Fifth Grade Lessons

Students squeeze a flexible plastic bottle filled with air and another filled with water to investigate the questions: Is an “empty” bottle really empty? and Can you force the molecules of a gas or a liquid to be closer together?

Students place M&Ms in water and in a sugar solution to investigate the question: Will an M&M dissolve as well in a sugar solution as it does in plain water?

Students dissolve salt in water and allow the water to evaporate to investigate the question: What process causes salt to dissolve in water and then the water to evaporate?

Students use water, ice, and plastic wrap to model the ocean and cold upper atmosphere to investigate the question: What are the main processes in the water cycle that make it rain?

Students compare the dissolving of salt and sugar and then conduct a dissolving test on unknown substances marked A, B, and C to investigate the question: Can substances be identified by how well they dissolve in water?

Students test four known liquids and an unknown liquid on two different paper surfaces to investigate the question: Can you identify liquids based on how they interact with different surfaces?

Students test four known and one unknown liquid with water to investigate the question: Can you identify an unknown liquid based on how different liquids interact with water?

Students repeatedly reduce the size of a clay ball while placing it in water to investigate the question: Does changing the amount of material in an object change the object’s density?

After seeing the teacher compare the weight of equal volumes of water and corn syrup, students compare the weight of equal volumes of water and vegetable oil to investigate the question: Is vegetable oil more or less dense than water?

Students design and conduct a test using baking soda and baking powder with vinegar to investigate the question: Will baking soda or baking powder produce more gas when vinegar is added?

Students help design a test using baking soda, corn starch, and cream of tartar to investigate the question: Which two of the three ingredients in baking powder react to make it bubble when water is added?

Students combine an Ivory Soap solution with an Epsom salt solution to produce a solid “soap scum” to investigate the questions: What happens when you mix soap with hard water? and Is soap scum different from soap?

Students add laundry detergent powder (a base) and cream of tartar (an acid) to a red cabbage indicator to investigate the question: What can the color of an indicator tell you about the substances added to it?

Students combine citric acid with calcium chloride and citric acid with baking soda to investigate the question: What are the similarities and differences between the two reactions? and Do substances react in a characteristic way?

Students measure the mass of substances before and after melting, dissolving, and a chemical change to investigate the question: Is mass conserved during physical and chemical changes?

Students test citric acid and cream of tartar with baking soda to investigate the question: Which reaction produces more gas? and How much of each reactant should be used to fill a bag with gas to make a cell phone float?