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Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
Special Notes:
Instructional Practices
Teaching from a range of complex text is optimized when teachers in all subject areas implement the following strategies on a routine basis:
- Ensuring wide reading from complex text that varies in length.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
- Emphasizing text-specific complex questions, and cognitively complex tasks, reinforce focus on the text and cultivate independence.
- Emphasizing students supporting answers based upon evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
Science and Engineering Practices (NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education, 2010)
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering).
- Developing and using models.
- Planning and carrying out investigations.
- Analyzing and interpreting data.
- Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking.
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering).
- Engaging in argument from evidence.
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Science. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL's need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/sc.pdf
General Information
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Explore and compare objects in the solar system, including planets, moons, the Sun, comets, and asteroids, with this interactive research page.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore forces and how changes in forces can affect the motion of objects in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify the results of environmental changes on different types of plants as you gain a deeper understanding of how environmental changes allow some organisms to survive and reproduce, while others die, in this interactive tutorial.
This is part 3 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the different ways plants respond to changes in the environment in this interactive tutorial.
This is part 2 of 3. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn what an environment is, how different environments meet the needs of animals that live there, and how environmental changes can impact the animals that live there with this interactive tutorial.
This is part 1 in a 3-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the relationship between mass, forces, and motion on the soccer field in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the integral role Earth's oceans play in the water cycle in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate how the flow of electricity requires a closed circuit in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore different kinds of forces, including pushes, pulls, magnetism, gravity, and friction in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover why it's important for scientists to replicate the procedures used in earlier scientific investigations to validate the findings or results in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate electrical energy and how it can be transformed into different forms including heat, light, sound, and motion energy in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help build a Grasshopper Hut for Gus by creating line plots and answering questions about the line plots in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how water moves into the atmosphere as it moves through the water cycle. This is part 2 of a three-part interactive tutorial series.
Click to open part 1
Click HERE to open part 3 (Coming Soon)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore different sources of water as it travels through Earth's water cycle. Discover the importance of the oceans and other water sources as you follow water's journey in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore the amazing adaptations of freshwater life in this interactive tutorial
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore how lands animals are adapted to changing environments all around the globe in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Come along and explore amazing adaptations of marine animals with a biologist as your guide in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Join a biologist to explore amazing adaptations among plants in this interactive student tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about the basics of the coordinate plane by focusing on Quadrant I and see why the coordinate plane is useful in everyday life in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the basics of air pressure in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how temperature and humidity affects biomes like the tundra and desert, and learn how computers use NAND and NOR logic gates to make decisions.
This is part 4 of 4 in a series about biomes and logic gates. Click below to open parts 1-3.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how temperature, wind speed and other weather data affects a biome like the temperate grasslands. While exploring the different aspects of the biome, learn the OR logic gate that computers use to make decisions.
This is part 3 of 4 in a tutorial series on biomes and logic gates.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how AND Boolean logic can be used to evaluate two different inputs resulting in a true or false output. While exploring the logic of a computer system in this interactive tutorial, you will learn about different biomes and how computers can make decisions based on the attributes of the biomes.
This is part 2 of 4 in a tutorial series about biomes and Boolean logic.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 2: AND Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Expand your coding skills with Boolean logic as you use the inverter NOT function to make decisions while learning about different biomes.
This is part 1 of 4 in a tutorial series about Boolean logic and biomes.
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 1: NOT Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 3: OR Gates
- Traveling With Boolean Logic Part 4: NAND and NOR Gates
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the differences between an experiment and other types of scientific investigations as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how electrical energy is produced from earth's natural resources. In this interactive tutorial, explore the process to power buildings and other electronic devices.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate and explain that when a force is applied to an object but it does not move, it is because another opposing force is being applied by something in the environment so the forces are balanced. This interactive tutorial also includes practice items to check your knowledge.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the connection between energy and motion and help Thomas the turtle win the race by using your knowledge of energy and work in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Take a journey and investigate the objects that call our solar system home. In this interactive tutorial, you'll visit the Sun, planets, satellites, asteroids and comets and learn new and exciting information about our exploration of the solar system.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to interpret data presented on a line plot and use operations on fractions to solve problems involving information presented in line plots as you complete this beach-themed, interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to prepare a natural disaster plan of your own and identify reasons for having one in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify components within a galaxy such as gas, dust, stars and objects that orbit stars with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify a control group and explain its importance in an experiment with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about the importance of repeated trials in a scientific experiment with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate and describe some basic forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, electrical, chemical, and mechanical, at the amusement park in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how heat is a form of energy. You will also look at other examples of energy as they are found during a camping trip.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, and precipitation determine the weather in a particular place and time as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to recognize and explain that science is based on testable observations and that explanations for observations must be linked to evidence in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to accurately plot coordinates on a plane in interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify the basic needs of living things,the ways living things protect, support and reproduce. Also compare and contrast how plants and animals meet their basic needs in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
You should be able to distinguish weather conditions among different climates.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn and demonstrate that mixtures of solids can be separated by observable properties in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to:
- identify the heart as an important organ for life.
