This resource accompanies our Rethink 5th Grade Science course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

In this short video, join Emily and Emma from the Prairie Ridge Ecostation in Raleigh to take a look at some birds and learn about how we can observe all kinds of wildlife in our everyday lives.

Switch Zoo is a free interactive website that allows students to create their own animals, habitats and biomes. It provides games for students to get involved with their created animal and zoo. There are several different activities that students can interact with.

Students will design a device using Spheros or Sphero Minis and recyclables to help clean trash out of waterways.

This 5th-grade Science Unit on Ecosystems helps students compare the characteristics of several common ecosystems, including estuaries and salt marshes, oceans, lakes and ponds, forests, and grasslands) and it helps students classify the organisms within an ecosystem according to the function they serve: producers, consumers, or decomposers (biotic factors). 

Lessons for ecosystems with 5th grade standards.
Use of technology throughout lessons to enhance learning.

This is a hyperDoc that covers Ecosystems. It takes several days to complete this and has links to several different assignments. The hyperDoc follows the 5E Lesson plan format. There are several videos to watch, vocabulary, drag and drops, partner work, and a final group project. Because this is a digital resource, the students will need to have access to a device.

Teachers, you will also need to set up a Padlet and a Flipgrid prior to assigning this. Once you have them, you will need to link them on the appropriate slide. The second slide will remind you of this.

This was created in Google Slides, but I had to download it as a Powerpoint in order to upload it. I would suggest using it in Google Slides.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science created this resource as part of an online workshop series, but you are welcome to use or modify it for your classroom. It includes a video and written directions for creating nature journals and tips for incorporating them into your classroom. For information on taking any the Nature Neighborhood online workshops for CEUs or EE credit, visit: https://naturalsciences.org/learn/educators/online-workshops.

In this short video, join Brandon and Emily on a nature hike with Falyn from the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as they discover all kinds of plants and animals and learn a thing or two about the amazing nature of North Carolina!

Attached is a 5 E lesson plan to use over 8-10 class periods. Students will research the interactions of plants and animals in different ecosystems.
Graphic organizer to guide students research is also attached.
After students complete research they will form ecosystem based groups to learn more about current threats and conservation efforts needed to preserve the ecosystem. They will create a "Spread the Word" media project to share publicly school wide.
You can also do some sort of conservation service learning activity to help students take their knowledge into the community. For instance, we do Adopt-a-Stream through our city. We clean and test the water in the stream across form our school twice a year.

Our planet is precious. Connecting to our world and becoming aware of our surroundings and ways we can keep Earth beautiful can be empowering to students and adults alike! Our goal with this project is to encourage and empower students to reduce waste in our classrooms, our school, our community and beyond!

Looking for lichens is an activity that can be done almost anywhere. Students get to search for them in the playgrounds and schoolyards, and they can be used as an indicator of air quality.

In this short video and accompanying activity and readings, students learn about the Venus Fly Trap and how it adapts to its environment to survive.

In this short video, students join Emily and Dr. Bronwyn Williams from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences as they head to three different North Carolina locations to explore the world of crayfish!

In this short video, accompanying activity, and readings, students learn about wetlands by exploring the wetlands at Haw River State Park.

In this short video and accompanying activity and readings, students learn about a unique blackwater river in North Carolina - the Lumber River. The river has played an important role for the plants, people, and animals that have called it home.

In this short video, accompanying activity, and readings, students learn about the wildflowers at Medoc Mountain State Park. These resources examine how wildflowers survive and their role in their ecosystem.

In this short video, students learn about the butterfly life cycle and how they can help protect and take care of butterflies and moths in their own neighborhood.

In this short video and accompanying activity and readings, students learn about Longleaf Pine Ecosystems by exploring Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in North Carolina.