- One simple biology project that fifth-grade students can complete involves comparing how different soils affect plant growth. Provide students with five plastic cups and have them poke drainage holes in the bottom of four cups. Get students to fill the four cups with drainage and fine sand, shredded tree bark, potting compost and soil from the garden. Students should label the fifth cup as "water-logged" and fill with potting compost. Students should plant two or three plant seedlings in each cup, water plants with a controlled amount of water and place them all on the same windowsill. Students should then observe plant growth over the course of at least three weeks before concluding the experiment by comparing how different soils affected the plant growth.
- An example of a chemistry project that is both easy and safe gets students to create a small exothermic reaction in a polystyrene cup between an acid and an alkali. Get students to pour about 1 inch of vinegar into a thick polystyrene cup and place it in the base of a sink. Students should use a thermometer to check the temperature of the vinegar and, with the thermometer still in the solution, add 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda. Students will witness a violent fizzing reaction between the two and should record the temperature every 20 seconds before charting their findings.
- Your fifth-grade students will engage with an experiment about friction and vibration, which you can use as an introductory physics task. Get students to wash their hands and rinse thoroughly. Students should then take a pipette and place a drip of vinegar in a petri dish. Have students hold the base of a glass against a table with their left hand and dip their right index finger into the vinegar. Students should take their right index finger and run it around the rim of the glass and witness the vibrations and sound generated.
- Get your fifth-graders thinking about earth science through this quick and easy project, which gets them to investigate whether diluted vinegar is as effective as branded cleaning products. Have students take two identical small mirrors and make them grubby with a piece of charcoal; they should try and make both mirrors evenly dirty. Have students take a piece of newspaper and cut it into two equal pieces. Dip one in diluted vinegar (75 percent water, 25 percent vinegar) and the other in your chosen cleaning product (which should be suitable for cleaning glass). Students should scrub each mirror for 30 seconds before assessing which of the two becomes cleaner. Ask them to think about which product was more effective for cleaning: vinegar or a store-bought cleaning agent.