This 5th grade STEM Storyline Unit from Washington Educational Service District 112 is focused around Climate Justice, Over five NGSS aligned lessons and using the 5E model, students are presented with the ideas of environmental stewardship and restoration.

In this 5th grade STEM Storyline Unit focused around Climate Justice, we present students with the idea of environmental stewardship and restoration. Students learn from communities and activists who are working to protect the Earth against negative human impacts. We believe that a part of STEM literacy is the ability for students to be aware of and think critically about the ways in which we are protecting or disturbing the natural world. We hope to use this unit to amplify the voices of Youth Activists of Color and support your 5th graders in developing their own voices as leaders in their community. The unit culminates with students presenting their learning to their community in order to expand their community’s understanding of environmental stewardship.

This activity allows pupils to learn the difference between diurnal and nocturnal animals, understand that when it is day here, it is night on the other side of the world, and that it is light when the Sun comes up and it is dark when the Sun goes down. At the end, pupils build a model of the Earth and can experiment with day and night.

Use this guide to help students learn the relationships between Earth, the Moon, and the Sun and solve the mystery of the shrinking moon.

Use this slide show to help students explore what a meteorite is and how can they help us better understand Earth and our Solar System.

The Fifth Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects,Earth and Space: Patterns in the Sky, uses the phenomena of perceived sun and moon movements that seem to move around the Earth to explore stars, Earth orbit and rotation and moon orbit around Earth.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

Don't have solar glasses? Don't worry. Here are five unique ways to view an eclipse, including using a cracker!

Get creative during a solar eclipse and find out how to use the Sun as an artistic tool.

Learn how eclipses work by making your own with some clay, toothpicks, binder clips, a yardstick and don't forget the Sun!

This performance assessment aligns with the NGSS Performance Expectation 5.ESS1.2 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.

Watch shadows during the course of the day to explore the influence of the Sun’s position in the sky on them, as well as how they change over the seasons. During the next season, repeat the experiment and note the changes from the previous season. Repeat over a period of one year for each season.

Students understand that organisms can survive only in environments in which their particular needs are met. Students understand that the needs of plants and animals are different but interdependent.

Here is a way that you can create a 3D model to wrap your head around moon phases.