students in grade five can handle taking on projects on their own. Let them come up with their hypothesis, create their experiment design and then analyze their data.
Encourage them to select a project that yields raw, measurable data they can present as charts, graphs or photos in user-friendly forms. Perhaps test home cleaning solutions or investigate surface tension effects on how a paper clip moves through water.
Plant Growth
Plants provide an engaging way to explore basic science principles, from seed germination to photosynthesis. This experiment can easily be integrated into student and teacher lessons while the results make for an eye-catching exhibit.
Encourage students to record qualitative observations through notes, drawings and photographs, suggesting using a ruler, scale or timer for precise quantitative measurements. Stress the importance of accurate data in supporting conclusions drawn from experiments; use student-friendly apps and online tools such as graphing services to organize observations into usable tables and graphs.
This classic science demo introduces children to acid-base reactions by filling a bottle with vinegar and coring it with an air balloon filled with baking soda. Though messy, this project serves to demonstrate gas molecules expanding across semi-permeable membranes.
Music Memory
Concocting a compelling science fair experiment is an integral part of elementary school life, and fifth grade science projects offer students meaningful experiences to engage them in key aspects of scientific investigation, such as formulating testable questions, designing experiments, collecting data and analyzing outcomes.
No matter the topic – pH of lemon juice, density of salt dough or surface tension of pop cans – 5th grade science experiments will certainly impress students! Even failed experiments offer valuable learning experiences if students can take time to carefully review procedures, observations and conclusions in order to identify ways of improving for next time.
Solar Energy
By fifth grade, students can begin taking greater responsibility for designing and carrying out experiments independently. By choosing meaningful projects they gain a deeper understanding of scientific principles such as energy use, weather changes and plant growth.
Get kids interested in renewable energy with an engaging solar power experiment! Help them explore all of the types of energy companies use to produce electricity as well as which sources are renewable and nonrenewable, helping them make informed decisions that reduce negative environmental impact on our planet.
Encourage children’s imaginations by giving them space to think for themselves. Allow them to form hypotheses, test their theory through experimentation and analyze the results in order to reach conclusions.
Conductors
Students use physical science knowledge to explore balance and unbalanced forces, patterns in motion and static electricity and magnetism. Students also study forms and transfers of energy such as sound waves, light beams, heat currents and current electric charges as well as speed and collisions.
Students construct a circuit to demonstrate how an electrical conductor allows electricity to move from end-to-end through an open path, while also exploring whether certain materials conduct or insulate electricity by placing metal, plastic, and Styrofoam cups into water and seeing how long their hot temperatures persist.
Kids also investigate surface tension by creating hydrophobic sand, while they measure density by dropping crushed and whole pop cans into water to see which ones float or sink. This provides invaluable hands-on experience in formulating hypotheses, controlling variables, and taking accurate measurements.
Insect Attraction
Have you heard someone use the expression, “drawn like a moth to a flame?” This refers to an observed behavior among insects at night: moths seem attracted to porch lights or other sources of illumination and may fly toward them with great swiftness – an observation which has puzzled scientists for some time now.
Some experts theorize that moths are drawn to light bulbs because their UV radiation reflects back onto them, helping moths navigate. Others think bugs are drawn to lights because they mistakenly believe it to be natural sources like moonlight or stars that guide their flights.
Researchers have also observed that insects are drawn to people due to various odors that attract bugs such as perfumes, colognes and deodorants, hair products, skin lotions and laundry detergent. This may explain why certain individuals become bug magnets while others do not.