Focus on Science
Through experiments and research, your 5th grader will cement his understanding of important scientific concepts.
Your child’s teacher is apt to put more focus on science this year, largely because of what lies ahead: In 6th grade your child will likely study science as a separate topic with a specialized teacher. As a result, 5th grade teachers typically view this year as a final opportunity to make sure students have a firm understanding of important concepts before they have science as an independent subject.
The science sub-topics that your child will explore in 5th grade are not that different from those of 3rd and 4th grade, but she will explore them in greater depth. Fifth graders tend to study both physical science (electricity, magnets, atoms, molecules, and chemistry) and earth, or life science (environments, weather, water cycles, habitats, food chains). But where in earlier grades the teacher might focus on a single aspect of these topics, 5th graders begin to explore how different areas of science come together. For instance, rather than just studying the mechanics and characteristics of plants and animals individually, 5th graders learn how the two systems work together as part of an ecosystem.
Independent Study
Hands-On Learning
Prepping for the Test
Independent Study
5th graders are capable of more independent work, and teachers may ask them to complete science research papers and projects using school or home computers. Students may have their own science textbook, though teachers may refer to it only occasionally. “Textbooks are certainly a good reference, but they are only one tool we use to teach,” says Steve Rich, the science resource teacher at New Manchester Elementary School in Douglasville, Georgia. Many textbooks include addresses of helpful Internet sites, called “SciLinks,” that can provide further information for students who want or need it at the end of selected topics. The NASA Web site (www.nasa.gov) is one that teachers recommend; it contains some fun information and experiments on physical science and the laws of motion that are ideal for 5th graders.
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Hands-On Learning
Your child’s growing research and language arts skills don’t mean he’s too old for hands-on science exploration. So-called “discovery learning” is still vitally important. By experimenting with nature, objects, and materials, children learn about the world around them and how to think like scientists. “What children need to be taught is not factoids, but processes and skills,” says Gerald Wheeler, Ph.D., executive director of the National Science Teacher’s Association in Arlington, Virginia. “It’s not about knowing the parts of the grasshopper. Let’s look instead at how the grasshopper fits into its environment and why.”
Getting children to experience science can be as simple as taking them into the school’s backyard during a life science unit. Using their skills of observation, children might find evidence of life, such as a leaf that’s been eaten by a caterpillar, an ant hill, or an exoskeleton from an insect. Putting their observations in context, they might be able to identify a food chain: The sun makes plant energy through photosynthesis, the caterpillar eats the leaf, and the bird eats the caterpillar. After making outdoor discoveries, children go inside to diagram and chart the information into a realistic food web.
Another advantage to taking children outside is that it teaches them to relate scientific events to their own surroundings. This makes science real and encourages deeper learning and retention. In the 5th grade at New Manchester Elementary School, students study soil erosion by actually measuring with a ruler the extent to which the earth has been moved by wind or rain. They are asked to design an experiment that will compare two different areas, one sloping and one flat. Students have to make an educated guess about which type of surface erodes more quickly, and then prove — or disprove — their hypothesis by measuring and comparing erosion on the two surfaces over time. “If children can design the experiment themselves, they’ll recall and retain the information much longer than if I simply tell them what to do step-by-step,” says Rich.
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Prepping for the Test
Your child may spend more time reading and writing about science this year in anticipation of the upcoming standardized tests that most children in 3rd grade and up will take beginning in 2007. Since these federally-mandated science tests will almost certainly require students to write an essay, teachers may start preparing students now. For example, children in Steve Rich’s class write in their science journals several times a week. To foster reading comprehension — another skill that is typically tested — he tries to pair relevant nonfiction books with science lessons whenever possible.
One exciting way many 5th grade teachers integrate science and literacy is to explore the lives of famous scientists and inventors. Reading about scientists and trying to replicate their experiments is one way to inspire kids and help them understand the trial-and-error nature of science. Some teachers enter their classes in contests sponsored by manufacturers such as Toyota or Wild Planet Toys. Whether or not your child’s invention wins a prize, the process of conceiving a scientific solution to a problem, proving the solution, and writing about it is a great way for him to learn to think like a scientist, and paves the way for more exciting discoveries in the future.
Julia Martin Langan, a freelance writer and the mother of three school-age children, lives in Verona, New Jersey.
