5-LS1-1 lessons
Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.
The Next Generation Science Standards code 5-LS1-1 asks students to: “Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.” These Fieldbook lesson teaches it hands-on, with everyday materials, a printable teacher guide and a student sheet.
Food Webs: Who Eats Whom? Grade 5
- Where does a plant get its food? 50–60 min, plus 10 min to weigh seedlings two weeks later
Students sink spinach leaf disks in baking soda water and watch them float back up in the light as they make oxygen, then start bean seedlings with no soil at all and weigh them two weeks later. They explain that plants build their food from air and water using light, not from the soil.
NGSS is used as written in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, so the code 5-LS1-1 matches there. Other states word and number their own versions: see curriculum alignment for your state's codes.
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