· Use written, spoken, and technological media to convey new learning or challenge existing ideas.
· Produce written and/or oral work that is complex, purposeful, and organized, includes relevant supporting examples and manipulation of language.
· Create products and/or presentations that synthesize information from diverse sources and communicate expertise to a variety of authentic audiences.
· Use a variety of multi-media and innovative technology to create illustrations, models, charts, tables, and graphs as tools for communication.
· Apply interviewing techniques for a variety of purposes.
· Anticipate and address potential misunderstandings, biases, and expectations in communication with others.
· Respond to contributions of others, considering all available information.
· Participate in small group discussions to argue persuasively or reinforce others’ good points.
· Maintain a journal or log for self-reflection and/or self-evaluation.
· Support and defend one’s own opinions while respecting the opinions of others.
TAG Creative Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills
· Question accepted practices, rules, and existing principles to discover new knowledge.
· Design, apply, evaluate, and adapt a variety of innovative strategies when problem solving (e.g., recognizes problems, defines problems, identifies possible solutions, selects optimal solution, implements solution, and evaluates solution).
· Incorporate brainstorming and other idea-generating techniques (synectics, SCAMPER, etc.) to solve problems or create new products.
· Demonstrate skills in fluency and flexibility to solve problems or create new products.
· Develop original ideas, presentations, or products through synthesis and evaluation.
· Clarify, illustrate, or elaborate on an idea for product improvement.
· Use analogies, metaphors, illustrations, and/or models to explain complex concepts.
· Tolerate ambiguity when solving problems.
· Recognize and assume risks as a necessary part of problem solving.
· Monitor and reflect on the creative process of problem solving for future applications.
SCIENCE
Fifth grade students investigate scientific concepts. They understand that science is a process for gaining knowledge about the natural world. Students are active learners and use hands on activities to discover and explain phenomena. They are able to conduct experiments and report their findings in the form of written reports, charts, and various other presentations including multi-media projects. Their scientific explanations emphasize evidence and begin to use scientific principles, models, and theories.
Life Science
S5L1. Students will classify organisms into groups and relate how they determined the groups with how and why scientists use classification.
a. Demonstrate how animals are sorted into groups (vertebrate and invertebrate) and how vertebrates are sorted into groups (fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal).
b. Demonstrate how plants are sorted into groups
Co-Requisite - Characteristics of Science
Habits of the Mind
S5CS1. Students will be aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works.
a. Keep records of investigations and observations and do not alter the records later.
b. Carefully distinguish observations from ideas and speculation about those observations.
c. Offer reasons for findings and consider reasons suggested by others.
d. Take responsibility for understanding the importance of being safety conscious.
S5CS2. Students will have the computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations.
a. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers mentally, on paper, and with a calculator.
b. Use fractions and decimals, and translate between decimals and commonly encountered fractions – halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, tenths, and hundredths (but not sixths, sevenths, and so on) – in scientific calculations.
c. Judge whether measurements and computations of quantities, such as length, area, volume, weight, or time, are reasonable answers to scientific problems by comparing them to typical values. S5CS3. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating objects in scientific activities.
a. Choose appropriate common materials for making simple mechanical constructions and repairing things.
b. Measure and mix dry and liquid materials in prescribed amounts, exercising reasonable safety.
c. Use computers, cameras and recording devices for capturing information.
d. Identify and practice accepted safety procedures in manipulating science materials and equipment.
S5CS4. Students will use ideas of system, model, change, and scale in exploring scientific and technological matters.
a. Observe and describe how parts influence one another in things with many parts.
b. Use geometric figures, number sequences, graphs, diagrams, sketches, number lines, maps, and stories to represent corresponding features of objects, events, and processes in the real world. Identify ways in which the representations do not match their original counterparts.
c. Identify patterns of change in things—such as steady, repetitive, or irregular change—using records, tables, or graphs of measurements where appropriate.
d. Identify the biggest and the smallest possible values of something.
Georgia Department of Education Kathy Cox, State Superintendent of Schools 8/29/2006 3:49 PM