What does a student learn in StateNew Hampshire,GradeGrade 5,SubjectScience?

Students figure out which questions can actually be tested with an experiment and which problems can be solved by building or designing something. Not every question belongs in a lab, and this skill is about telling the difference.

Students build diagrams, drawings, or physical models to show how something in nature works or how a design solves a problem. The model helps explain what is hard to see or describe in words alone.

Students design a test, collect data, and check whether their results support their original idea. This is the core of how scientists work, and fifth graders practice it across every topic they study.

Students look at science data, such as temperature readings or measurement results, and explain what the numbers show. They spot patterns, like whether something increased over time or stayed the same.

Students use numbers, measurements, and basic calculations to back up their scientific ideas. Instead of just describing what they observed, they use data to show why their explanation makes sense.

Students build written explanations for science questions using evidence from experiments or observations. They connect what they saw to a scientific idea that explains why it happened.

Students look at two different explanations or solutions, then use data and observations to argue which one holds up better. The focus is on the evidence, not just an opinion.

Students read science texts, diagrams, and data, then judge whether the information is reliable and share what they found in writing or conversation.

Students examine what matter is made of and how tiny particles interact to explain everyday physical events, like why ice melts or why some materials dissolve in water.

Students learn why things speed up, slow down, or stay still. They explore how pushes and pulls affect moving objects and what it takes to keep something balanced or in motion.

Students explore how energy shows up in different forms, like heat, light, and motion, and track what happens when it moves from one object to another. Energy doesn't disappear; it just changes form.

Students study how waves, like sound and light, carry energy and information from one place to another. They look at real examples, such as how radio signals or musical instruments work.

Students examine how living things are built and how they work, starting with the tiny cells inside them and zooming out to the organs and body systems those cells form.

Students trace how energy from the sun moves through plants and animals in an ecosystem. They also look at how living things depend on each other and on soil, water, and air to survive.

Students look at traits like eye color or leaf shape and figure out which ones are passed down from parents and which ones just vary from one individual to the next.

Students look at how living things are both similar to and different from one another, then explore why those differences exist and how species change over generations.

Students study where Earth fits in the solar system and how the planets move in predictable patterns. They also look at clues in rocks and landforms to piece together Earth's long history.

Students study how Earth's land, water, air, and living things connect and affect each other. A change in one layer, like a drought drying up a river, can ripple through the others.

Students explore how things people do (like burning fuel or building cities) change the land, air, and water around them, and how natural events like floods or earthquakes affect where and how people live.

Students identify a real problem, sketch or build a solution, then test it and improve the design based on what they find out.

Students explore how inventions shape daily life and how the needs of society push engineers to create new tools. A new technology can change how people live, and those changes often lead to the next round of problems to solve.