5th graders thrive on engaging in engaging hands-on experiments that spark their curiosity and passion for learning. Science fair projects present valuable opportunities for 5th graders to develop critical thinking skills as they conduct research, experiment with variables, and interpret results.
Students will gain insight into surface tension as they observe water striders gliding across the water’s surface. To successfully conduct this classic experiment, a large open space and common household materials are required for proper execution.
Volcano
Fifth graders take greater ownership for designing and carrying out their own science projects, giving them more control of learning about biology, chemistry and physics while having fun doing so.
Volcanoes are mountains or hills with openings at their summit that erupt lava, hot gases, magma or both at regular intervals from their depths into Earth’s crust via fissures or cracks. Volcanoes may also erupt hot ash or pyroclastic flows containing solid to semi-solid fragments mixed with gas bubbles that flow downhill toward them.
Use this easy experiment to demonstrate to kids how gases cause objects to move – it is an ideal way to teach about plate tectonics!
Arches
Arches are essential structural elements, enabling grand constructions to be assembled without extensive support from outside sources. Their arch-shaped shape evenly disperses loads for even distribution – which was an advantage ancient civilizations such as Romans used when creating many buildings and structures.
Create an arch or model it with craft objects. Kids love watching a glow stick “magically” rise off paper surfaces or building an airplane that truly flies!
Use these projects to reinforce concepts taught in fifth-grade science lessons. Your students will develop ideas based on experiments and investigations, while coming to conclusions backed up with evidence and logic.
Paper Airplane
Students learn about lift, thrust and drag through designing paper airplanes. Furthermore, they practice scientific enquiry by asking questions, creating hypotheses and collecting data.
Students experiment with different wing shapes to see how their impact flight distance, and explore how size impacts maneuverability and stability.
Use long string, rulers, masking tape or sticks to form a line at least 30 centimeters (1 foot). Move this starting line to an open area that does not receive traffic such as your school hallway or basketball court and throw your paper plane using it and observe where it lands.
Static Electricity
Children typically experience static electricity at some point during their childhoods, whether it was when touching a doorknob or wearing wool hats in wintertime. Static electricity occurs due to electrons building up on materials until they reach critical charges that force them out into space, where they “jump” and land somewhere with negative electrical charges — like you!
Coulomb’s Law describes this phenomenon when electrons jump, creating an electric shock. He proved that the force between charged particles depends on their proximity and their electron count difference.
Bacterial Colonies
Bacteria are everywhere and this quick and simple project shows them developing right before your eyes! Utilize common classroom items like petri dishes, sterile swabs and agar in this activity.
A bacterial colony is defined as a clonal group of cells with distinct boundaries in terms of their impact on their environment or area where it consumes substrates to produce end-products. They typically display distinct shapes with well-defined edges (whole, undulates undulated scalloped erose filamentous).
This experiment involves testing various surfaces in your environment to see which ones produce the highest bacterial counts. Be sure to record and take notes in a lab notebook as you go along.
Newspaper Engineering
By fifth grade, students are ready for hands-on experiments that capture their curiosity and foster learning passions. Creative science projects offer an engaging means of teaching biology, chemistry and physics subjects.
Encourage student engineering with this newspaper design challenge that explores how tall a paper tower can stand while bearing wind load from both directions. Students can apply their math skills by measuring their towers and comparing results, providing valuable lessons about engineering in action!
With this exciting science experiment that transforms a soda bottle into an eye-catching lava lamp, explore surface tension and gas molecules while also teaching children about water molecules and density. Plus, use this easy density demonstration to demonstrate acid and base reactions producing colorful reactions!