Instruct fifth-grade students to read about the life of a scientist. Encourage students to repeat simple experiments performed by the scientist. For example, George Washington Carver did many experiments involving plants. Use botany experiments to teach fifth-graders how plants react to their environment while they learn more about plants and the scientist. Study the plants under a high-powered microscope. Copy the concept of creating new uses for peanuts. Give students a plant or product and ask them to find new uses for it. One example of this would be to use berries to make a stain.
Use nature to explain science and teach the life science that is standard for fifth-graders. Take your students on a tour of the school playground. Look for evidence of simple life cycles, such as the cycle formed by the sun, the grass and a grasshopper in this miniature ecosystem. Study the insects under logs or on ant hills. Collect leaves from the trees and use them to compare the different tree species. Activities that allow students to find their own answers will make it fun and educational.
Experiments that catch the imagination of the students will help them learn science concepts. The more extreme the experiment, the more interest it creates in fifth-graders. Play on your students' love for roller coasters and have them design one of their own on the computer. Students will have fun figuring their structure and learn about gravity, which is standard for fifth-grade physical science.
Use creativity to make learning science fun for fifth-graders. There are many ways a student can use his own creativity to create a learning situation in science. Have students write and produce plays on science concepts such as geological causes for change in the earth's crust. Give each student a science concept to illustrate for a class book. Working in groups, have the students select a concept and teach it by creating a game that will be played during science class.