- describe the features of the heart including the four chambers, pulmonary artery and veins, the aorta and the valves.
- explain functions of the various parts of the heart.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify precipitation as rain, snow, sleet and hail in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to describe the relationship between latitude and annual mean temperatures on Earth with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how authentic scientific investigations do not always follow the steps of the traditional "scientific method" with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how adaptations can help animals survive in their environments in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Educational Games
Students have an opportunity to discover plants from around the world that are housed at the New York Botanical Gardens. Students learn about the kinds of plants and then try seven different Plant Challenges where they show their knowledge about plant leaves, plants we eat, plants we use in our lives, how plants reproduce, how plants have evolved, plants and pollinators and plants in specific biomes.
Type: Educational Game
In this activity, students enter coordinates to make a path to get to a target destination while avoiding mines. This activity allows students to explore Cartesian coordinates and the Cartesian coordinate plane. This activity includes supplemental materials, including background information about the topics covered, a description of how to use the application, and exploration questions for use with the java applet.
Type: Educational Game
Image/Photographs
This website uses images of many insects to illustrate various forms of coloration or patterning for camouflage, mating, communication, mimicry, and other purposes. Examples for entomological use include walking sticks, katydids, moths, ambush bugs, and many others.
Type: Image/Photograph
This PDF included at this site has information about family preparedness plans and safety rules, and information about thunderstorms, tornadoes, and lightning such as facts, when and where they occur, and how they form.
Type: Image/Photograph
Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Ancient weapons technologies developed by humans proved that they were better at physics than the saber-toothed cats.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Presentation/Slideshows
This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about the water cycle. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, or Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers the book can be read aloud in a variety of voices. All of the books on the Tar Heel Reader site can be used with the Intellikeys keyboard with a custom overlay, a touch screen, and 1-3 switches. The text and background colors can be modified for students with visual impairments.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
This is an accessible, easy-to-read book about some of the adaptations animals make in order to survive and thrive. It can be downloaded in Power Point, Impress, and Flash formats. For struggling or non-readers the book can be read aloud in a variety of voices. All of the book on the Tarheel Reader site can be used with an Intellikeys keyboard and a custom overlay, a touch screen, and up to three switches. The text and background colors can be modified for students with visual impairments.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
Text Resource
This is an informational resource for teachers and students. It contains descriptions and pictures of different biomes, examples of some of the plants that live there, and some of the adaptations those plants have. This resource only covers plant adaptation not animals.
Type: Text Resource
Tutorials
This Khan Academy tutorial video presents how to graph an ordered pair of positive numbers on the x- and y-axis of a coordinate plane.
Type: Tutorial
This Khan Academy tutorial video presents a strategy for solving the following problem: given a dot plot with different measurements of trail mix in bags, find the amount of trail mix each bag would contain, if the total amount in all the bags was equally redistributed.
Type: Tutorial
The Cartesian Coordinate system, formed from the Cartesian product of the real number line with itself, allows algebraic equations to be visualized as geometric shapes in two or three dimensions. While this tutorial includes the basis of Coordinate system, it also includes ideas beyond fifth grade standards. Most likely only advanced fifth graders would find the video engaging.
Type: Tutorial
The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses clouds, humidity, and precipitation.
Type: Tutorial
The Treehouse Weather Kids is designed for teachers and students in the 5th – 8th grades. It provides basic information on weather topics such as winds, moisture, air pressure, seasons, and storms. This tutorial discusses air pressue and wind.
