5th Grade Science Facts

The Nature of Science and Engineering

  1. Science is a way of knowing about the natural world, is done by individuals and groups, and is characterized by empirical criteria, logical argument and skeptical view.
  2. Scientific inquiry requires identification of assumptions, use of critical and logical thinking, and consideration of alternative explanations.
  3. Men and women throughout the history of all cultures, including MN American Indian tribes and communities, have been involved in engineering design and scientific inquiry.
  4. Tools and mathematics help scientists and engineers see more, measure more accurately, and do things that they could not otherwise accomplish. (spring scale, metric measurement, tables, mean/median/range, spreadsheets, and appropriate graphs)

Physical Science

  1. An object’s motion is affected by forces and can be described by the object’s speed and the direction it is moving.
  2. Friction slows down a moving skateboard.
  3. A greater force on an object can produce a greater change in motion.
  4. Simple machines demonstrate how they change the input and output of forces and motion.

Earth and Space Science

  1. The surface of the Earth changes. Some changes are due to slow processes and some changes are due to rapid processes.
  2. Over time, rocks weather and combine with organic matter to form soil.
  3. Slow processes, such as water erosion and rapid processes, such as landslides and volcanic eruptions, form features of the the Earth’s surface.
  4. In order to maintain and improve their existence, humans interact with and influence Earth systems.
  5. Water, iron ore, granite, sand and gravel, wind and forests are all renewable and nonrenewable energy and material resources found in MN.

Life Science

  1. Living things are diverse with many different characteristics that enable them to grow, reproduce and survive.
  2. Plants and animals adapt to their environment. Without various adaptations, they would not be able to survive.
  3. Natural systems have many parts that interact to maintain the living system.
  4. Humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or harmful to themselves and other organisms.
  5. Recreation, pollution, and wildlife management are examples of helpful and harmful human interaction with natural systems.

Academic Vocabulary

  1. Explain=to make plain or understandable
  2. Describe=to tell or write about; to give a detailed account of
  3. Variable=any factor that can change in a controlled experiment, observation, or model
  4. Control=any factor that stays the same in an experiment
  5. Contrast=to compare in order to show differences
  6. Classify=to arrange or organize according to a category
  7. Determine=to settle or decide upon
  8. Inference=process of drawing a conclusion by reasoning from something known
  9. Hypothesis=an educated guess or explanation
  10. Observation=the act of noticing, perceiving, or seeing
  11. Structure=the arrangement of all of the parts of a whole
  12. Function=the normal or characteristic action of anything; role; job
  13. Prediction=prophecy; a guess of the expected results
  14. Identify=to find out or to establish the identity of
  15. Conduct=to do; to perform
  16. Conditions=an existing state; the factors involved in a situation
  17. Process=a series of actions by which something develops or is brought about
  18. Response=answer or reply
  19. Compare=to examine (2 or more objects, ideas, people, etc.) in order to note similarities and differences
  20. Analyze=to examine carefully and in detail so as to identify causes, key factors, possible results, etc.
  21. Organism=living thing: group of systems working together to fulfill a common purpose
  22. Advantage=something that is favorable to success, a benefit, gain, or profit; a plus or positive
  23. Disadvantage=something that is unfavorable to success, not a benefit, gain, or profit; not a plus; a negative
  24. Conclusion=the final result, decision or outcome
  25. Data=a set of facts, information, statistics or observations

