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Compile information to describe how the use of energy derived from natural renewable and nonrenewable resources affects the environment (e.g., constructing dams to harness energy from water, a renewable resource, while causing a loss of animal habitats; burning of fossil fuels, a nonrenewable resource, while causing an increase in air pollution; installing solar panels to harness energy from the sun, a renewable resource, while requiring specialized materials that necessitate mining).

Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer

Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and including that waves can cause objects to move.

Develop and use models to show multiple solutions in which patterns are used to transfer information (e.g., using a grid of 1s and 0s representing black and white to send information about a picture, using drums to send coded information through sound waves, using Morse code to send a message).*

Construct a model to explain that an object can be seen when light reflected from its surface enters the eyes.

From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Examine evidence to support an argument that the internal and external structures of plants (e.g., thorns, leaves, stems, roots, colored petals, xylem, phloem) and animals (e.g., heart, stomach, lung, brain, skin) function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Obtain and communicate information explaining that humans have systems that interact with one another for digestion, respiration, circulation, excretion, movement, control, coordination, and protection from disease.

Investigate different ways animals receive information through the senses, process that information, and respond to it in different ways (e.g., skunks lifting tails and spraying an odor when threatened, dogs moving ears when reacting to sound, snakes coiling or striking when sensing vibrations).

Earth’s Systems

Construct explanations by citing evidence found in patterns of rock formations and fossils in rock layers that Earth changes over time through both slow and rapid processes (e.g., rock layers containing shell fossils appearing above rock layers containing plant fossils and no shells indicating a change from land to water over time, a canyon with different rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom indicating that over time a river cut through the rock).

Plan and carry out investigations to examine properties of soils and soil types (e.g., color, texture, capacity to retain water, ability to support growth of plants).

Explore information to support the claim that landforms are the result of a combination of constructive forces, including crustal deformation, volcanic eruptions, and sediment deposition as well as a result of destructive forces, including erosion and weathering.

Analyze and interpret data (e.g., angle of slope in downhill movement of water, volume of water flow, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling of water, speed of wind, relative rate of soil deposition, amount of vegetation) to determine effects of weathering and rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, and vegetation using one single form of weathering or erosion at a time.

Describe patterns of Earth’s features on land and in the ocean using data from maps (e.g., topographic maps of Earth’s land and ocean floor; maps of locations of mountains, continental boundaries, volcanoes, and earthquakes).

Formulate and evaluate solutions to limit the effects of natural Earth processes on humans (e.g., designing earthquake, tornado, or hurricane-resistant buildings; improving monitoring of volcanic activity).*

Grade 5

Matter and Its Interactions

Plan and carry out investigations (e.g., adding air to expand a basketball, compressing air in a syringe, dissolving sugar in water, evaporating salt water) to provide evidence that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

Investigate matter to provide mathematical evidence, including graphs, to show that regardless of the type of reaction (e.g., new substance forming due to dissolving or mixing) or change (e.g., phase change) that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of the matter is conserved.

Examine matter through observations and measurements to identify materials (e.g., powders, metals, minerals, liquids) based on their properties (e.g., color, hardness, reflectivity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, response to magnetic forces, solubility, density).

Investigate whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances (e.g., mixing of baking soda and vinegar resulting in the formation of a new substance, gas; mixing of sand and water resulting in no new substance being formed).

Construct explanations from observations to determine how the density of an object affects whether the object sinks or floats when placed in a liquid.

Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Construct an explanation from evidence to illustrate that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed downward towards the center of Earth.

Design and conduct a test to modify the speed of a falling object due to gravity (e.g., constructing a parachute to keep an attached object from breaking).*

Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics

Defend the position that plants obtain materials needed for growth primarily from air and water.

Construct an illustration to explain how plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into a storable fuel, carbohydrates, and a waste product, oxygen, during the process of photosynthesis.

Construct and interpret models (e.g., diagrams, flow charts) to explain that energy in animals’ food is used for body repair, growth, motion, and maintenance of body warmth and was once energy from the sun.

Create a model to illustrate the transfer of matter among producers; consumers, including scavengers and decomposers; and the environment.

Earth’s Place in the Universe

Defend the claim that one factor determining the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is the relative distance from Earth.

Analyze data and represent with graphs to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky (e.g., shadows and the position and motion of Earth with respect to the sun, visibility of select stars only in particular months).

Earth’s Systems