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Grade 5. During the module's 15 lessons, students investigate and explain patterns of the Sun, Moon, and stars and ultimately explain how those patterns can be used to navigate. Module includes a teacher guide, 10 student activity guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Grade 5. Module Highlights: During the module's 15 lessons, students investigate and explain patterns of the Sun, Moon, and stars and ultimately explain how those patterns can be used to navigate. This module includes a teacher guide, 10 student activity guides, 16 Smithsonian Science Stories student readers, and enough materials for 32 students to use 1 time.

Student Readers Available HERE

Alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards*
Performance Expectations

• 5-ESS1-1: Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from the Earth.
• 5-ESS1-2: Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.
• 5-PS2-1: Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.
• 3-5-ETS1-1: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Disciplinary Core Ideas
ESS1.A: The Universe and Its Stars

• The sun is a star that appears larger and brighter than other stars because it is closer. Stars range greatly in their distance from Earth.

• The orbits of Earth around the sun and of the moon around Earth, together with the rotation of Earth about an axis between its North and South poles, cause observable patterns. These include day and night; daily changes in the length and direction of shadows; and different positions of the sun, moon, and stars at different times of the day, month, and year.

• The gravitational force of Earth acting on an object near Earth's surface pulls that object toward the planet's center.

• Possible solutions to a problem are limited by available materials and resources (constraints). The success of a designed solution is determined by considering the desired features of a solution (criteria). Different proposals for solutions can be compared on the basis of how well each one meets the specified criteria for success or how well each takes the constraints into account.

• Research on a problem should be carried out before beginning to design a solution. Testing a solution involves investigating how well it performs under a range of likely conditions.
• Tests are often designed to identify failure points or difficulties, which suggest the elements of the design that need to be improved.

Focal Science and Engineering Practices

• Engaging in argument from evidence

Focal Crosscutting Concepts

• Patterns
• Scale, proportion, and quantity

Phenomena and Problems Storyline
Lesson Summaries
Lesson 1: Gravity Around the World
Students observe that a ball dropped at the school and in Antarctica falls down. Students observe balls dropped from different locations on Earth and record their observations on a model of Earth. Students construct a claim supported by evidence to explain that both balls dropped to the ground because gravity pulls objects toward the planet's center.
Lesson 2: Sunset
Students observe a time-lapse video of sunset. Students use a flashlight to represent the Sun and a ball to represent Earth to model what happens between Earth and the Sun to cause sunset.
Lesson 3: Pictures in the Sky
Students use their model to predict how they would expect the Moon and stars to appear to move over the course of the night. Students use sky-viewing software to view the Moon and stars over a night. Students use evidence from both lessons to support a claim that Earth rotates on an axis to cause day, sunset, and night.
Lesson 4: Telling Time with the Sun
Students read a story to learn that Earth's rotation causes a predictable daily shadow pattern, which can be used to develop a tool to measure time. Students collect hourly shadow data that they can use as part of their solution.
Lesson 5: Design a Sundial
Students design and build a tool that uses the Sun's shadow pattern to measure time. Students test their tool outside and check for failure points. They evaluate how well their solution meets the criteria and constraints.
Lesson 6: Distances Can Be Deceiving
Students read a story to learn that the Sun is an average-sized star. Students visit two stations to investigate how distance impacts the size of objects. Students use evidence to construct a claim that the image of the Sun looks small because the perspective of the image is from farther away than our perspective on Earth.
Lesson 7: What's Your Perspective?
Students observe images of the sky from different locations in the solar system and conclude that the image of the sky is from Pluto. Students consider why the Sun looks so different from Earth compared to Pluto, but other stars look similar from both locations.
Lesson 8: Light-Years Away
Students develop a model to show the relative distances between the Sun, Earth, Pluto, and other stars. Students use evidence to support an argument that the Sun looks smaller from Pluto because Pluto is so much farther from the Sun compared to Earth. The other stars look similar from Earth and Pluto because the other stars are so far away from both.
Lesson 9: Where Is Orion?
Students develop an initial model to show how the relative positions of Earth, the Sun, and Orion could cause Orion to be visible in December, but not in June.
Lesson 10: Missing Constellations
Students use sky viewing software to observe the annual visibility of other constellations.
Lesson 11: Constellation Patterns
Students create bar graphs to display their data from Lesson 10.
Lesson 12: Modeling the Earth-Sun System
Students use their data to create a model showing the position of Earth relative to the Sun over the year. The model shows that Earth orbits the Sun annually. Students use the model to support an argument that Orion is visible in December, but not in June, because Earth orbits the Sun and therefore changes the visibility of Orion from Earth.
Lesson 13: Sky Navigation, Part 1
Students read informational text to learn that ancient Polynesians navigated the ocean without modern instruments. Students analyze data on the brightness and distance from Earth of five stars, the Moon, and the Sun to make an initial claim about which objects might be the most useful for navigation.
Science Challenge
Lesson 14: Sky Navigation, Part 2
Students observe and record where and when the Sun, Moon, and four other stars rise and set over 2 years to see which objects have a predictable pattern that can be used for navigation.
Lesson 15: Sky Navigation, Part 3
Students develop a star compass to show the rising and setting locations of the Sun and four stars. Students use evidence to construct an argument about how ancient Polynesians could have used these objects to navigate.

*Next Generation Science Standards® is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.