Curriculum – Fifth Grade

Unit 1 Patterns of Earth and Sky: Analyzing Stars on Ancient Artifacts. Students take on the role of astronomers, helping a team of archaeologists explain the illustrations on a recently discovered, thousand-year-old artifact with a missing piece. Students use mathematical thinking to make sense of patterns in the sky, which they figure out by using physical and digital models and obtaining information from science books. They plan and conduct investigations to figure out how the spin and orbit of our planet are the cause of the daily and yearly patterns of stars we see in the sky.

Unit 2 Modeling Matter: The Chemistry of Food. In the role of food scientists, students work to identify a potentially hazardous food dye in a food coloring mixture, then to create a good-tasting and visually appealing salad dressing. They engage in hands-on investigations and use physical and digital models to gather evidence about mixtures at the observable scale and at the scale of molecules. They develop visual models and write explanations about mixtures, including whether they are likely to change or remain stable.