This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature & Turbidity: | This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Turbidity: | This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature: | This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.
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| Gr. 5 Lesson 3-Fishy Business: | Students will examine the effect of exotic species on an ecosystem by role-playing both a healthy food chain and one that has been impacted by Mayan cichlids. |
| Polygon Park: | In this lesson students will use standards-based quadrilaterals and triangles to design a roller coaster tower. Students will use the Engineering Design Process to work through the processes in this lesson. |
| Catch Me If You Can: Engineering Design Challenge: | In this lesson, 5th grade students work in small groups on a STEM challenge that involves science and math standards related to the water cycle, as well as learning the engineering design process. |
| How Does Force Affect Motion?: | Students will explore how force affects an object's motion. Students will discuss how the greater the mass of an object, the greater the force required to move an object. Students will use data gathered through experimentation to justify their reasoning and understanding of forces and motion. |
| Mechanical Hands: | In this STEM design challenge, students will build a working hand model to examine the function of the skeletal and muscular systems. |
| Marbelous Pool Noodle Ramps: | In this lesson, students will build a ramp out of a pool noodle and use it to launch a marble across the room. Students will investigate by adjusting the height and slope of the ramp and record their findings on a data sheet. Students will practice collecting and analyzing data and will investigate the importance of performing repeated experimental trials. Students will practice converting metric units of distance as well as the addition and division of decimals to find the mean of a small data set. |
| Icky, Icky, No More Slicky: | In this lesson, 5th grade students will build an engineering device to separate oil from water in a simulated oil spill. Students will have an opportunity to learn about the impact that humans can have on the environment, both positively and negatively.
This is an Engineering Design Challenge that is best used after a unit or lesson that is aligned to science standards on solving problems or materials which dissolve in water. This challenge provides students a means to use their knowledge of the way materials will or will not dissolve in water to create and design an oil spill removal tool while learning the Engineering Design Process and being exposed to the field of engineering. This lesson is not intended as an initial introduction to the standard and would be best utilized as a culmination lesson. |
| The Coasta with the Mosta: | Students will create an exciting and thrilling roller coaster model. Students will use their knowledge of forces to build a model of a roller coaster using foam insulation and a marble. |
| Medic Mass Landing: Engineering Design Challenge: | In this lesson, 5th grade students work in small groups on a STEM challenge that involves science and math standards related to force, motion, and measurement, as well as learning the engineering design process. |
| Paper Airplanes Away!: | In this lesson, students will design and fly their own paper airplane and analyze their flight data to determine the best designs for getting planes to travel the farthest distance. Students will organize class flight data into a line plot and calculate the mean, median, mode, and range for the data set. |
| Pendulum Inquiry - Wrecking Balls: | In this lesson, students will mimic a wrecking ball by manipulating the variables of a pendulum in order to move objects with different masses. It is recommended this lesson follow Pendulum Inquiry (see CPALMS Resource #28568), which will build students' content knowledge on pendulums. Students can apply their understanding of pendulums gained from the lesson Pendulum Inquiry to assist them in designing wrecking ball pendulums in this lesson. |
| Pendulum Inquiry: | Pendulums are a fun and engaging way for students to learn about physics and the nature of science. In this lesson, students will investigate the effects of gravity, mass, changing variables and energy transfer through building their own pendulums as well as teacher demonstration. |
| Making Connections!: | Lights, camera, action! Well, you would have action if the camera was on, and it can only turn on if it has a battery, and it can only work if the battery is charged. Put it all together, and you have a complete circuit! In this lesson, students will learn that a circuit can be connected in more than one way to make something work. The students will work to connect circuits and test different items to identify if they are conductors or insulators. |
| You Be the Judge: | In this model eliciting activity (MEA), students will learn a common version of the scientific method by making them the judges of a science fair. In order to judge the science fair projects they have to evaluate the importance of each step of the scientific method and assign a value to it.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| The Shocking Truth About Circuits - An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of electrical energy, circuits, insulators and conductors in standards SC.5.P.10.4, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.2 by constructing circuits. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content. |
| Planetary Exploration - An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students research and investigate the characteristics of planets in our solar system for standard SC.5.E.5.2. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content. |
| Baseball Dilemma MEA: | In this Model-Eliciting Activity, students will work in teams to determine a procedure for selecting a company from which to purchase baseball helmets. Students will make decisions based on a table that includes company, cost per helmet, material helmet are made of, framework, and comfort. Students will determine procedure for company selection with provided information, and write a letter to the client providing evidence for their decisions.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx
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| To Dissolve or Not To Dissolve, Part 1: | This lesson uses the 5E model as students explore how various substances will dissolve. This is the first in a two part lesson. In the second lesson, students will compare how a substance will dissolve in varying temperatures. Students will learn about dissolving, mixtures, solutions and solubility. |
| Vegetables for Our Farm: | In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students are asked to analyze data and provide a procedure that can be used by New Wave Farms in order to choose the best vegetable to plant as their first trial with their new soil. The students are to provide the company with a written document showing the order considered to be the best value for their money to the least value, the step by step procedure used to determine the rank order, and an explanation of which category is considered the most important when making the ranking and why.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Wazzup Charter Schools Playground Dilemma MEA: | This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. The Wazzup Charter School MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best type of surface for a playground at a charter school. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Caladocious Skate Parks: | In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students must consider how to rank skate board wheels based on factors like types of surfaces, price, and durometer. In teams, students determine their procedures and write letters back to the client.
Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| Pop Goes the Balloon, a Rube Goldberg Design Project: | The students will work in small groups in order to build a "Rube Goldberg" machine. A "Rube Goldberg" machine is modeled after a famous cartoonist who tried to make more difficult ways to accomplish simple tasks, such as popping a balloon. The students will build one machine, made from many simple machines working together, to perform their task. The machine is only permitted to be touched at the beginning and must work independently from that point on. |
| Investigating Variables: | In this inquiry lesson, students will design an experiment to answer the question "How do different surfaces affect the bounce of a ping pong ball?" Students will collect and analyze data as well as identify controls and variables in a scientific experiment. |
| Frankenchicken: | It's ALIVE! Or is it? Engage students with a hands-on look at muscles, tissues, bones, bone marrow, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and connective tissue. It is an exciting way to hook students into learning the structures promoting a better understanding of how they work. It will be a lab students will refer back to and remember! The lab takes about 1 hour; however the research and presentations can take up to a week. |
| Sail Away - An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces from SC.5.P.13.1 and SC.5.P.13.2 as well as energy and its ability to cause motion from SC.5.P.10.1 and SC.5.P.10.2 by designing a boat and racing it. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content. |
| Experiment or Investigation?: | Students will explain how experiments and other kinds of investigations, such as building a model, observing things in the natural world, or researching a science topic are different. |
| Grow Toys: | As students investigate grow toys, students use and practice scientific process, communication, and thinking skills as they distinguish observations from opinions, conduct investigations, gather data, analyze data, and draw conclusions based on data. |
| 3 Methods for Measuring Volume: | This hands-on lesson plan allows students to investigate three methods for measuring volume. Students will learn to measure volume for liquids, regular-sized solids, and irregular sized objects. During the lesson students are exposed to demonstrations from the teacher and will participate in hands-on investigations utilizing three methods for measuring volume that they conduct and report to the class. |
| A Tasty Experiment: | In this activity, students conduct an experiment to determine whether or not the sense of smell is important for being able to recognize foods by taste. This activity supports learning about engineering and design processes. |
| Are We Like Robots?: | This lesson explores the similarities between how a human being moves/walks and how a robot moves. This allows students to see the human body as a system, i.e., from the perspective of an engineer. It shows how movement results from (i) decision making, i.e., deciding to walk and move, and (ii) implementing the decision by conveying the decision to the muscle (human) or motor (robot). |
| Blast Off - An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces from SC.5.P.13.1 and SC.5.P.13.2 by building and launching straw rockets. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content. |
| Feeling the Pressure — An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of air pressure as they improve upon a common home-made barometer design to create one that is more accurate. It is not intended as an all-encompassing lesson for this concept. |
| Follow the Water Lesson 1: Filtration Station: | Water is essential for human health, but it can sometimes be contaminated. Water filtration can filter out contaminants and impurities making water much safer to consume. But what is the best way to filter water? Students will participate in a water filtration engineering challenge to try out different combinations of materials to find which works best. This lesson was developed by the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science with support from the Weo Foundation. |
| Introduction To The Nature Journal: | In the lessons here, students exercise the observation skills that are essential to writing, visual art, and science. First, they try to use evocative language in describing pictures of birds from the Smithsonian's National Zoo. They go on to record observations and to make hypotheses as they follow the behavior of animals on the National Zoo's live webcams. They can watch the giant pandas, the tigers, the cheetahs, the gorillas, or any of a dozen other species. |
| It's Too Hot In Here: | Students explore and investigate the theory that heat flow and movement within Earth causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as well as contributes to mountains and ocean basins. Students will examine: surface structures, tectonic plate maps, volcanic and earthquake historical data and video evidence. Students use their acquired knowledge to organize a PowerPoint or video presentation that illustrates their comprehension of of benchmark SC.7.E.6.7. |
| Lunar Landers: Exploring Gravity : | The attached engineering design lesson plan elaborates on the PBS Kids online resource and will probably take from 4-5 class periods. It takes the students through the engineering design process which includes the following components: Identify the Problem, Brainstorm and Design a Solution, Test and Evaluate, Redesign, Reflect and Share the Solution. |
| Made To Sail: | Students use simple materials to design and make model sailboats that must stay upright and sail straight in a testing tank. |
| Solve the Dissolving Problem: | In this lesson, students will be experimenting with what independent variable will affect dissolving rates; students will compare results of peers to also determine materials that dissolve and do not dissolve from 5 given materials. Students will identify and learn what controls in an experiment are and their importance. This is a multi-part lesson that can be broken down by day or presented in one block. Complete all the Part A’s in each phase (Teaching/I Do/Know, Guided/We Do/Understand, Independent/You Do/Do) before Part B’s. |
| To Dissolve or Not To Dissolve, Part 2: | This is part 2 of a lesson addressing solubility. Part 1 addresses how varying substances will dissolve in water. Part 2 addresses how temperature will effect solubility and the 5E lesson plan model will include a lab. |
| Transformation of Energy: Constructing an Electromagnet: | In this hands-on lesson, students will work in groups to construct an electromagnet. This lesson focuses energy, forms of energy, and how energy is transformed in a circuit. This lesson also can be used to address variables in an experiment, conductors and insulators, data tables and graphs, and open and closed circuits. |
| Walk, Run, Jump: | In this activity, students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. The students compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space. |
| We're Curious!—An Engineering Design Challenge: | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces as they build containers to protect their eggs in an egg drop. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark. |
| Wild Wind: | Students will learn the difference between global, prevailing and local winds. In this activity, students will make a wind vane out of paper, a straw and a soda bottle and use it to measure wind direction over time. Finally, they will analyze their data to draw conclusions about the prevailing winds in their area. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