Science Vocabulary

  1. Adaptation=a characteristic that enables a living thing to survive in its environment
  2. Amphibian=a vertebrate that lives part of its life in water and part of its life on land
  3. Atmosphere=the blanket of gases that surrounds Earth
  4. Bench mark=a plaque left by surveyors to tell the exact location and elevation of a place
  5. Bird=a vertebrate that has both feathers and wings
  6. Biome=one of Earth’s large ecosystems, with its own kind of climate, soil, plants, and animals
  7. Camouflage=an adaptation in which an animal protects itself against predators by blending in with the environment
  8. Carnivore=an animal that eats another animal
  9. Chemical change=a change in matter that occurs when atoms link together in a new way, creating a new substance different from the original substances
  10. Classification=the science of finding patterns among living things
  11. Compression=a movement of plates that presses together or squeezes Earth’s crust
  12. Consumer=any animal that eats plants or eats other plant-eating animals
  13. Contour plowing=preventing erosion by plowing across rather than up and down a slope
  14. Coquina=a sedimentary rock formed from seashell fragments
  15. Crop rotation=growing different crops each year so that the soil does not use up the same kinds of minerals year after year
  16. Crossbreeding=producing offspring by mating individuals from two distinct breeds or varieties of the same species
  17. Crust=the rocky surface that makes up the top of the lithosphere and includes the continents and the ocean floor
  18. Deciduous=said of a plant that loses its leaves each fall
  19. Deciduous forest=a forest biome with many kinds of trees that lose their leaves each autumn
  20. Decomposer=any of the fungi or bacteria that break down dead plants and animals into useful things like minerals and rich soil
  21. Delta=fan-shaped region formed by deposits of sediments found at the mouth of a river
  22. Deposition=the dropping off of bits of eroded rock
  23. Desert=a sandy or rocky biome, with little precipitation and little plant life
  24. Diversity=a wide variety of traits in individuals from the same population
  25. Ecosystem=all of the living and nonliving things in an environment, including their interactions with each other
  26. Elevation=the height of a place above sea level
  27. Erosion=the picking up and carrying away of pieces of rocks
  28. Fault-a crack in the Earth’s crust whose sides show evidence of motion
  29. Fault-block mountains=a mountain formed by blocks of Earth’s crust moving along a fault
  30. Fish=a vertebrate that lives its whole life in water
  31. Flood plain=land that is likely to be underwater during a flood
  32. Fold mountain=a mountain made up mostly of rock layers folded by being squeezed together
  33. Food chain=the path of energy in food from one organism to another
  34. Food web=the overlapping food chains in an ecosystem
  35. Force=a push or pull exerted by one object on another, causing a change in motion
  36. Fossil=any remains or imprint of living things of the past
  37. Fulcrum=the pivot point of a lever
  38. Geologist=a scientist who studies rocks to tell how they formed and to predict when an earthquake may occur
  39. Grassland=a biome where grasses, not trees, are the main plant life
  40. Herbivore=an animal that eats plants, algae, and other producers
  41. Heredity=the passing down of inherited traits from parents to offspring
  42. Humus=decayed plant or animal material in soil
  43. Hybrid=an organism produced by the crossing of parents that have different forms of the same trait
  44. Hydrosphere=Earth’s water
  45. Igneous rocks=a rock formed when melted rock material cools and hardens
  46. Inherited trait=a characteristic that is passed from parents to offspring
  47. Invertebrate= an animal that does not have a backbone
  48. Lava=magma that reaches Earth’s surface
  49. Lever=a simple machine made of a rigid bar and a fixed pivot point, called the fulcrum
  50. Lithosphere=the hard outer layer of Earth
  51. Magma=hot, molten rock deep below Earth’s surface
  52. Mammal=a vertebrate that feeds its young milk
  53. Meander=bends or s-shaped curves in a river
  54. Metamorphic rock=a rock formed under heat and pressure from another kind of rock
  55. Meteorite=a chunk of rock from space that strikes a surface of Earth or the Moon
  56. Mimicry=an adaptation in which an animal is protected against predators by its resemblance to another, unpleasant animal
  57. Omnivore=an animal that eats both plants and animals
  58. Permafrost=a layer of permanently frozen soil found in arctic and Antarctic regions
  59. Physical change=a change of matter in size, shape, or state without any change in identity
  60. Plate=One of the moving pieces of Earth’s crust that has been broken by upward pressure in the mantle
  61. Plate tectonics=a scientific theory that Earth’s crust is made of moving plates
  62. Predator=an animal that hunts other animals for food
  63. Prey=a living thing that is hunted for food
  64. Producer=any of the plants and algae that produce oxygen and food that animals need
  65. Protective coloration=a type of camouflage in which the color of an animal blends in with its background, protecting it against predators
  66. Reptile=an egg-laying vertebrate with thick, dry skin
  67. Rock=a naturally formed solid in the crust made up of one or more minerals
  68. Rock cycle=rocks changing from one into another in a never-ending series of processes
  69. Runoff-precipitation that flows across the land’s surface or falls into rivers and streams
  70. Savanna=a tropical grassland with some trees and shrubs
  71. Scavenger=a meat-eating animal that feeds on the remains of dead animals
  72. Sediment=pieces of material carried and deposited by water or wind
  73. Sedimentary rock=a rock made of bits of matter joined together
  74. Shear=a movement of plates that twists, tears, or pushes one part of Earth’s crust past another

100.Simple machine=a machine with few moving parts, making it easier to do work

101. Strip farming=trapping runoff by alternating tightly growing grasses with more widely spaced plants

102.Surveyor=a specialist who makes accurate measurements of Earth’s crust

103.Taiga=a cool forest biome of conifers in the upper Northern Hemisphere

104.Temperate=free from extremes of temperature

105.Tension=a movement of plates that stretches or pulls apart Earth’s crust

106.Topsoil=the dark, top layer of soil, rich in humus and minerals, in which many tiny organisms live and most plants grow

107.Tropical rain forest=a hot biome near the equator, with much rainfall and a wide variety of life

108.Troposphere=the layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth’s surface

109.Tundra=Large, treeless plain in the arctic regions, where the ground is frozen all year

110.Variable=One of the changes in a situation that may affect the outcome of an experiment

111.Vertebrate=an animal that has a backbone

112.Watershed=area from which water is drained, region that contributes water to a river or river system

113.Weathering=breaking down rocks into smaller pieces