with Earth.

Students examine organisms’ structures and functions for life processes, including growth and reproduction.

Students inquire how organisms and populations of organisms obtain resources from their environment.

Students explore how biological evolution explains unity and diversity of species.

Recognize that the total amount of matter is conserved (stays the same) when change occurs

Describe the various states of matter in terms of the small pieces (molecules) that make up the material

Investigate and distinguish between physical and chemical changes that occur to various substances in everyday situations

Analyze, measure, and predict motion as a consequence of the multiple balanced or unbalanced forces acting in a system

Investigate the reflection, refraction, and absorption of sound and light waves

Explore how heat energy can be generated in a number of ways and can move (transfer) from one place to another

Demonstrate how sound energy can be generated by making things vibrate

Explore how electrical energy in circuits can be changed to other forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, and motion, and explain why electric circuits require a complete loop through conducting materials in which an electric current can pass

Explore the relationships between magnetism and electricity

Explain that Earth is approximately spherical in shape and that things on or near Earth are pulled toward Earth’s center by the force of gravity

Explain gravity as a key force on Earth and in the Sun and stars

Analyze celestial bodies in relation to one another

Cite evidence of mechanisms and processes that have shaped the Earth system

Analyze the components and interactions of the Earth system

Analyze the formation of soil, such as through weathering and erosion, the transport of soil by rain through streams and rivers, and the deposition of sediments in valleys, riverbeds, and lakes

Analyze the impacts of the ocean and climate on Earth’s surface features

Analyze the relationship between human activity, the climate, and Earth’s non-living systems

Investigate the strategies that could reduce the impacts of natural hazards and adapt to climate change

Explore how plants and animals have certain structures and behaviors that enable them to respond to changes in the environment and meet their basic needs

Examine how animals use sunlight indirectly through feeding on plants and/or other animals

Describe types of interactions among organisms

Analyze how ecosystems change over extended time periods

Analyze mechanisms underlying the resemblance of organisms to one another

Recognize that fossils provide evidence that many plant and animal species are extinct and that other species have changed over time

Defend the value of maintaining biodiversity on Earth