5.5: All students will gain an understanding of the structure, characteristics, and basic needs of organisms and will investigate the diversity of life.

5.5.A: Matter, Energy and Organization in Living Systems

5.5.A.1: Explain how systems of the human body are interrelated and regulate the body's internal environment.

Circulatory System

5.5.A.2: Identify and describe the structure and function of cells and cell parts.

Cell Structure
Paramecium Homeostasis

5.5.B: Diversity and Biological Evolution

5.5.B.1: Describe and give examples of the major categories of organisms and of the characteristics shared by organisms.

Human Evolution - Skull Analysis

5.5.B.2: Compare and contrast acquired and inherited characteristics in human and other species

Evolution: Mutation and Selection
Inheritance
Microevolution
Natural Selection

5.6: All students will gain an understanding of the structure and behavior of matter.

5.6.A: Structure and Properties of Matter

5.6.A.1: Recognize that about 100 different elements have been identified and most materials on Earth are made of a few of them.

Element Builder

5.6.A.2: Show that equal volumes of different substances usually have different masses.

Density
Density Experiment: Slice and Dice
Density Laboratory
Density via Comparison
Determining Density via Water Displacement

5.6.A.4: Measure characteristic physical properties such as boiling point, melting point, and solubility, and recognize that the property is independent of the amount of sample.

Freezing Point of Salt Water
Phases of Water
Solubility and Temperature

5.7: All students will gain an understanding of natural laws as they apply to motion, forces, and energy transformations.

5.7.A: Motion and Forces

5.7.A.1: Recognize that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object moving in a straight line at a steady speed will continue to move in a straight line at a steady speed unless a net (unbalanced) force acts on it.

2D Collisions
Fan Cart Physics
Force and Fan Carts
Uniform Circular Motion

5.7.A.2: Recognize that motion can be retarded by forces such as friction and air resistance.

Force and Fan Carts
Free Fall Tower
Roller Coaster Physics

5.7.A.3: Recognize that everything on or near the earth is pulled toward the earth's center by gravitational force.

Beam to Moon (Ratios and Proportions)
Free Fall Tower
Freefall Laboratory
Golf Range!
Gravity Pitch

5.7.B: Energy Transformations

5.7.B.1: Recognize that heat flows through materials or across space from warmer objects to cooler ones.

Calorimetry Lab
Conduction and Convection
Heat Transfer by Conduction
Phase Changes
Radiation

5.7.B.3: Design an electric circuit to investigate the behavior of a system.

Advanced Circuits
Circuit Builder
Circuits

5.8: All students will gain an understanding of the structure, dynamics, and geophysical systems of the earth.

5.8.B: Atmosphere and Water

5.8.B.2: Describe and illustrate the water cycle .

Water Cycle

5.8.C: Processes that Shape the Earth

5.8.C.1: Summarize the process involved in the rock cycle and describe the characteristics of the rocks involved.

Rock Cycle

5.8.D: How We Study the Earth

5.8.D.1: Utilize various tools such as map projections and topographical maps to interpret features of Earth’s surface.

Building Topographical Maps
Ocean Mapping
Reading Topographical Maps

5.9: All students will gain an understanding of the origin, evolution, and structure of the universe.

5.9.A: Earth, Moon, Sun System

5.9.A.1: Explain how the motions of the Earth, sun, and moon, define units of time including:

5.9.A.1.b: months

Moon Phases
Moonrise, Moonset, and Phases
Phases of the Moon
Tides

5.9.A.1.c: years

Solar System Explorer

5.9.A.2: Recognize that changes in the Earth’s position relative to the sun produces differing amounts of daylight seasonally.

Seasons Around the World
Seasons in 3D
Seasons: Earth, Moon, and Sun
Seasons: Why do we have them?
Summer and Winter

5.9.B: Solar System

5.9.B.1: Using models, demonstrate an understanding of the scale of the solar system that shows distance and size relationships among the sun and planets.

Solar System
Solar System Explorer

5.9.B.2: Recognize that the sun's gravitational pull holds the planets in their orbits and that the planets’ gravitational pull holds their moons in their orbits.

Gravitational Force
Gravity Pitch
Orbital Motion - Kepler's Laws
Tides

5.9.C: Stars

5.9.C.2: Observe that the planets appear to change their position against the background of stars.

Solar System

5.10: All students will develop an understanding of the environment as a system of interdependent components affected by human activity and natural phenomena.

5.10.A: Natural Systems and Interactions

5.10.A.1: Explain how organisms interact with other components of an ecosystem.

Food Chain
Forest Ecosystem
Interdependence of Plants and Animals
Plants and Snails
Prairie Ecosystem

5.10.A.2: Describe the natural processes that occur over time in places where direct human impact is minimal.

Food Chain

5.10.B: Human Interactions and Impact

5.10.B.1: Describe the effect of human activities on various ecosystems.

Rabbit Population by Season
Water Pollution

5.10.B.2: Evaluate the impact of personal activities on the local environment.

Rabbit Population by Season
Water Pollution