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  • 5th Grade

    Earth's Systems

Students who demonstrate understanding can:

Performance Expectations

  1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact. 5-ESS2-1

    Clarification Statement and Assessment Boundary

A Peformance Expectation (PE) is what a student should be able to do to show mastery of a concept. Some PEs include a Clarification Statement and/or an Assessment Boundary. These can be found by clicking the PE for "More Info." By hovering over a PE, its corresponding pieces from the Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts will be highlighted.

Science and Engineering Practices

Disciplinary Core Ideas

Crosscutting Concepts

By clicking on a specific Science and Engineering Practice, Disciplinary Core Idea, or Crosscutting Concept, you can find out more information on it. By hovering over one you can find its corresponding elements in the PEs.

Planning Curriculum

Common Core State Standards Connections

ELA/Literacy

  • RI.5.7 - Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently. (5-ESS2-1)
  • SL.5.5 - Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes. (5-ESS2-1)

Mathematics

  • 5.G.A.2 - Represent real world and mathematical problems by graphing points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane, and interpret coordinate values of points in the context of the situation. (5-ESS2-1)
  • MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. (5-ESS2-1)
  • MP.4 - Model with mathematics. (5-ESS2-1)

Model Course Mapping

First Time Visitors

Resources & Lesson Plans

  • More resources added each week!
    A team of teacher curators is working to find, review, and vet online resources that support the standards. Check back often, as NSTA continues to add more targeted resources.
  • Tracking Water Using NASA Satellite Data

    Using real data from NASA’s GRACE satellites, students track water mass changes in the U.S. over time. Students estimate water resources using heat-map data, create a line graph for a specific location, then assess trends and discuss implicatio ...

  • Water Pollutants

    Students watching this Water Pollutants video will learn about the different types of pollutants that can be found in water sources. It highlights the damage that these pollutants can do to the environment as well as to humans. The video is 5:08 minu ...

  • NOAA What-a-Cycle

    Through role-playing as a particle of water, students gain an understanding of the complexity of the movement of water through earth’s systems. Stations are set-up for nine different water reservoirs associated with the water cycle. On each turn, stu ...

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Planning Curriculum gives connections to other areas of study for easier curriculum creation.