Analyzing and interpreting data

In this unit, students focus on the science phenomena of electric and magnetic forces. In this lesson, students build on their knowledge of forces by exploring electric forces. They analyze how materials can become either positively or negatively charged, and then use an electroscope to explore how opposite charges are pulled toward one another and like charges are pushed away from one another. 

In this unit, students explore the science phenomenon of how materials can attract or repel other materials without touching them. In this lesson, they investigate how magnets can attract or repel certain objects within their magnetic field. This page highlights the key components of this lesson. 

In this unit, students focus on science phenomena related to electric and magnetic forces. First, students explore how materials can become electrically charged and then attract or repel other materials without touching them. 

In this unit, students analyze the science phenomena of the important role that oceans play in regulating Earth’s climate. In this lesson, they focus on how oceans interact with other Earth systems to distribute water and heat around the planet, resulting in various weather patterns, including hurricanes. This page highlights key components of this lesson.

In this unit, students focus on the science phenomena of sound and hearing. Students begin with this lesson that has them exploring how sound causes matter to vibrate and how it moves differently through solids and liquids. This page highlights each component of this lesson.  

In this unit, students focus on the science phenomenon of light energy, investigating how it travels in a straight line and interacts with matter. Students apply their knowledge to design a prototype with mirrors and water that creates rainbows. This page showcases each component of the lesson. 

In this unit, students explore science phenomena related to patterns that result from Earth’s rotation and the moon’s orbit around the sun. This page provides a brief overview of lesson two of this unit, in which students conduct two investigations and use the patterns they discover to make predictions about the future positions of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky. In the first investigation, students observe the sun’s position in the sky at different times of day, drawing a diagram (model) of the sun’s position above the horizon. In the second investigation, students use a sundial model to explore the relationship between the sun’s position and the length of shadows.

In this unit, students investigate the science phenomena of seasonal patterns and water cycles. Once students have analyzed how seasonal patterns of sunrise and sunset can be observed and predicted, they focus on seasonal temperature and rainfall patterns. They investigate temperature patterns of a specific location throughout the year. 

Once students have modeled the science phenomena of insects’ body parts, they then focus on one kind of insect: the ant. They conduct an experiment to test the taste preference of harvester ants, and observe how ants use their different body parts to get food, communicate with one another, and carry out other life functions.

In the last unit, students explored how animals have body parts that help them survive and grow. In this unit, students apply what they have learned about the structures of plants and animals to mimic those structures to solve problems facing people. 

This unit has students exploring animal habitat and predator-prey relationships. Once students model the living and nonliving parts of different habitats, they focus on how living things depend on other living things in their habitat for survival. As a class, students model the predator-prey relationship between foxes and rabbits in a forest habitat, and then dissect owl pellets to analyze a barn owl’s diet.

In the last unit, students investigated whether plants need light and water to grow, and then explored how flowers have specific structures that help them attract pollinators to make seeds. In this unit, students focus on one kind of pollinator—the butterfly. 

In this unit, students continue to explore the phenomena of living things, focusing on animals. They begin by observing the metamorphosis of a butterfly and then model the parts of a butterfly that help it survive in its environment. This page provides an overview of key components of this lesson that has students applying what they know about pollination to design a self-pollinating technology. 

In this unit, students use propeller cars to explore the science phenomena of forces. They investigate action-reaction forces and see if a propeller car travels farther when its rubber band releases a smaller or larger force. Students then explore how friction affects motion by testing how far their car moves after rolling over smooth and rough surfaces.

In the last unit, students used propeller cars to explore the relationship between forces and motion. In this unit, students continue to explore vehicles with a focus on boats and specifically the science phenomena of properties that cause objects such as boats to float or sink.