Utah Core Standards 5th Grade Science Activities

UT.1. Intended Learning Outcome: Use Science Process and Thinking Skills.

1.a. Observe simple objects, patterns, and events and report their observations.

1.b. Sort and sequence data according to criteria given.

1.c. Given the appropriate instrument, measure length, temperature, volume, and mass in metric units as specified.

1.e. Use classification systems.

1.i. Use data to construct a reasonable conclusion.

UT.2. Intended Learning Outcome: Manifest Scientific Attitudes and Interests.

2.e. Seek and weigh evidence before drawing conclusions.

UT.4. Intended Learning Outcome: Communicate Effectively Using Science Language and Reasoning.

4.a. Record data accurately when given the appropriate form (e.g., table, graph, chart).

4.c. Use scientific language in oral and written communication.

4.e. Use mathematical reasoning to communicate information.

UT.5. Intended Learning Outcome: Demonstrate Awareness of Social and Historical Aspects of Science.

5.b. Understand the cumulative nature of science knowledge.

UT.6. Intended Learning Outcome: Understand the Nature of Science.

6.b. Understand that science investigations use a variety of methods and do not always use the same set of procedures; understand that there is not just one 'scientific method.'

6.c. Science findings are based upon evidence.

UT.I. Students will understand that chemical and physical changes occur in matter.

I.2. Evaluate evidence that indicates a physical change has occurred.

I.2.a. Identify the physical properties of matter (e.g., hard, soft, solid, liquid, gas).

I.2.b. Compare changes in substances that indicate a physical change has occurred.

I.2.c. Describe the appearance of a substance before and after a physical change.

I.3. Investigate evidence for changes in matter that occur during a chemical reaction.

I.3.a. Identify observable evidence of a chemical reaction (e.g., color change, heat or light given off, heat absorbed, gas given off).

I.3.b. Explain why the measured weight of a remaining product is less than its reactants when a gas is produced.

I.3.c. Cite examples of chemical reactions in daily life.

I.3.d. Compare a physical change to a chemical change.

I.3.e. Hypothesize how changing one of the materials in a chemical reaction will change the results.

UT.II. Students will understand that volcanoes, earthquakes, uplift, weathering, and erosion reshape Earth's surface.

II.1. Describe how weathering and erosion change Earth's surface.

II.1.a. Identify the objects, processes, or forces that weather and erode Earth's surface (e.g., ice, plants, animals, abrasion, gravity, water, wind).

II.1.b. Describe how geological features (e.g., valleys, canyons, buttes, arches) are changed through erosion (e.g., waves, wind, glaciers, gravity, running water).

II.3. Relate the building up and breaking down of Earth's surface over time to the various physical land features.

II.3.b. Describe the role of deposition in the processes that change Earth's surface.

UT.III. Students will understand that magnetism can be observed when there is an interaction between the magnetic fields of magnets or between a magnet and materials made of iron.

III.1. Investigate and compare the behavior of magnetism using magnets.

III.1.a. Compare various types of magnets (e.g., permanent, temporary, and natural magnets) and their abilities to push or pull iron objects they are not touching.

III.1.b. Investigate how magnets will both attract and repel other magnets.

III.1.c. Compare permanent magnets and electromagnets.

III.2. Describe how the magnetic field of Earth and a magnet are similar.

III.2.c. Construct a compass and explain how it works.

III.2.d. Investigate the effects of magnets on the needle of a compass and compare this to the effects of Earth's magnetic field on the needle of a compass (e.g., magnets effect the needle only at close distances, Earth's magnetic field affects the needle at great distances, magnets close to a compass overrides the Earth's effect on the needle).

UT.IV. Students will understand features of static and current electricity.

IV.1. Describe the behavior of static electricity as observed in nature and everyday occurrences.

IV.1.a. List several occurrences of static electricity that happen in everyday life.

IV.2. Analyze the behavior of current electricity.

IV.2.a. Draw and label the components of a complete electrical circuit that includes switches and loads (e.g., light bulb, bell, speaker, motor).

IV.2.b. Predict the effect of changing one or more of the components (e.g., battery, load, wires) in an electric circuit.

IV.2.e. Make a working model of a complete circuit using a power source, switch, bell or light, and a conductor for a pathway.

UT.V. Students will understand that traits are passed from the parent organisms to their offspring, and that sometimes the offspring may possess variations of these traits that may help or hinder survival in a given environment.

V.1. Using supporting evidence, show that traits are transferred from a parent organism to its offspring.

V.1.c. Compare various examples of offspring that do not initially resemble the parent organism but mature to become similar to the parent organism (e.g., mealworms and darkling beetles, tadpoles and frogs, seedlings and vegetables, caterpillars and butterflies).

V.1.e. Investigate variations and similarities in plants grown from seeds of a parent plant (e.g., how seeds from the same plant species can produce different colored flowers or identical flowers).

V.2. Describe how some characteristics could give a species a survival advantage in a particular environment.

V.2.a. Compare the traits of similar species for physical abilities, instinctual behaviors, and specialized body structures that increase the survival of one species in a specific environment over another species (e.g., difference between the feet of snowshoe hare and cottontail rabbit, differences in leaves of plants growing at different altitudes, differences between the feathers of an owl and a hummingbird, differences in parental behavior among various fish).

V.2.d. Research a specific plant or animal and report how specific physical attributes provide an advantage for survival in a specific environment.