In this physical science lab, students investigate whether or not chewing gum should be considered eating. Students plan their own experiments for this lab. They use the law of conservation of mass to reason that the portion lost of the original mass of gum must be swallowed. Students determine the portion of original mass of gum. A student lab sheet and CER template are provided.

In the engage section of the 5Elesson, students are introduced to the role of fossils as evidence of evolution and evolutionary relationships by watching a videos about the discovery of Lucy and Ardi and consider what type of information that they can gain from skull fossils. Students will then explore features of skulls from human ancestors and the modern day Homo sapien. After measuring skull to cheekbone ratios, students will create a graph to compare various species. Several interactives are provided to explain fossils, skeletal evidence for human evolution, and phylogenetic trees. Then, students will apply their skills of analyzing data about anatomical similarities and genetic information to depict evolutionary relationships between organisms using cladograms. To evaluate student understanding, students will complete an evolutionary relationships CER.

Students read about and explain the process of transgenic manipulation to produce crops resistant to herbicides and pests. Afterwards students evaluate the pros and cons. Next, students read various pro/neutral/con articles about genetically modified foods and evaluate the perspective of the author. Finally, students use evidence from the reading to write a CER stating their opinion on GMOs.

Students will investigate what constitutes a solid and a liquid state of matter. Using the probe, students' misconceptions on states of matter will be exposed. The lab, which uses a cornstarch, water and food coloring mixture, will be explored. The students will determine how that exploration will take place and devise a procedure to determine the state of matter. Students will then, as a group, present their findings to the class. Students can also write a Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) paragraph to answer the question "What state of matter is Oobleck?" An engineering extension task is included that challenges students to devise a way to make a useful invention that would take advantage of a substance like oobleck.