Your Fifth-Grader and Science
In Your Child's Classroom
Learning science thinking skills
Science is not just a body of knowledge but also a way of acquiring it. In elementary school science, children investigate the world around them. When children learn scientific concepts and vocabulary, they also develop thinking skills. They learn to ask a scientific question, plan experiments to try to answer the question, and develop reasonable explanations based on their observations.
The topics children investigate at a particular grade level differ widely across the country, but the science thinking skills are universal. Students will generally study sound, electricity, plants, animals, and solids, liquids and gases during their elementary years, but each state has its own sequence of topics for each grade level. The National Science Education Standards - the jumping-off point states use to develop their standards - lists important topics and thinking skills without determining which topic aligns with a particular grade.
The lists of topics below are examples from typical states, and you should not be alarmed if your child's grade does not include all of them. It's more important that topics progress logically from grade to grade and are used to develop science thinking skills. To find out topics your state does include at each grade level, look for your state's science education standards.
What science topics will my fifth-grader learn?
In fifth-grade, your child will explore life science, earth science and physical science. Students do hands-on science investigations to learn what scientists do, to better understand the concepts and inspire curiosity. The class may visit a science museum, an observatory or the ocean to extend learning outside the classroom.
Life science
Life science is the study of the structure and behavior of living organisms. Your child learns that animals and plants are made of cells. She may look at cells under a microscope and learn to identify the different parts of the cell, such as the cell membrane and nucleus. Your child learns about the systems of the body and how they work together. She may draw a life-sized body and label the organs inside. She learns how ecosystems work and the interdependence of animals and plants within them. She may do a population count of a designated area, making a list of the plants and animals living there. Or she may draw the energy flow in a food web, identifying the producers, decomposers, consumers, prey and predators. She learns about the five major kingdoms (plants, animals, fungi, protists and monerans) and describes characteristics and examples of each kingdom.
Earth science
In fifth grade your child will study the earth in more depth. He learns about water. examining the water cycle, the role of evaporation, precipitation and condensation. He understands that the solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the sun in predictable paths. He learns about the earth's layers and its changing surface. He may make a model of the earth with different colors of clay that correspond to the crust, mantle, inner core and outer core. He describes how rocks and fossils can reveal evidence of a volcanic eruption or plate movements.
