New Jersey Science — Grade 5
Comprehensive Course Syllabus
Course Overview
Our New Jersey Grade 5 Science course is designed around the 2026 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science (NJSLS-S). Grade 5 focuses on ecosystems, matter, energy and matter cycling, Earth’s systems, water, natural resources, human impacts, and patterns of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Students also develop scientific investigation, evidence-based reasoning, modeling, data analysis, and engineering-design skills.
Scientific Investigation & Engineering Design
Scientific Questions
Students learn to ask testable questions about natural phenomena and identify problems that can be investigated scientifically.
Observations & Measurements
Students make careful observations and use appropriate tools to collect measurements and scientific information.
Data Collection & Analysis
Students organize observations and measurements using tables, graphs, models, and other representations.
Evidence-Based Explanations
Students use evidence from investigations to construct explanations and support scientific claims.
Engineering Design
Students define problems, develop possible solutions, test designs, analyze results, and improve solutions based on evidence.
Matter & Its Properties
Properties of Matter
Students investigate measurable and observable properties of materials, including color, texture, mass, volume, and other characteristics.
Measuring Matter
Students use appropriate tools and units to measure properties such as mass and volume.
Identifying Materials
Students compare substances based on their observable and measurable properties.
Matter as Particles
Students develop age-appropriate models showing that matter is made of very small particles that are too small to see directly.
Conservation of Matter
Students investigate what happens to matter when substances are mixed, separated, or undergo changes.
Matter Changes & Chemical Reactions
Physical Changes
Students investigate changes in matter such as cutting, crushing, melting, freezing, or dissolving.
Chemical Changes
Students identify evidence that may indicate a new substance has formed during a chemical change.
Reversible & Irreversible Changes
Students compare changes that can be reversed with changes that result in new substances.
Conservation of Matter in Reactions
Students use models and evidence to understand that matter is conserved during physical and chemical processes.
Evidence of Chemical Change
Students analyze observations such as temperature changes, gas formation, color changes, or formation of a new material.
Matter & Energy in Ecosystems
Matter in Living Systems
Students explore how matter moves between organisms and their surroundings within ecosystems.
Plants & Matter
Students investigate how plants obtain materials from their environment and use them for growth and survival.
Matter Cycling
Students develop models showing how matter moves through living organisms and the environment.
Energy in Ecosystems
Students explore how energy enters ecosystems and is transferred between organisms.
Food Chains & Food Webs
Students represent relationships among producers, consumers, and other organisms in an ecosystem.
Ecosystems & Interactions
Ecosystem Components
Students identify living and nonliving components of ecosystems and examine how they interact.
Producers & Consumers
Students distinguish between organisms that produce their own food and organisms that obtain energy by consuming other organisms.
Decomposers
Students explore the role of decomposers in breaking down materials and returning matter to ecosystems.
Food Webs
Students construct and analyze food webs to understand feeding relationships and energy movement.
Ecosystem Balance
Students investigate how changes in one part of an ecosystem can affect other organisms and resources.
Ecosystem Change & Survival
Environmental Changes
Students explore how changes in environmental conditions can affect organisms and ecosystems.
Adaptation & Survival
Students investigate how organisms have characteristics that help them survive in particular environments.
Population Changes
Students explore how available food, water, shelter, and other resources can affect populations.
Human Impact on Ecosystems
Students examine how human activities can change habitats, ecosystems, and the availability of natural resources.
Protecting Ecosystems
Students explore solutions for conserving habitats, protecting biodiversity, and reducing harmful environmental impacts.
Earth’s Systems
Earth’s Major Systems
Students identify major Earth systems and explore how the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere interact.
Interactions Between Earth Systems
Students investigate how changes in one Earth system can influence other systems.
Earth’s Materials
Students explore rocks, minerals, soil, water, air, and other materials that make up or support Earth’s systems.
Energy Driving Earth Systems
Students examine how energy from the Sun and other sources drives processes within Earth’s systems.
Earth System Models
Students create and interpret models that show relationships and interactions among Earth’s systems.
Water on Earth
Distribution of Water
Students investigate where water is found on Earth, including oceans, rivers, lakes, glaciers, groundwater, and the atmosphere.
Water Cycle
Students explore evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, and movement of water through Earth’s systems.
Freshwater & Saltwater
Students compare freshwater and saltwater resources and examine their importance to living organisms.
Water Movement
Students investigate how water moves across Earth’s surface and through different Earth systems.
Water Resources
Students explore how people depend on water and why protecting freshwater resources is important.
Weather, Climate & Earth’s Systems
Weather Patterns
Students collect and analyze weather information and identify patterns in temperature, precipitation, wind, and other conditions.
Climate Patterns
Students distinguish between daily weather conditions and longer-term climate patterns.
Earth’s Atmosphere
Students explore the role of the atmosphere in weather, climate, and life on Earth.
Weather & Earth Systems
Students investigate how water, air, land, and living systems interact to produce environmental conditions.
Climate Data
Students interpret age-appropriate climate and weather data using tables, graphs, maps, and other representations.
Natural Resources & Human Impact
Natural Resources
Students identify natural resources such as water, soil, forests, minerals, and energy resources.
Renewable & Nonrenewable Resources
Students compare resources that can be naturally replenished with resources that exist in limited quantities.
Human Use of Resources
Students investigate how people use natural resources for food, transportation, electricity, construction, manufacturing, and other needs.
Human Impact on Earth
Students explore how human activities can affect land, water, air, ecosystems, and other Earth systems.
Sustainable Resource Use
Students investigate ways individuals and communities can conserve resources and reduce environmental impacts.
Sun, Moon & Stars
Patterns in the Sky
Students observe and analyze repeating patterns in the positions and appearances of objects in the sky.
Earth & the Sun
Students investigate the apparent daily movement of the Sun and its relationship to observations made from Earth.
Moon Patterns
Students observe and describe patterns in the Moon’s appearance over time.
Stars & Constellations
Students explore patterns of stars and use models to understand how stars appear from Earth’s perspective.
Scale & Distance in Space
Students develop an age-appropriate understanding that astronomical objects are extremely large and separated by very large distances.
STEM, Data Analysis & Science Projects
Scientific Modeling
Students create and revise models to represent matter, ecosystems, Earth systems, water movement, and astronomical patterns.
Data Interpretation
Students analyze tables, graphs, diagrams, maps, and other scientific representations to identify patterns and relationships.
Scientific Argumentation
Students make claims, provide evidence, and explain their reasoning when answering scientific questions.
Engineering Solutions
Students design and test solutions to environmental, ecosystem, resource, or other real-world problems.
Science Research Project
Students investigate a science topic, collect information from appropriate sources, organize findings, and communicate conclusions.
Teaching Methodology
Our Grade 5 Science classes focus on scientific investigation, matter, ecosystems, Earth systems, astronomy, environmental science, engineering, and evidence-based reasoning. Students learn through:
Learning Outcomes
By the end of Grade 5, students will be able to:
Assessment & Progress Tracking
Student progress is evaluated through: