Fifth Grade - Science

Fifth-grade students in SFUSD do, talk, read, and write to figure out how the world works. They engage in one hour of science instruction four times a week, starting with a five-lesson launch unit, then four 22-lesson content units. Alternate with history/social studies units throughout the year.

Students initiate science identities and foundational skills in Launch Unit 0, and then build on them and their content knowledge in the life science, physical science, and earth and space science units that follow. 

Prioritize using science to model a sense of awe and wonder about the natural and designed world, and guide students to ask questions, conduct investigations, and use their observations, data, and text to construct explanations and design solutions to problems.

SEPs are behaviors scientists and engineers engage in to figure out and deepen their understanding of content. Fifth graders predominantly practice:

• Asking questions based on observations about the natural or designed world(s)
• Developing and using models to make sense of science concepts
• Planning and carrying out investigations with guidance and peer collaboration
• Analyzing and interpreting data to describe patterns
• Designing solutions to solve specific engineering problems

DCIs are the fundamental scientific ideas in the four domains: Life, Physical, Earth & Space Science, and Engineering.

(Continue to view the disciplinary core ideas students figure out through the four fifth-grade science units.)

Scientists observe, wonder, collaborate, and record their thinking in science notebooks. (5-lesson launch unit)

Stars are all around us and vary in distance. The Earth’s spin and orbit determine which stars we can see.

Matter is made of particles too small to see, but the type of matter can be detected when we understand the properties of its molecules. 

The geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact and affect the distribution of rainfall.

Organisms in an ecosystem need matter and energy to survive. A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species are able to thrive.

CCCs are thinking tools that help students connect the ideas they are learning to ideas used across all domains of science. Questions that guide fourth graders to think across domains include:

• Patterns: Why is the sun up sometimes, but not other times? (Patterns of Earth and Sky)
• Scale, Proportion, & Quantity: How does your model show three different kinds of dye molecules? (Modeling Matter)
• Systems & System Models: Where does water vapor in the air come from? (The Earth System) 
• Energy & Matter: How do otters get the molecules they need to grow? (Ecosystem Restoration)

• Engage in a Real World Problem
• Collect Evidence from multiple sources (through doing, talking, reading, writing, and visualizing)
• Construct Increasingly Complex Explanations
• Apply Knowledge to Solve a Different Problem

• Mistakes help us grow
• We talk to each other about science
• We can show science and engineering ideas in different ways

Science notebooks are a valuable thinking tool. They allow students to construct their understanding over time through drawing and writing, share their thinking with others, and develop language skills. They act as a storehouse for student observations, questions, and ideas throughout the year!

As scientists and engineers, fifth graders work with others while doing science. They carry out investigations, read and talk about science in pairs so that they can construct knowledge and develop language collaboratively.