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A. All plants and animals, including humans, are alike in some ways and different in others.

B. All plants and animals, including humans, have internal parts and external structures that function to keep them alive and help them grow and reproduce.

C. Humans can better understand the natural world through careful observation.

Big Idea 14 : Organization and Development of Living Organisms
Cluster Standards

This cluster includes the following benchmarks.

Visit the specific benchmark webpage to find related instructional resources.

  • SC.5.L.14.1 : Identify the organs in the human body and describe their functions, including the skin, brain, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, intestines, pancreas, muscles and skeleton, reproductive organs, kidneys, bladder, and sensory organs.
  • SC.5.L.14.2 : Compare and contrast the function of organs and other physical structures of plants and animals, including humans, for example: some animals have skeletons for support -- some with internal skeletons others with exoskeletons -- while some plants have stems for support.
Cluster Information
Number:
SC.5.L.14
Title:
Organization and Development of Living Organisms
Type:
Big Idea
Subject:
Science
Grade:
5
Body of Knowledge
Life Science
Cluster Access Points

This cluster includes the following Access Points.

  • SC.5.L.14.In.1 : Distinguish major external and internal body parts, including skin, brain, heart, lungs, stomach, muscles and skeleton, reproductive organs, and sensory organs.
  • SC.5.L.14.In.2 : Identify functions of plant and animal structures; for example, plant stem transports food to leaves, and heart pumps blood to parts of the body.
  • SC.5.L.14.Su.1 : Identify major external and internal body parts, including skin, brain, heart, lungs, stomach, and sensory organs.
  • SC.5.L.14.Su.2 : Recognize the functions of the major parts of plants and animals.
  • SC.5.L.14.Pa.1 : Recognize body parts related to movement and the five senses.
  • SC.5.L.14.Pa.2 : Observe plants and animals and recognize how they are alike in the way they look.
Cluster Resources

Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.

Original Student Tutorials
Educational Game
  • Science Vocabulary Hangman: This interactive game uses the traditional hangman premise with all questions and answers involving science vocabulary. There are general sets of science vocabulary to choose from, as well as specific topics. You can even choose vocabulary pertaining to 5th or 8th grade FCAT Science Tests!

Image/Photograph
  • Animal Mouths: This collection of images of six different animals illustrates the wide range of feeding strategies and physical structures that have grown out of the relationship between organisms and their food. The environment plays a dramatic role in shaping the evolutionary changes that organisms undergo, and for animals, food is one of the most important components of the environment.
Lesson Plans
  • Science Salvage: Students will investigate the relationship between an organ and its function focusing on the stomach, liver, small and large intestines, and pancreas. They will be given a budget when purchasing their items to make their organ prototypes (adding/subtracting decimals).

  • Mechanical Hands: In this STEM design challenge, students will build a working hand model to examine the function of the skeletal and muscular systems.

  • Are you Inspiring?: Have you ever wondered why we have lungs? What really controls our breathing? In this lesson, students will identify parts of the lungs and explain their functions. Students will also create a working model of the lungs.

  • Name That Organ!: Can you name that organ with one clue? What about two? Students will get the opportunity to research organs and create clue cards with at least four clues that will help others Name That Organ!

  • “Beating On and On…”: Have you ever wondered why we have a heart? What is the hearts function within our body? In this lesson students will identify the parts of the heart and its functions in conjunction with the circulatory system. Students will be exposed to an interactive diagram where the parts of the heart are displayed individually its functions are explained. Students will get hands-on by completing several pulse experiments with their own heartbeat.

  • Work that Body- Human Organs MEA: This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. In this open-ended problem, students are presented with a variety of exercise machines, the best health feature of each machine, prices, and popularity (based on a local competitor's gym). Students must rank the exercise machines and describe their procedures for ranking. The durability of each machine feature is later added as a twist so that students can revise or test their original procedures.

    Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

  • Body Swatter: Students work in cooperative groups to research and write questions for an active game designed to review the major organs of the systems of the human body (digestive, respiratory, circulatory, and excretory system).

