NGSS & Phenomena in Science: 4th and 5th Grade Science Curriculum- Not Your Average Science Experiments

Ever thought about the “wow” factor of a rainbow 🌈, lightning ⚡, or an eruption 🌋?

These are phenomena – stuff we can see happening right before our eyes!

Think about it. These events can make even us adults go “Hmm, why’s that happening?” Now, imagine a kid seeing these for the first time. Boom! Mind full of questions. 💥💡

And you know what? That’s awesome! That’s exactly what we want to see in our classrooms. We are sparking curiosity and firing up little minds to think big. 🧠💭

So, why not make the most of these wow moments and use them in our science lessons? Let’s dive in and learn how we can teach science with phenomena. 👇

Science Gets Real 🧪

Different cloud types are a natural phenomenon. Why are they different colors, shapes, and heights? And what does it mean for our weather?

Phenomena-based science is taking a question like How can observing clouds help us predict the weather? and creating a unit to help students answer this question.

We want students to investigate the question by gathering evidence from multiple sources, including their own investigations. They read, create, experiment, observe, and explore the world around them. 

A Needed Change 👩‍🏫

We all know as educators that change is necessary to help our students to achieve amazing things once they leave school. As our world changes, we see science at the forefront of it all. 

Phenomena-based science changes some of the old ways of teaching. Endless lectures and textbook-based science instruction are on their way out.

With NGSS, students:

• investigate topics using science practices
• support claims with evidence and reasoning
• develop models that represent science concepts
• engineer solutions to problems that meet certain criteria and work within given constraints

It can all seem very overwhelming, and I totally get that! But don’t worry. We at The Science Penguin studied the standards and phenomena-based science to develop a line of resources to get you started on this journey.

The Wow Factor 🌈

As I said above, the entire process of creating a phenomena-based unit can seem like a lot of work!

Teachers often tell me how getting together the materials, ideas, and resources to develop a science lesson takes a lot of time and prep that teachers rarely have time for. At The Science Penguin, we crafted 26 phenomena-based units for the 4th and 5th grade NGSS standards.

These resources are full of amazing ideas to help implement phenomena-based science in your science block. We broke each unit into different sections following the 5E Model.

These sections help prepare students to answer the phenomena-based question posed at the beginning of the investigation. We give the rationale for each unit and provide you with the reason this unit fits in with phenomena-based learning.