Texas Administrative Code
Title 19 - EDUCATION
Part 2 - TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
Chapter 112 - TEXAS ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS FOR SCIENCE
Subchapter A - ELEMENTARY
Section 112.7 - Science, Grade 5, Adopted 2021

(A) Scientific and engineering practices. Scientific inquiry is the planned and deliberate investigation of the natural world using scientific and engineering practices. Scientific methods of investigation are descriptive, correlative, comparative, or experimental. The method chosen should be appropriate to the grade level and question being asked. Student learning for different types of investigations includes descriptive investigations, which have no hypothesis that tentatively answers the research question and involve collecting data and recording observations without making comparisons; correlative and comparative investigations, which have a hypothesis that predicts a relationship and involve collecting data, measuring variables relevant to the hypothesis that are manipulated, and comparing results; and experimental investigations, which involve processes similar to comparative investigations but in which a hypothesis can be tested by comparing a treatment with a control.

(B) Matter and energy. Students investigate matter expanding their understanding of properties learned in Grade 4 (mass, volume, states, temperature, magnetism, and relative density) to include solubility and the ability to conduct or insulate both thermal and electrical energy. Students observe the combination of substances to make mixtures and develop an understanding of conservation of matter. These concepts lead to the understanding of elements and compounds. Students will build on this understanding in middle school when they learn to determine density and to identify evidence of chemical changes.

(C) Force, motion, and energy. Students investigate equal and unequal forces and the effects these forces have on objects (motion and direction). Additionally, students investigate energy, including mechanical, light, thermal, electrical, and sound. They uncover cycles (e.g., movement of thermal energy), patterns (e.g., behavior of light, including reflection and refraction), and systems through their exploration. Students will build on this understanding in middle school when they begin to use calculations and measurements to study force, motion, and energy through the study of Newton's Laws of Motion.

(D) Earth and space. This strand is focused on identifying recognizable patterns and processes as students learn about Earth's rotation and demonstrate the effects this movement has on Earth's surface, including day and night, shadows, and the rotation of Earth on its axis. Students continue their learning of patterns and processes on Earth while exploring weather, climate, the water cycle, the formation of sedimentary rock and fossil fuels, and the formation of landforms. Finally, students learn ways to manage natural resources to support a healthy environment.

(E) Organisms and environments. This strand focuses on identifying relationships, systems, and cycles within organisms and environments. Students describe the interactions of biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem. Students build on their understanding of food webs from Grade 4 by predicting how ecosystem changes affect the flow of energy. Additionally, they describe how humans impact the ecosystem. Students also learn how organisms' structures help them to survive, and they distinguish between instinctual and learned behaviors in animals. This will set the foundation for Grade 6 where students compare and contrast variations within organisms and how they impact survival.

(A) observations are active acquisition of either qualitative or quantitative information from a primary source through the senses;

(B) inferences are conclusions reached on the basis of observations or reasoning supported by relevant evidence;

(C) hypotheses are tentative and testable statements that must be capable of being supported or not supported by observational evidence. Hypotheses of durable explanatory power that have been tested over a wide variety of conditions are incorporated into theories; and

(D) scientific theories are based on natural and physical phenomena and are capable of being tested by multiple independent researchers. Unlike hypotheses, scientific theories are well established and highly reliable explanations, but they may be subject to change as new areas of science and new technologies are developed.

(A) ask questions and define problems based on observations or information from text, phenomena, models, or investigations;

(B) use scientific practices to plan and conduct descriptive and simple experimental investigations and use engineering practices to design solutions to problems;

(C) demonstrate safe practices and the use of safety equipment during classroom and field investigations as outlined in Texas Education Agency-approved safety standards;

(D) use tools, including calculators, microscopes, hand lenses, metric rulers, Celsius thermometers, prisms, concave and convex lenses, laser pointers, mirrors, digital scales, balances, spring scales, graduated cylinders, beakers, hot plates, meter sticks, magnets, collecting nets, notebooks, timing devices, materials for building circuits, materials to support observations of habitats or organisms such as terrariums and aquariums, and materials to support digital data collection such as computers, tablets, and cameras to observe, measure, test, and analyze information;

(E) collect observations and measurements as evidence;

(F) construct appropriate graphic organizers used to collect data, including tables, bar graphs, line graphs, tree maps, concept maps, Venn diagrams, flow charts or sequence maps, and input-output tables that show cause and effect; and

(G) develop and use models to represent phenomena, objects, and processes or design a prototype for a solution to a problem.

(A) identify advantages and limitations of models such as their size, scale, properties, and materials;

(B) analyze data by identifying any significant features, patterns, or sources of error;

(C) use mathematical calculations to compare patterns and relationships; and

(D) evaluate experimental and engineering designs.

(A) develop explanations and propose solutions supported by data and models;

(B) communicate explanations and solutions individually and collaboratively in a variety of settings and formats; and

(C) listen actively to others' explanations to identify relevant evidence and engage respectfully in scientific discussion.

(A) explain how scientific discoveries and innovative solutions to problems impact science and society; and

(B) research and explore resources such as museums, libraries, professional organizations, private companies, online platforms, and mentors employed in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field to investigate STEM careers.

(A) identify and use patterns to explain scientific phenomena or to design solutions;

(B) identify and investigate cause-and-effect relationships to explain scientific phenomena or analyze problems;

(C) use scale, proportion, and quantity to describe, compare, or model different systems;

(D) examine and model the parts of a system and their interdependence in the function of the system;

(E) investigate how energy flows and matter cycles through systems and how matter is conserved;

(F) explain the relationship between the structure and function of objects, organisms, and systems; and

(G) explain how factors or conditions impact stability and change in objects, organisms, and systems.

(A) compare and contrast matter based on measurable, testable, or observable physical properties, including mass, magnetism, relative density (sinking and floating using water as a reference point), physical state (solid, liquid, gas), volume, solubility in water, and the ability to conduct or insulate thermal energy and electric energy;

(B) demonstrate and explain that some mixtures maintain physical properties of their substances such as iron filings and sand or sand and water;

(C) compare the properties of substances before and after they are combined into a solution and demonstrate that matter is conserved in solutions; and

(D) illustrate how matter is made up of particles that are too small to be seen such as air in a balloon.

(A) investigate and explain how equal and unequal forces acting on an object cause patterns of motion and transfer of energy; and

(B) design a simple experimental investigation that tests the effect of force on an object in a system such as a car on a ramp or a balloon rocket on a string.

(A) investigate and describe the transformation of energy in systems such as energy in a flashlight battery that changes from chemical energy to electrical energy to light energy;

(B) demonstrate that electrical energy in complete circuits can be transformed into motion, light, sound, or thermal energy and identify the requirements for a functioning electrical circuit; and

(C) demonstrate and explain how light travels in a straight line and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed.

(A) explain how the Sun and the ocean interact in the water cycle and affect weather;

(B) model and describe the processes that led to the formation of sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels; and

(C) model and identify how changes to Earth's surface by wind, water, or ice result in the formation of landforms, including deltas, canyons, and sand dunes.

(A) observe and describe how a variety of organisms survive by interacting with biotic and abiotic factors in a healthy ecosystem;

(B) predict how changes in the ecosystem affect the cycling of matter and flow of energy in a food web; and

(C) describe a healthy ecosystem and how human activities can be beneficial or harmful to an ecosystem.

(A) analyze the structures and functions of different species to identify how organisms survive in the same environment; and

(B) explain how instinctual behavioral traits such as turtle hatchlings returning to the sea and learned behavioral traits such as orcas hunting in packs increase chances of survival.