5th grade Science
10 units matched to the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards.
Focus areas
- Matter and its changes, energy transfer, food webs, and the sun and stars
- Science and engineering practices: measuring, graphing and designing devices
- How science connects to people and communities in Minnesota and beyond
Units
Unit 1
Solutions & Mixtures
Solutions versus mechanical mixtures, solutes and solvents, what affects dissolving, and ways to separate mixtures (filtering, evaporation, magnets, chromatography).
Benchmark: 5P.1.2.1.1 · testing whether mixing substances makes a new substance
Unit 2
Solid, Liquid, Gas
Matter as anything with mass and volume, how particles are arranged in solids, liquids and gases, and why materials are chosen for their properties.
Benchmark: 5P.3.1.1.1 · matter is made of particles too small to see
Unit 3
Changes of State
Melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation at home and outdoors, and how matter absorbs or releases thermal energy when it changes state.
Benchmark: 5P.2.2.1.1 · weight stays the same when matter is heated, cooled or mixed
Unit 4
Physical or Chemical?
Telling a physical change from a chemical change, spotting the signs of a new substance, and how making and throwing away everyday products affects the environment.
Benchmark: 5P.1.2.1.1 · physical and chemical changes, and when a new substance forms
Unit 5
Measuring Matter
Measuring mass (grams, kilograms) and volume (milliliters, liters), comparing density, why gases compress and solids do not, and how the particle model explains it.
Benchmark: 5P.1.2.1.2 · choosing tools and methods to identify materials by their properties
Unit 6
Ecosystems & Food Chains
How energy from the sun moves through food chains (producers, consumers and decomposers), how living things in an ecosystem depend on each other, and how First Peoples' knowledge of local ecosystems is passed down.
Benchmark: 5L.3.1.1.3; 5L.4.1.2.1 · how matter moves among plants, animals, decomposers and the environment
Unit 7
Energy from the Sun
Practices how plants get the materials they need for growth mostly from air and water, and how the energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun.
Benchmark: 5L.1.2.1.3; 5P.3.1.1.2 · plants get what they need to grow from air and water, and the energy in food once came from the sun
Unit 8
Energy on the Move
Practices energy sources, how energy moves from a source to an object or living thing to cause action, and how people use their senses to detect heat, light and sound.
Benchmark: 5P.2.1.1.1 · energy moving from place to place as sound, light, heat and electric current
Unit 9
Energy, Speed & Collisions
Practices how an object's speed relates to its energy, what happens to energy when objects collide, and devices that change energy from one form to another.
Benchmark: 5P.3.2.1.1; 5P.1.1.1.1 · how an object's speed relates to its energy, and energy changes in collisions
Unit 10
Sun, Stars & Shadows
Practices why the sun looks brighter than other stars (it is much closer), and the daily and seasonal patterns of shadows, day length and the stars we see, using Minnesota's long summer days and short winter days.
Benchmark: 5E.2.2.1.2; 5E.4.1.1.1 · patterns of shadows, day and night, and stars in the sky, and why the sun looks brighter than other stars
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