EINSTEIN PROJECT CURRICULUM OPTIONS
Fifth Grade
from sun to food
life sciences
Anchoring Phenomenon
We eat pizza with many ingredients on it. People are building pizza farms where all the ingredients are grown in one place.
Driving Questions
Why do people eat food? How do energy and matter get into our food? How do energy and matter move through a system?
UNIT DESCRIPTION
8 Lessons | 32-35 Days of Instruction
At the start of this unit, students discuss their favorite pizza toppings and watch a video to start to consider why we eat food and ask questions about how a pizza farm works to grow the ingredients on pizza. Throughout the unit, students will conduct investigations and collect evidence about how energy and matter enter into food and how they cycle and move through the environment and living things. Students will develop a model of a pizza farm by adding the new layers of how energy and matter move through it along the way.
Learn more in the Unit Overview.
MATERIALS FOR 1 CLASS | $250
Using our Resources wisely
earth and space systems
Design Challenge
How can we design a wind turbine that will lift a bucket of pennies?
Anchoring Phenomenon
An island in Denmark uses no fossil fuels.
UNIT DESCRIPTION
9 Lessons | 23 Days of Instruction
In this unit, students will learn about Earth’s systems and natural resources. Students discover ways that humans use natural resources and the human impacts on Earth’s systems. Students learn how humans can change behaviors to reduce impacts on the environment.
Learn more in the Unit Overview.
MATERIALS FOR 1 CLASS | $250
celestial clocks and calendars
earth and space systems
Anchoring Phenomenon
We can observe different things in the sky.
We can use the sun, moon, and stars to help us tell time.
Driving Questions
What objects can we observe in the sky? How could we use patterns in the sky to tell what time of day it is? How could we use patterns in the sky to tell what time of year it is?
UNIT DESCRIPTION
8 Lessons | 32-34 Days of Instruction
For centuries humans have observed objects in the sky. Students investigate the objects we can observe in the sky, including the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars. They learn about how some of these objects create their own light, like stars, while others reflect light, like the Moon and planets. Students also construct arguments about the apparent brightness of stars.
Learn more in the Unit Overview.
MATERIALS FOR 1 CLASS | $250
what’s consistent about matter?
physical science
Design Challenge
How do we use physical and chemical changes to prepare delicious food?
Anchoring Phenomenon
Raw cake ingredients are mixed together to make batter, which can then turn into cake.
UNIT DESCRIPTION
9 Lessons | 24 Days of Instruction
This physical science unit is about the states and properties of matter and different changes and interactions of matter. The unit begins with a discussion of matter and the common states of matter, including exploration of whether or not air is matter. Then students describe and classify matter based on common physical properties. Students also learn how to measure matter.
Learn more in the Unit Overview.