Students investigate weather forecasts and patterns to determine how to keep cool on the playground.

Students learn about force and motion by learning about galimotos. Students design, build, test, and refine their own galimoto sketches and toys to demonstrate various movements.

Students explore how garbage ends up in the Mississippi River, as well as how this garbage impacts living things. They design solutions to clean up the river.

Students investigate plant parts to figure out how plants use their structures to survive; they use this knowledge to make connections to biomimicry.

Students explore the importance of patterns in science and figure out what they are and why we see them in the daytime sky.

Students explore the ways that sound and light can be used to create a shadow puppet show. They engineer a musical instrument out of recycled materials and create shadow puppets to put on a shadow puppet show.

Students explore the issue of the Sleeping Bear Dunes getting smaller and work to design solutions to protect the dunes.

Students are introduced to the problem of keeping Emperor penguins cool during the hot St. Louis summer. They design, build and test a prototype using materials they think are best suited for keeping the penguin cool.

Students investigate the history and discoveries of early Inuit, Polynesian, and Nordic explorers. They use strategies from early explorers to create a map of their own school or playground.

Students use clues from fossils to learn about prehistoric animals of the past. They make connections between adaptations and plant and animal survival to investigate a modern endangered species: the prairie chicken.

Students investigate bees, pink katydids, and darkling beetles to explore questions related to each organism. The unit concludes with students researching an insect to develop a presentation for a class insectarium exhibit.

Students explore why only certain types of foods can be grown in their community compared with other parts of the world. They relate these differences to climate and determine how frost affects plants.

Students learn about force and motion through carnival games. They build and play a variety of games to investigate where force is applied, and why and how objects move.

Students explore the relationship between the structures and functions used by riparian animals and plants. They research a specific type of riparian plant or animal and prepare an argument as to why it is the best fit to survive; they use this information to participate in a mock debate.

Students investigate dams in the United States and the Glen Canyon Dam to make observations and ask questions about why people build dams and how they are used.

Students explore the cause of tsunamis, the structure of the waves, and ask questions about how to detect tsunamis in order to reduce the impact of tsunamis on people.

Students develop their understanding of how the movement of objects can be observed on the playground. They investigate collisions on the playground and explore how simple machines can change the amount of force needed to do work. They connect this concept to their playground by playground equipment that is fun, safe, and accessible.

Students explore the four Earth systems and learn how these systems interact. They learn about natural resources and how humans use them, as well as about strategies humans can use to decrease our impact on the environment.

Students investigate the objects we can observe in the sky. They learn about how some of these objects create their own light and explore how humans have used patterns of objects in the sky to tell time.

Students will investigate properties of matter, physical and chemical changes, the particle nature of matter, and different types of mixtures to explain how we use science in cooking and baking. They will apply their learning to plan a meal for a community picnic.