Which crosscutting concepts are most important in 5th grade?

[Eric Brunsell]

Which crosscutting concepts are most important in 5th grade?

[Kirsten Wiesneski]

While reading through the 5th grade PEs, two of the crosscutting concepts that stood out the most to me were:

4) systems and system models

5) energy and matter: flows, cycles, and conservation

Two other CCCs seemed important, but weren't as prevalent in as many PEs. They were:

1) patterns

3) scale, proportion, and quantity

The green "Crosscutting Concepts" boxes showed that "Cause and Effect" was covered in these 5th grade PEs as well, but only 2 of the 13 standards (not including the 3 engineering design PEs) actually fit into that category.  For that reason, I decided that it really wasn't one of the MOST important concepts for 5th grade.

[fende]

There appear to be a few ways to answer this.  One might be to draw on the vision used by the writers of the standards as to how often certain CCCs appeared in the fifth grade PE foundation boxes and use prevalence as a factor.  One could also (as I'm doing here) consider the CCCs that seem to be of significant importance for students of all grades to truly internalize.  For truth's sake, I would state that all are equally important, but for purposes of this prompt, I'll pick two that if students were stranded on a desert island with just two CCCs, I would hope they would have.

First, would be cause and effect.  Science, whether life, physical, or earth and space, is all about relationships.  You can't understand how relationships work unless you truly "get" the fact that actions have repercussions, and that nothing happens in isolation.  This is a tremendous CCC because it not only allows students to see science as a study of all the interactions in the universe, but it also provides for a great CCC to use to connect to other disciplines (social studies, art, music, etc.).

Second, would be systems and system thinking.  I might be predisposed to this as I taught integrated science from an Earth's systems perspective, but understanding how systems operate and the inherent importance of input, output, and feedback to make a system "work" ties in closely not only with cause and effect, but with other CCCs like patterns, scale and quantity, etc.

[Tammy Huenink]

Since the cross-cutting concepts build from K-12 I think all are important when looking at educational growth. The concepts focused on in grade 5 include patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; energy and matter; and systems and systems models.

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 10:17:24 AM UTC-5, Eric Brunsell wrote:

[pat...@wolfnet.net]

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 10:17:24 AM UTC-5, Eric Brunsell wrote:

> Which crosscutting concepts are most important in 5th grade?

Energy... actually I think energy is the most important crosscutting concept across all of science. Of course I'm a chemistry girl, maybe that has something to do with it. Energy is the single thing that connects everything: matter, conservation laws, life, atoms, chemical bonds & reactions. Energy is really hard for students to grasp because of it's many different forms and the way it moves throughout the Earth and the rest of the cosmos. Gotta love it!

[emq...@gmail.com]

I will reiterate some of my other response - I think Cause & Effect and Patterns are especially important in grade 5. These two concepts will allow students to build upon previous knowledge and learning in science, but also in math and ELA. By making connections among all previous learning, it helps students bridge any gaps in order to move forward with higher level thinking and skills.

 

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 11:17:24 AM UTC-4, Eric Brunsell wrote:

[Theresa Stockel]

Cause and effect
While reading the 5th grade material, I feel that the CCC'S cause and effect comes up over and over. It isn't always explicitly written on the page, but while reading the DCI and the performance expectations, I can imagine asking the students "what causes this? " and, what would happen if we change a variable.

Stability and change are not listed in the written material, but I feel it also works in quite a bit. In reading the CCC's, I feel that they are inter-linked and related to one another, so it would be could teaching technique to ask my students questions that require them to articulate the concepts that a unit or lesson has addressed.