These handouts accompany the 5th Grade Rain Garden Design Challenge Lesson Plan. The handouts give criteria for identifying areas of erosion and non-point source pollution entering waterways on school property, slope and soil suitability criteria for situating the rain garden, and data collection procedures for phosphate testing. The handouts also include guidelines and criteria for the final poster presentation design and Claim-Evidence-Reasoning, as well as rubrics for scoring and guidelines for peer feedback.

This lesson engages 5th grade students in identifying areas of erosion and non-point source pollution entering waterways on school property, making a claim on the most suitable site to locate a rain garden by conducting field tests on slope and soil type, and testing
for the presence of phosphates in waterways on school forest property. Students then compete in a rain garden design challenge using their data to create a poster presentation, including a map and claim evidence reasoning, for the best rain garden design plan, scored using a rubric.

In this activity, students will compare their lives on Earth with a virtual experience on Mars. They will begin by using their five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste) to illustrate and describe various aspects of their lives on Earth. After similarly describing their virtual time on Mars, they will consider the biggest similarities and differences between their “time” on the two planets. They will then create a newspaper article or news report script that strives to help their audience understand what life is like in this deep-space colony.

This lesson will focus on ecosystems! While exploring in Aurelia, you may have seen two different marine ecosystems - the pelagic ocean and coral reefs. While exploring them, you will have learned about the different animals that call those habitats home and the adaptations they have to do so! This lesson will expand on what ecosystems are, how organisms adapt to their ecosystems, apply that knowledge to a kelp forest ecosystem, and connect this lesson to conservation applications.

In this lesson, students develop models for understanding of the paper recycling process and the important role they play in conserving and recycling our natural resources.