Science 5

Unit 1: Matter

Organizing idea: matter can be described by the particle model. Everything is made of tiny particles too small to see; how those particles are arranged explains why solids, liquids, and gases behave so differently — and why the same stuff (like water) can be all three.

• Everything is made of tiny particles
• Particles in solids, liquids, and gases

Unit 2: Energy

Organizing idea: energy can be transferred, and forces cause and change movement. How forces act on living things and objects moving through water and air (buoyancy, drag, streamlining), and how we get useful energy — including electricity and magnetism — from different energy resources.

• Floating, sinking, and buoyancy
• Moving through air: drag and streamlining

• Where our energy comes from
• Electricity, magnetism, and simple mechanisms

Unit 3: Earth Systems

Organizing idea: Earth is a set of connected systems that shape the conditions for life. The difference between weather (day to day) and climate (the usual pattern), how we measure weather, and how climate connects to what farmers can grow.

• Weather watch: weather vs. climate
• Climate and what we can grow

Unit 4: Living Systems

Organizing idea: living things have internal systems that keep them alive. The human body’s organ systems — digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and more — the jobs they do, and how they work TOGETHER rather than on their own.

• Organ systems and the jobs they do
• Systems that work together

Unit 5: Space

Organizing idea: patterns in the sky can be observed and explained. Astronomical phenomena we can actually watch — day and night, the phases of the Moon, the seasons — and how Earth’s spinning and orbiting cause them.

• Day, night, and the seasons
• The phases of the Moon

Unit 6: Computer Science

Organizing idea: design processes solve problems for people. Following a design process — understand the need, plan, build, test, and improve — to create an artifact (a thing you make) that a human or a machine can use.

• Following a design process
• Artifacts a human or machine can use

Unit 7: Scientific Methods

Organizing idea: science builds knowledge from evidence, gathered fairly. How scientists collect evidence through careful, repeatable investigations — and why ethics (honesty, fairness, and care) matters in every step of doing science.

• How evidence is gathered
• Why ethics matters in science