Young scientists hard at work.

Fifth Grade

FREE PROGRAMS

Barrier Island Preview

Time: 50 minutes 
Taking your trip to Barrier Island this year?  This presentation serves as a good introduction to barrier island formation and the importance of resulting wetlands that are associated with them.  Students study salt marsh artifacts and play “Barrier Island Bingo.” 

  • Topics Covered: Barrier Islands, Islands, Food Chains, Watersheds, Flow of Pollution  
  • Science/Social Science Standards: 5.S.1, 5.L.4, 5.E.3 
  • Live Animals: Yes 
  • Cost: Free
Wise Up About Watersheds

Time: 50 minutes 
In this hands-on program, students learn about the watershed we live in and are introduced to the concept of non-point source water pollution.  Using the Enviroscape watershed model, students see how a watershed becomes polluted as each student is asked to add various pollutants to the model.   Afterwards, students then brainstorm solutions to clean up the pollution and restore the watershed. 

  • Topics Covered: Point/Non Point Pollution and Erosion 
  • Science/Social Science Standards: 5-2.2, 5-2.5, 5-3.1, 6-3.6, 5-4.8 
  • Live Animals: No 
  • Cost: Free
Wild Wetlands

Time: 50 minutes 
The different types of wetland are introduced as unique ecosystems containing organisms that fill specific niches.  The Enviroscape Wetland Model demonstrates their importance as a filter for our watershed. 

  • Topics Covered: Wetlands, Land, Air and Water Pollution 
  • Science/Social Science Standards: 5-2.2, 5-2.3, 5-2.6,  5-4.8 
  • Live Animals: No 
  • Cost: Free
As a Matter of Fact

Time: 50 minutes 
Students will act out an atom in a solid, liquid and gas state. We will explore to see what works to separate mixtures. Will sifting work? What about evaporation? Let’s even try magnetic attraction, floatation and chromatography. Let’s find out if the more solid dissolved in a liquid, the more “concentrated” it is. Let’s see if particle size, temperature and stirring affect the rate of dissolving. 

  • Topics Covered: Properties of Matter and Mixtures 
  • Science/Social Science Standards: 5.S.1, 5.P.2 
  • Live Animals: No 
  • Cost: Free
The Mystery Jar II

Time: 50 minutes Hope you like math, marbles and water! Students will work in teams to solve a multi-question story problem involving count, measure, decimal multiplication and graphing. Using the data collected from all teams, each team will produce a graph from which students will estimate the unknown volume of a “mystery jar” that holds a given number of marbles. Then students will compute the volume of air remaining in the “mystery jar” when it is filled with marbles. 

  • Topics Covered: Measurement, Data, Geometry 
  • Math Standards: 5.NSBT.1, 5.NSBT.2, 5.NSBT.7, 5.MDA.1, 5.MDA.3, 5.G.1, 5.G.2 
  • Live Animals: No 
  • Cost: Free

Fee Programs

All Around the World

Time: 50 minutes 
Learn how organisms interact with each other in their ecosystems as they fill their role as a consumer, producer and decomposers! We will explore what makes up an ecosystem and how these things can benefit or limit the populations therein. The different ecosystems will be introduced by an animal or artifact from that region. 

  • Topics Covered: Animals, Habitats, Ecosystems and Limiting Factors 
  • Science/Social Science Standards: 5.S.1, 5.L.4 
  • Live Animals: Yes 
  • Cost: $1/Student