  • Frankenchicken: It's ALIVE! Or is it? Engage students with a hands-on look at muscles, tissues, bones, bone marrow, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and connective tissue. It is an exciting way to hook students into learning the structures promoting a better understanding of how they work. It will be a lab students will refer back to and remember! The lab takes about 1 hour; however the research and presentations can take up to a week.

  • Are We Like Robots?: This lesson explores the similarities between how a human being moves/walks and how a robot moves. This allows students to see the human body as a system, i.e., from the perspective of an engineer. It shows how movement results from (i) decision making, i.e., deciding to walk and move, and (ii) implementing the decision by conveying the decision to the muscle (human) or motor (robot).
  • Are We Like Robots?: This lesson explores the similarities between how a human being moves/walks and how a robot moves. This allows students to see the human body as a system, i.e., from the perspective of an engineer. It shows how movement results from (i) decision making, i.e., deciding to walk and move, and (ii) implementing the decision by conveying the decision to the muscle (human) or motor (robot).

  • Is My Epidermis Showing?: Have you ever wondered why we have skin? What is the skins function for our body? In this lesson, students will identify the parts of the skin and its functions in conjunction with the integumentary system. Students will be exposed to an interactive diagram where the parts of the skin are displayed individually its functions are explained. Students will get hands-on by creating a 3-dimensional model of the skin and its parts.

  • Kidney Filtering: In this activity, students filter different substances through a plastic window screen, different sized hardware cloth and poultry netting. Their model shows how the thickness of a filter in the kidney is imperative in deciding what will be filtered out and what will stay within the blood stream.
  • Making the Cut!: In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), the general manager (GM) of a National Football League (NFL) team has to decide which injured players to going to cut (remove) from the team and which players to keep. This is a very difficult decision for the GM to make. The GM cares about the players and this decision will end the football careers of those who are cut. This happens every season, so the GM wants a system that can be used to make this decision every year. Experts in the organs of the human body and their functions are needed to create this system.

    Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

  • Walk, Run, Jump: In this activity, students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. The students compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space.
Perspectives Video: Expert
Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Teaching Ideas
  • Dive Like a Dolphin-SeaWorld Classroom Activity: Students make predictions, then plan and conduct an investigation. They discuss whether their evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation and communicate the steps and results from their investigation.
  • Design a Sea Lion-A SeaWorld Classroom Activity: Students investigate sea lion adaptations and create a sketch that illustrates a sea lion's body parts and adaptations.
  • Animal Mouth Structures: In this teaching idea, students gather evidence to understand features that enable animals to meet their needs. In particular, students examine images and videos of the mouth structures of different animals to help them understand how animals are adapted to obtain food in their environment.
  • Do You Have the Strength?: In this activity, students squeeze a tennis ball to demonstrate the strength of the human heart. Working in teams, they think of ways to keep the heart beating if the natural mechanism were to fail. The goal of this activity is to get students to understand the strength and resilience of the heart.
  • From the Inside Out-SeaWorld Classroom Activity: In this activity, the student will learn about fish anatomy as he or she builds a fish model.
  • Human Organ Project: In this project idea, students are tasked with defending a specific organ and its need to survive in the body. Students write to support their positions and prepare a presentation for the class.

  • Scale Study-SeaWorld Classroom Activity: In this activity, the students will identify and describe three different types of fish scales.
  • Understanding Kidney Disease: Students will have an opportunity to explore how the scientific method can be used to understand kidney disease and how the kidneys and urinary system work in the human body.
Text Resources
  • Your Amazing Brain: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This National Geographic article describes the amazing attributes of the human brain, comparing its features to everyday objects like a light bulb or a computer.

  • Restoring a Sense of Touch: This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text explores the possibility of creating a prosthesis (artificial limb) that can feel things.

Video/Audio/Animation
Virtual Manipulative
  • See All You Can See: This resource provides a collection of games based on identifying the parts of the eye and their functions, understanding the vision process, and learning about some of the protective eye wear associated with certain sports and daily activities.