What does a student learn in StateVermont,GradeGrade 5,SubjectScience?

Students come up with questions that can be tested with an experiment or problems that can be solved by building or designing something. The question or problem has to be specific enough that someone could actually investigate it.

Students build or draw models to show how something in nature works or how an engineered design is put together. The model helps explain what is happening and why.

Students plan a test, gather real data, and use what they find to check whether their idea holds up. This is the core of how scientists work, and fifth graders practice it hands-on.

Students look at collected data, spot patterns, and explain what those patterns mean. This skill shows up when reading a graph, comparing measurements, or figuring out what an experiment's results actually say.

Students use numbers, measurements, and simple calculations to back up their science ideas. Instead of just saying something is "bigger" or "faster," they show it with data.

Students take what they observed or measured and write an explanation that shows why something happened. The explanation has to be backed by evidence, not just a guess.

Students look at two different explanations for how something works and decide which one the evidence supports better. They back up their choice with data or observations, not just opinion.

Students read science articles or data, decide what's reliable, and explain their findings in writing or discussion. The focus is on understanding real sources and sharing what the evidence actually says.

Students examine what matter is made of and how tiny particles interact to explain everyday physical changes, like why ice melts or salt dissolves in water.

Students explore why objects speed up, slow down, or stay still by testing how pushes and pulls affect movement. They learn the patterns behind those changes, including what happens when forces balance out.

Students explore how energy moves from one object to another and changes form, such as heat turning into motion or light. They also learn that energy is never created or destroyed, just shifted around.

Students explore how waves, like sound and light, carry energy from place to place and move information, like a radio signal or a phone call, from one point to another.

Students examine how living things are built, from the tiny cells that make up all life to the organs and systems those cells form. They connect what a structure looks like to the job it does inside the body.

Students trace how food, water, and nutrients move through an ecosystem as animals eat, die, and decompose. They also study how living things in a community depend on and affect each other.

Students study how traits like eye color or height pass from parents to offspring, and why siblings can look similar but not identical. Variation across generations is the focus.

Students look at how all living things share basic traits while also showing enormous variety, then explore why those differences exist. They study how populations change over generations when certain traits help survival.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how the Sun, Moon, and planets move in predictable patterns. They also look at evidence that tells the story of how Earth itself has changed over billions of years.

Students study how Earth's land, water, air, and living things connect and affect each other. They look at real examples of those connections, like how rain shapes soil or how plants change the air.

Students look at how things like building roads or burning fuel change land, water, and air, and how events like floods or earthquakes affect the people living nearby.

Students identify a problem, sketch or build possible solutions, then test and improve their design until it works better. The focus is on the back-and-forth process of trying, adjusting, and trying again.

Students explore how inventions shape daily life and how real-world problems push engineers to create new tools. A new medical device changes how doctors work; a community's needs drive what gets built next.