Grade 5 Lesson plan
Alder Grove Rain Garden: A Grade 5 Runoff Sizing Lesson
A grade 5 engineering lesson where students use the roof-runoff formula to size a rain garden for Alder Grove Elementary and decide whether it can hold a storm's water.
NGSS · Grade 5
5-ESS3-1 Research how communities use science to protect Earth's resources
Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment.
Why water teaches this standard well
A town's water and wastewater utilities are living examples of a community using science to protect a resource, from treatment chemistry to conservation programs and stream monitoring. Students can research how their own city cleans and safeguards its water, then report on what the science makes possible.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
16 materials aligned to 5-ESS3-1
Lesson plans
Grade 5 Lesson plan
Ingleside's Midnight Meter Check: Finding a Hidden Leak
A 50-minute grade 5 lesson where students subtract 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. meter readings from two Ingleside streets to find which one hides a leak.
Grade 5 Lesson plan
Pictogram Signs for the Willowmere Water Treatment Plant
A grade 5 art lesson where students design simple pictogram signs for the four main stages of a drinking water treatment plant tour.
Worksheets
Grade 5 Worksheet
Glenray's Well Field in a Dry July: A Water Level Worksheet
Students subtract decimals to find the drawdown at four wells in a fictional town, then explain how a summer watering rule protects the gravel aquifer below.
Grade 5 Worksheet
Marbleton's Six Steps: A Grade 5 Treatment Flow Worksheet
Students put the six steps of the fictional Marbleton water plant in order, explain what each one removes, and convert settling and filter times into minutes.
Grade 5 Worksheet
Where Wardlow Valley Keeps Its Water: A Grade 5 Worksheet
Students graph Earth's salt and fresh water using a 100-cup model, then read a table of Wardlow Valley's reservoir, aquifer, and creek to compare stored water.
Grade 5 Worksheet
Silver Creek Health Signs: A Grade 5 Color-Key Worksheet
A grade 5 art worksheet where students design and test a three-color key for a creek health sign based on a real dissolved-oxygen benchmark.
Labs & experiments
Grades 5–6 Lab / experiment
Gravel, Sand, and Charcoal: Building a Column Water Filter
Teams build two column water filters in different layer orders, pour standardized muddy water through each, and compare clarity data in a fair, science-fair-ready test.
Grade 5 Lab / experiment
Otterdale Garden Soil Drainage: A Grade 5 Percolation Lab
A grade 5 fair-test lab where teams pour water through gravel, sand, and soil to find which drains fastest, then use the data to pick a base for a rain garden.
Classroom activities
Grade 5 Classroom activity
Four Jobs at Verrick Ridge: A Grade 5 Water Plant Rotation
Groups rotate through four stations at a fictional water plant, making each worker's shift decision and explaining how the four jobs protect one town's water supply.
Grade 5 Classroom activity
Marsh Hollow Settling Basin: A Grade 5 Fair-Test Activity
A grade 5 hands-on activity where teams compare still and stirred jars of muddy water to see how a settling basin lets heavy dirt sink out at a treatment plant.
Grade 5 Classroom activity
Palmerton's Purple Pipe Sort: Matching Water to Its Job
Teams rotate through four stations sorting twelve water-use cards into drinking-water and recycled-water bins, then total the gallons a reuse system could serve.
Grade 5 Classroom activity
Water Career Trading Cards: A Grade 5 Design Sprint
A grade 5 art activity where students design trading cards for water-sector jobs, then play a matching game linking each job to its education path.
Reading passages
Grade 5 Reading passage
How Dernwood Point Makes Tap Water From the Sea
A grade 5 informational passage about a fictional coastal town whose wells turned salty, the membrane plant it built, and why it still asks families to save water.
Projects
Grade 5 Project
Rushbeck Brook Sediment Plan: A Grade 5 Site Design Project
A four-session grade 5 project where teams design, model, test, and revise a mud-control plan for a fictional building site above a brook, then pitch it.
Grade 5 Project
A Sign Trail for the Riverside Water Reclamation Plant
A four-session grade 5 art project where teams design a trail of tour signs for a fictional wastewater plant, working within a fixed token budget.