Type: Tutorial
Video/Audio/Animations
This four minute video features a great explanation and demonstration of static electricity. The video also includes a great activity suggestion: create your own electroscopes to test for the presence of static electricity.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Cocos Island, a remote volcanic summit in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, serves as a beacon for hungry predators, including thousands of hammerhead sharks that travel here each year in search of prey. This video segment from NOVA: "Island of Sharks" depicts some of the common predator-prey interactions that take place in the nutrient-rich waters surrounding the island and focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of one behavioral adaptation common among prey fishes: schooling.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment from NOVA: "A Desert Place" details the behaviors and habitats of some of the Sonoran Desert's creatures, focusing on the adaptations they use to survive in one of the most extreme environments in the world.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment from ZOOM compares and contrasts some of the more interesting climatic and ecological characteristics of the Death Valley desert with those found in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Adapatations used by plants and animals in these climates are discussed and further highlighted in the background essay.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The beaver is often referred to as nature's own engineer. This video segment focuses on the beaver's ability to transform its environment to suit itself. The beaver does so with an innate ability to construct dams -- a feat no creature, save humans, is able to achieve.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, a student explains how her interest in weather observation led her to volunteer at a local weather center so she could get practical experience with weather instruments and learn from a practicing meteorologist how forecasts are created.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Precipitation is water that falls from the sky, such as rain or snow. Precipitation can affect your day-to-day life, even though it is just one aspect of the weather. However, precipitation is also vital to the water cycle as it returns water from the atmosphere back to Earth's surface. In this video clip three different types of precipitation are observed - rain, hail, and snow.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video segment explores the world of camouflage, including some of the methods and benefits of this important evolutionary strategy. Footage from NOVA: "Animal Impostors."
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
In this ZOOM-adapted video clip, guest Tommy takes you into Florida's Everglades, describing the animals, plants, and weather he observes while in swamps and marshy grasslands. Connections between other regions are made, such as bird migration from one ecosystem to another.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The process that moves water around Earth is known as the water cycle. I this ZOOM-adapted video clip, the cast uses a homemade solar still to separate pure water from a saltwater mixture, mimicing this natural process.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
While commonly referred to as "shooting stars," meteors and meteor showers are, in fact, unrelated to stars. Instead, these streaks of light are the glow of interplanetary debris crashing into Earth's atmosphere. In this animated video adapted from NASA, learn about these "shooting stars" and the reasons behind annual meteor showers.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Virtual Manipulatives
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.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help the students learn some important concepts of classical mechanics, such as gravitational acceleration, energy conservation and so on. This activity will also help in students learning via the process of making predictions (about number of pendulum swings), discussing outcomes and sharing results.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Friction is important in enabling the movement of objects. Friction is a force that acts in an opposite direction to movement. Friction is everywhere when objects come into contact with each other. Observe what happens when the surfaces are very smooth or slippery, it reduces the friction and thus it makes harder to stop the motion.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This online manipulative models and simulates common static electricity concepts such as transfer of charge.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This interesting game require the students to help the comet get to the sun, by answering some simple questions regarding to the solar system.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This resource provides an interactive tool for the exploration of the solar system. To navigate the interactive solar system move the mouse to hover the target over different objects, to learn more about each click to access images, information about scientists, homework help, articles, news, missions, time lines, and important facts.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help you learn why the lights turn on in a room as soon as someone flip the switch. This virtual manipulative will allow you to flip the switch and watch the electrons.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:
- Explain what happens when you turn on the switch.
- Determine whether the blue spheres are positive or negative charges. Explain your thinking.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This resource will build the following skills:
- Describe the relationship of mass and volume to density.
- Compare objects of same mass and different volume and vice versa.
- Explain that density of a certain object does not vary with its mass or volume.
- Measure the volume of an object from fluid displacement.
- Use density to identify an unknown material.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Play with objects on a teeter totter to learn about balance.
- Predict how objects of various masses can be used to make a plank balance.
- Predict how changing the positions of the masses on the plank will affect the motion of the plank
- Write rules to predict which way plank will tilt when objects are placed on it.
- Use your rules to solve puzzles about balancing.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Students can create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. They can also make changes in friction and see how it affects the motion of objects.
- Identify when forces are balanced vs. unbalanced.
- Determine the sum of forces (net force) on an object with more than one force on it.
- Predict the motion of an object with zero net force.
- Predict the direction of motion given a combination of forces.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This website is designed by NASA for student use, so it provides the most current, accurate information regarding the objects in our solar system. Each object in the solar system is available on the first screen. Click on any of the names of the objects, and it links to a description of the object.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This is a virtual manipulative which demonstrates the principles of force. Students can click on a man and push different objects of varying masses across the screen. The resulting forces (frictional and total force) are shown. Graphs show forces, position and acceleration as a function of time. Free body diagrams of all the forces can also be viewed.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
An electronics kit in your computer! Build circuits with resistors, light bulbs, batteries, and switches. Investigate conductivity of various materials. Take measurements with the realistic ammeter and voltmeter. View the circuit as a schematic diagram, or switch to a life-like view.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Through this website, students learn about different weather disasters and what to do before, during, and after an emergency.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Congratulations
