Grade+05

Grade 5: Inquiring Minds Want to Know  __Inquiry Task #1__: For your grade / course, identify the "generic" inquiry-based skills you currently employ with your students. Generic inquiry-based skills that are currently employed in the fifth grade are heavily focused on formulating questions and hypothesizing, as well as planning and critiquing investigations. As students are new to McKelvie from elementary school, a goal of the fifth grade is review and sharpen skills learned in grades K-4 and to teach prepare them skills needed for grade 6 and beyond. As mentioned above, fifth grade science instruction focuses on the foundational skills of questioning, hypothesizing, planning, and critiquing when working with Science. These foundational skills are essential to students as they broaden their understanding and skill-base of inquiry-based learning, and lead to more focused and effective investigations and explanations, which are often used in specific units as introductory and/or culminating activities.  

__Inquiry Task #2__: List the units that currently are taught in which inquiry skills appear.

Units currently taught in the fifth grade are: Tools of the Scientist, Skeletal System, The Cell, Genetics, Zap II (Electricity), Cracking Up! (Geology), and Hidden Treasures of the Estuary. In addition to inquiry discussion questioning and answering, inquiry-based activities appear in each unit, which are listed below. **Tools of the Scientist:** Mysterious Powders, hands-on measurement activities (mass, volume, length, etc.), Cups and Stuff, Whirly Birds, Microscopes, Hershey Kiss mass/volume activity, Skittles/M&M's activities, Confection Connection, Penny Observation (Observations/Inferences), **Skeletal System:** skeleton model construction, bone strength test, chicken bones in vinegar, box of bones **The Cell:** microscopes, cell projects **Genetics:** dichotomous key, coin flip activity, doggie DNA, freckle beans activity, corn lab activity **Zap II:** building series/parallel circuits, Build-a-Battery, electromagnet **Cracking Up!:** clay model of the Earth, 3-D earthquake demonstration model, Science Seekers' interactive activities **Hidden Treasures of the Estuary/Classification:** field trip, classification activities 



__Inquiry Task #3__: Brain-storm ideas for how your current units or activities can be made more inquiry-based.