Summary of In-Class Investigations | Grade 5, Unit 1: Living Things and Ecosystems

Lesson

Title

Teaching
Strategy

Description

Class
Time

Need
TCI Kit

What Is an Ecosystem?

Science Skill
Builder

Students take on the role of ecologists. They visit many

different types of ecosystems and record careful
observations in their journals.

75
min

No

What Is the Role of

Producers in an
Ecosystem?

Response Group

Students analyze data from a hypothetical plant experiment.

They draw conclusions from the data in order to make an
argument about what plants need for growth.

60
min

No

What Is the Role of

Consumers in an
Ecosystem?

Small Group
Investigation

Students dissect an owl pellet to identify what owls eat.

They create a diagram that models how the energy in owls
food was once energy from the sun.

90
min

Yes

What Is the Role of

Decomposers in an
Ecosystem?

Small Group
Investigation

Students explore what happens when sugar and yeast (a

decomposer) are mixed together in water. They carry out an
investigation and make observations to produce evidence for
their answer.

90
min

Yes

How Do Matter and

Energy Move in an
Ecosystem?

Whole Class
Investigation

Students develop a model of a food chain and a food web

using pictures of plants and animals. They describe how
matter and energy move through these models.

90
min

Yes

What Makes an
Ecosystem Healthy or
Unhealthy?

Response Group

Students engage in a debate about what actions should have

been taken with the Yellowstone ecosystem at various points
in its history.

90
min

No

120 min

No

180 min

Yes

How Do Ecosystems
Change?

Visual Discovery

Students watch several silent videos depicting how

ecosystems respond to change. They read additional text to
learn more about each video. Then they research one
example in more depth and create a multimedia
presentation.

How Do Humans
Change Ecosystems?

Small Group
Investigation

Students act as engineers to design a soilless farming

system. They work in groups to build the system, observe the
results, and think of ways to improve the design.

Summary of In-Class Investigations | Grade 5, Unit 2: Earth Systems

Title

Teaching
Strategy

What Are Earths Four

Systems?

Whole Class
Investigation

Students develop an understanding of how to categorize

things into Earths four systems. They build a clay model of
Earth, showing each of Earths systems. They also graph how
much water on Earth is available as drinking water.

95
min

Yes

How Do Earths
Systems Produce
Weather and Climate?

Science
Skill Builder

Students examine placards about weather and climate. They

determine which of Earths systems interact to produce
weather and climate. Then pairs create a diagram and give a
weather report about one of the examples.

50
min

No

How Do Earths
Systems Change Earths
Surface?

Visual Discovery

Students work in groups of four to analyze one example of

how Earths surface changed. They create an act-it-out to
model how Earths systems interacted to cause this change.

50
min

No

How Do Farming and

Industry Affect Earths
Systems?

Small Group
Investigation

Students observe some effects farming and industry have on

Earths systems. They model the effects the mining industry
has on the geosphere by mining chocolate chips from
cookies.

45
min

Yes

How Do Peoples
Everyday Lives Affect
Earths Systems?

Response Group

Students view examples of everyday activities and discuss

how the activity affects Earths systems. Then groups
brainstorm ways to reduce the negative impact each activity
has on Earth.

90
min

No

What Can People Do to

Protect Earths
Systems?

Small Group
Investigation

Students act as engineers to design and build a water filter

using a set of materials. In groups, they research different
ways people protect Earths systems and create a podcast to
report their research.

120
min

Yes

Lesson

Description

Class
Time

Need
TCI Kit

Summary of In-Class Investigations | Grade 5, Unit 3: Changes in Matter

Title

Teaching
Strategy

What Is Matter Made

Of?

Whole Class
Investigation

Students observe and explain a series of demonstrations.

Then they develop a model that describes matter as
consisting of particles that are too small to be seen.

45
min

Yes

Why Are Materials

Different?

Experiential
Exercise

Students continue to develop their model of matter to show

that matter is made of particles too small to be seen. They
will model a solid, liquid, gas, and mixture.

55
min

No

How Can Substances

Be Identified?

Small Group
Investigation

Students act as detectives. They will observe unique

properties of five different powders. They use these
properties to identify an unknown mystery powder.

75
min

Yes

How Do Scientists
Know When
Substances Change?

Science
Skill Builder

Students practice making observations and inferences. They

observe situations in which substances are changing and use
this data as evidence to explain whether they think a new
substance with different properties was formed during each
change.

45
min

No

100
min

Yes

Lesson

Description

Class
Time

Need
TCI Kit

What Causes
Substances to Change?

Small Group
Investigation

Students learn how to use fair tests to plan an investigation.

They plan and carry out an investigation and mix together a
variety of different substances. They use the plan they
developed to identify which substances react together to
form new substances.

How Do Changes to
Substances Affect Their
Weights?

Whole Class
Investigation

Students measure the weight of substances before and after

a change. By measuring and graphing quantities, they
discover what happens to the weight of substances during
different kinds of changes.

90
min

Yes

How Do Engineers
Improve Substances?

Small Group
Investigation

Students make glue from flour and water. Groups use the
engineering design process to identify what makes good
glue and test different processes to find the best solution.

100
min

Yes

Summary of In-Class Investigations | Grade 5, Unit 4: Earth, the Moon, and the Stars

Lesson

Title

Teaching
Strategy

Description

Class
Time

Need
TCI Kit

What Does Gravity Do?

Experiential
Exercise

Students investigate the effect of gravity. Using evidence

from tests and images, they support an argument that the
gravitational force of Earth is directed toward Earths center.

45
min

No

Why Is the Sun Brighter

Than Other Stars?

Small Group
Investigation

Students explore how distance affects how bright a

flashlight appears. Using this model as evidence, they
construct an argument about how the brightness of stars
varies depending on their distance from Earth.

60
min

Yes

Why Is There Day and

Night?

Whole Class
Investigation

Students use a globe and lamp to model the relationship

between Earth and the sun. They analyze the model to
understand how Earths rotation causes day and night.

30
min

Yes

How Do Shadows
Change During the Day
and Year?

Small Group
Investigation

Students observe a model to see how Earths rotation causes

shadows to change length and direction. Then they build and
use a sundial.

100
min

Yes

How Do Stars Seem to

Move During the Night
and Year?

Experiential
Exercise

Students model how the stars appear to change position over

the course of a year. They graph and analyze data about how
high in the sky certain stars are throughout the year.

85
min

No

How Does the Moon

Seem to Move and
Change Shape?

Science
Skill Builder

Students observe a moon rise and predict how the moonrise

time and moons phase will change. In pairs, they collect and
analyze data from three moon cycles to answer a set of
challenge questions.

80
min

No

What Tools Do
Scientists Use to
Observe Space?

Small Group
Investigation

Students design and build telescopes to practice the

engineering design process.

90
min

Yes