Each team has a budget of $45 to spend to modify a cup into the ultimate predator.  After predators are constructed, students battle to pop each others’ balloons.  Whichever predator is able to survive is the apex predator.

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 5th grade Science content.

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. 

5th grade students work together in teams to create an ecosystem to support Pacific Northwest pollinators.

In this lesson, students develop a definition for biodiversity. They analyze pictures of three ecosystems (forest, prairie, wetland) to determine their unique qualities and interconnections and then represent this on a Venn diagram. Finally, they use a jigsaw puzzle as a metaphor to illustrate why biodiversity is important.

Students will read about the effects of humans on a specific food web and then answer questions .

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.

In this lesson, students will build a model forest ecosystem with various pieces of gym equipment and use the model to discuss how things are related in the forest.

In this two-part inquiry-based activity, students will practice using the scientific method while learning about decomposition, exploring how some types of garbage will decompose while others will not. Students can then go on to design their own experiment to test different variables affecting the rate of decomposition.

In this activity, students will use color-coded cards to represent different types of organisms in an ecosystem and model food chains to show the relationships between organisms. Students will also analyze simple scenarios and discuss consequences of change in the ecosystem.

Students learn how decomposers play an important part in the cycling of matter through an ecosystem by breaking down matter and returning it to the soil. They will set up a classroom composting bin.

In this series of activity, students explore an ecosystem and the interconnectedness of organisms within an ecosystem.

In this lesson, students compare and contrast a coral reef and a kelp forest ecosystem and identify the abiotic and biotic factors within each.

In this lesson, students learn about ecosystem functions and the types of organisms found in ecosystems. Students complete a diagram of photosynthesis and use calculations to follow the flow of energy through producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students read to learn about the cycling of matter and create their own diagrams of the processes.

Students explore the interconnected relationships between plants and animals in an ecosystem. They will decorate wooden blocks with plants and animals and then stack them to simulate an ecosystem (producers on the bottom). They will then take turns removing blocks from the ecosystem, giving a possible reason for that particular organism's removal from the ecosystem until the ecosystem becomes so unstable that it collapses.

In this series of lessons, students will learn about ecosystems. In the first lesson, students will explore the different types of ecosystems and the structures and functions that are inherent in each one. In the second lesson, students will examine challenges to ecosystems, both man-made and natural issues. In the third lesson, students will learn about food webs and trophic levels. In the final lesson, students will apply their knowledge to construct a board game to teach others about ecosystems.

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). 

Students conduct research and design a news program about the lives and habitat of selected estuary animals.

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.