Grade 5 - Science

In addition to HFCS ‘Āina-based Learning Competencies (click to view), the PK-12 Science Kahua is grounded in the belief that the purpose of science is “Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.” (year, Randi).

End of school year grade level outcomes were crosswalked with the HFCS Vision of the Graduate (2013), NGSS, Fountas and Pinnell, and were prioritized using the following criteria (Reeves, 2004): 1) Endurance, 2) Leverage, 3) Readiness, 4) Assessment Requirements.

I. Sense of Place: ʻĀina Learning Competencies

Overarching goals for ʻāina-based curriculum designed to connect the learner to their cultural, linguistic and physical community

II. Sense of Belonging: Science and Engineering Practices

Scientific inquiry begins with weaving together ʻāina, ʻohana, and cultural components of moʻokūʻauhau and interacting with ʻāina to then ask questions and define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want of the community ʻāina that shows empathy and knowing one’s place. Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design problems. Specify and predict phenomena in designing multiple solutions. Plan and conduct investigations collaboratively in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered, and the number of trials considered. Identify aspects of a model or physical working prototype that can be improved.

III. Sense of Belonging: Motion, Stability, and Energy

Through observations, research, and testing, students develop understandings of how energy comes from the Sun, the conservation of energy, and how energy is transferred. By observing and testing forces and interactions, the understanding of the relationship between energy and forces can be developed and connections to the physical world are made.

IV. Sense of Community: From Molecules to Organisms

By understanding the structures and processes, the organization of matter, and energy flow in organisms, one can begin to understand similarities and differences of organisms and their lifestyles, and patterns of heredity, and thereby connect to ancestors. This sense of belonging also develops through understanding of how culture and community can support the birth, growth, and survival of organisms.

V. Sense of Community: Earth’s Systems

Understanding and navigating the natural landscapes includes topics of biogeology and understanding interactions between all things in the natural and world. Making sense of patterns (i.e. weather, natural Earth processes) and understanding systems and system models supports the development of a sense of community.

VI. Sense of Responsibility: Earth and Human Activity

Understanding what our natural resources are on Earth, and which ones are renewable or not will help individuals to feel knowledgeable and empowered to conserve, protect, and sustain these resources for future generations. The understanding that all life and all places within ecosystems are interconnected and interdependent, including across the Earth spheres (air, water, land) will also encourage the systems thinking mindset and build these connections to the natural world.

S.5.1Weave together ʻāina, ʻohana, and cultural components of moʻokūʻauhau (i.e. ʻohana genealogy, waʻa genealogy, Kumulipo, history, moʻolelo wahi pana)
S.5.2Interact with ‘āina by using ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi performance cartographies (i.e. oli, mele, hula, kaulana mahina, hoʻokele) and develop a stronger relationship with ʻāina.
S.5.3Understand the function and relationship between cultural protocols, cultural artifacts, and lawena (i.e piko/pū/reverence, mahalo/lei/gratitude).
S.5.4Know our place in the community ʻāina, its resources (mauna, awawa, wai , kai, one, wao) and the relationship with well-being.
S.5.5Understand the connection between moʻokūʻauhau, knowing deeply about a place, and fulfilling the ʻauamo to care for that place.

S.5.6Develop and use models to describe and test a scientific principle/phenomena based on existing understandings of community āina, its resources, and the relationships with well-being of the community and environment.
S.5.7Produce data collaboratively to serve as the basis for evidence, weaving together ʻāina, ʻohana, and cultural components of moʻokuʻauhau that serves to explain a phenomenon and the impacts on the community and environment.
S.5.8Represent data in the form of graphical displays (bar graphs, pictographs, and/or pie charts) to reveal patterns that indicate relationships and understanding of the connection between moʻokūʻauhau, knowing deeply about a place.
S.5.9Describe and graph quantities such as area and volume to support scientific conclusions and design solutions that contribute to community wellness and building the capacity to connect with ʻāina.
S.5.10Measure and graph quantities such as weight to address scientific and engineering problems in the community and environment.
S.5.11Support an argument with data or a model, and use understandings of the functions and relationships between cultural protocols, cultural artifacts, and lawena to strengthen the claim or proposed model/test.
S.5.12Gather information from books, and/or other reliable media, to explain phenomena or solutions to a design problem including the ʻauamo to care for that place.

S.5.13Matter of any type can be subdivided into particles that are too small to see, but even then the matter still exists and can be detected by other means and described using a model.
S.5.14The weight of matter is conserved when it changes form due to heating, cooling, or mixing substances, even in transitions in which it seems to vanish (i.e. transforms to a gas). No matter what reaction or change in properties occurs, the total weight of the substances does not change.
S.5.15Measurements of a variety of properties such as color, hardness, reflectivity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, response to magnetic forces, and solubility can be used to identify materials.
S.5.16When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed.
S.5.17The gravitational force of Earth acting on an object near Earth’s surface pulls that object toward the planet’s center. “Down” is a local description of the direction that points towards the center of the spherical Earth.

S.5.18The energy in animals’ food that is released into the organism was once energy from the Sun that was captured by plants in the chemical process (photosynthesis) that forms plant matter (from air and water).
S.5.19Energy in food provides animals with the materials they need for body repair and growth and the energy they need to maintain warmth and for motion.
S.5.20Plants acquire the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water. Plant matter comes mostly from air and water, and not from the soil.

S.5.21The matter in an environment that is not food is air, water, and decomposed materials in soil, and it is changed by plants into matter that is food. Thus food of almost every kind of animal can be traced back to plants.
S.5.22A food chain is a linear process outlining who eats whom. Organisms in a food chain are related in a food web in which some animals eat plants and other animals eat the animals that eat the plants. Each specific organism in an ecosystem occupies a specific trophic level or position in the food chain or web.
S.5.23Some organisms such as fungi and bacteria break down dead organisms as decomposers, restoring/recycling some materials back to the soil.
S.5.24A healthy ecosystem is one in which multiple species of organisms of different types are each able to meet their needs in a relatively stable and interdependent web of life. Newly introduced species can damage the balance of an ecosystem.
S.5.25Matter cycles between the air, soil, and water among plants, animals, and microbes as these organisms live and die. Organisms obtain gases and water from the environment, and release waste matter (gas, liquid, solid) back into the environment.