What does a student learn in StateDistrict of Columbia,GradeGrade 5,SubjectScience?

Students come up with questions that can be tested with an experiment or problems that could be solved by building something. The focus is on making the question specific enough to actually investigate.

Students build or draw a model (a diagram, a chart, or a physical mock-up) to show how something in nature works or how an engineered design is put together. The model helps explain what they can't easily see or touch directly.

Students plan a test, collect data, and use what they find to check whether an idea holds up. The focus is on designing the investigation, not just following steps someone else wrote.

Reading a chart or graph, students look for patterns in the numbers to figure out what the data actually means.

Students use numbers, measurements, and simple calculations to explain what they observed or found in an investigation. Math becomes a tool for making sense of science, not just a separate subject.

Students build written explanations for science questions using evidence from experiments or observations, not just opinion. They back every claim with data they collected or read about.

Students look at two possible explanations or solutions, weigh the evidence behind each, and make a case for which one holds up better.

Students read science articles and data, decide what's worth keeping, and explain their findings clearly in writing or discussion.

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

Students learn why objects speed up, slow down, or stay still by exploring how pushes and pulls work. They test ideas like what happens when two forces collide or when nothing is pushing at all.

Students explore how energy changes form and moves from one object to another. They learn that energy is never lost in the process, just transferred or transformed.

Students explore how waves, like sound and light, carry energy and move information from one place to another. They look at real-world examples, such as how a phone call travels or how a microwave heats food.

Students examine how living things are built, from the tiny cells inside them to the organs and systems those cells form. They look at how each part does a job that keeps the organism alive.

Students trace how energy from the sun moves through an ecosystem, from plants to animals, and how matter like water and nutrients cycles back through the environment. They also study how living things in a community depend on and affect each other.

Students look at traits like eye color, height, or leaf shape to figure out what gets passed from parents to offspring and what varies from one generation to the next.

Students compare living things to find patterns in how species are alike and different, then explore why those traits change over generations.

Students study where Earth sits in the solar system and how the sun, moon, and planets move in predictable patterns. They also look at how Earth itself has changed over a very long history.

Students look at how Earth's land, water, air, and living things affect one another. They might trace how rain shapes rock, or how plants change the soil beneath them.

Students explore how things people build and do (like farming, burning fuel, or cutting down trees) change the land, air, and water around them. They also look at how earthquakes, floods, and wildfires affect where and how people live.

Students identify a real problem, sketch or build possible solutions, test them, and improve the design based on what they learn. The goal is to find the best version of a solution, not just the first one.

Engineers build tools that change how people live, and how people live shapes what engineers build next. Students explore how technology, society, and engineering decisions push and pull on each other.