3-5

Learning standards

Exam questions New

The New York State Science Learning Standards (NYSSLS) for third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade are made up of 46 performance expectations. The first administration of the new NYS Elementary: Grade 5 science exam, which assesses students on the 3-5 performance expectations below, was given in June 2024 (per the NYSED science implementation roadmap). Each standard below has its own page with any released Grade 5 science test questions (the test taken by 5th grade students) that assess it.

3. Forces and Interactions

3-PS2-1 | Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object.

Clarification statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of an object can make it start moving; and, balanced forces (including friction) acting on a stationary object from both sides will not produce any motion at all.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size, or direction of forces. Assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.

3-PS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-PS2-2 | Predicting Future Motion
Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.

Clarification statement: Examples of motion with a predictable pattern could include a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, and two children on a see-saw.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include technical terms such as period and frequency.

3-PS2-2 standard page

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3-PS2-3 | Electric and Magnetic Interactions
Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.

Clarification statement: Examples of an electric force could include the force on hair from an electrically charged balloon and the electrical forces between a charged rod and pieces of paper; examples of a magnetic force could include the force between two permanent magnets, the force between an electromagnet and steel paperclips, and the force exerted by one magnet versus the force exerted by two magnets. Examples of cause and effect relationships could include how the distance between objects affects strength of the force and how the orientation of magnets affects the direction of the magnetic force.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to forces produced by objects that can be manipulated by students, and electrical interactions are limited to static electricity.

3-PS2-3: Grade 5 test questions

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3-PS2-4 | Solving a Problem with Magnets
Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.

Clarification statement: Examples of problems could include constructing a latch to keep a door shut and creating a device to keep two moving objects from touching each other.

3-PS2-4: Grade 5 test questions

3. Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

3-LS2-1 | Animal Groups
Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.

Clarification statement: Examples of groups could include a herd of cattle, a swarm of bees, a flock of geese, a pod of whales, etc.

3-LS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-LS4-1 | Fossils
Analyze and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of the organisms and the environments in which they lived long ago.

Clarification statement: Examples of data could include type, size, and distributions of fossil organisms. Examples of fossils and environments could include marine fossils found on dry land, tropical plant fossils found in Arctic areas, and fossils of extinct organisms.

Assessment boundary: Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include identification of specific fossils or present plants and animals. Assessment is limited to major fossil types and relative ages.

3-LS4-1 standard page

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3-LS4-3 | Organism Survival
Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Clarification statement: Examples of evidence could include needs and characteristics of the organisms and habitats involved. The organisms and their habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other.

3-LS4-3: Grade 5 test questions

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3-LS4-4 | Environment Change
Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

Clarification statement: Examples of environmental changes could include both natural and human-influenced changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other organisms.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to a single environmental change. Assessment does not include the greenhouse effect or climate change.

3-LS4-4: Grade 5 test questions

3. Inheritance and Variation of Traits: Life Cycles and Traits

3-LS1-1 | Life Cycles
Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.

Clarification statement: Changes organisms go through during their life form a pattern.

Assessment boundary: Assessment of plant life cycles is limited to those of flowering plants. Assessment does not include details of human reproduction.

3-LS1-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-LS3-1 | Inheritance and Variation
Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.

Clarification statement: Patterns are the similarities and differences in traits shared between offspring and their parents, or among siblings. Emphasis is on organisms other than humans.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include genetic mechanisms of inheritance and prediction of traits. Assessment is limited to non-human examples.

3-LS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-LS3-2 | Environmental Influence
Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.

Clarification statement: Examples of the environment affecting a trait could include normally tall plants grown with insufficient water are stunted; and, a pet dog that is given too much food and little exercise may become overweight.

3-LS3-2: Grade 5 test questions

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3-LS4-2 | Advantages from Characteristics
Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing.

Clarification statement: Examples of cause and effect relationships could include plants that have larger thorns than other plants may be less likely to be eaten by predators; and, animals that have better camouflage coloration than other animals may be more likely to survive and therefore more likely to produce offspring.

3-LS4-2: Grade 5 test questions

3. Weather and Climate

3-ESS2-1 | Expected Weather During a Season
Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.

Clarification statement: Examples of data could include average temperature, precipitation, and wind direction.

Assessment boundary: Assessment of graphical displays is limited to pictographs and bar graphs. Assessment does not include climate change.

3-ESS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-ESS2-2 | Climates
Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world.

Clarification statement: Emphasis should be on various climates in different regions rather than on localized weather conditions.

3-ESS2-2: Grade 5 test questions

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3-ESS3-1 | Solution to a Weather-Related Hazard
Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a weather-related hazard.

Clarification statement: Examples of design solutions to weather-related hazards could include barriers to prevent flooding, wind resistant roofs, and lightning rods.

3-ESS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

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3-ESS2-3 | Weather and Water Processes
Plan and conduct an investigation to determine the connections between weather and water processes in Earth systems.

Clarification statement: Emphasis should be on the processes that connect the water cycle and weather patterns.

3-ESS2-3: Grade 5 test questions

4. Energy

4-PS3-1 | Speed and Energy
Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measures of changes in the speed of an object or on any precise or quantitative definition of energy.

4-PS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

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4-PS3-2 | Conservation of Energy
Make observations to provide evidence that energy is conserved as it is transferred and/or converted from one form to another.

Clarification statement: Examples of forms of energy could include sound, light, heat, and electrical.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.

4-PS3-2: Grade 5 test questions

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4-PS3-3 | Changes in Energy
Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the change in the energy due to the change in speed, not on the forces, as objects interact.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.

4-PS3-3: Grade 5 test questions

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4-PS3-4 | Energy Conversion Device
Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

Clarification statement: Examples of devices could include electric circuits that convert electrical energy into energy of motion of a vehicle, light, or sound; batteries that convert chemical energy to electrical energy; and, a passive solar heater that converts light into heat. Examples of constraints could include the materials, cost, or time to design the device.

Assessment boundary: Devices should be limited to those that convert motion energy to electric energy or use stored energy to cause motion or produce light or sound.

4-PS3-4 standard page

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4-ESS3-1 | Energy and Fuels: Natural Resources and the Environment
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment.

Clarification statement: Examples of renewable energy resources could include wind, water behind dams, and sunlight; non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and fissile materials. Examples of environmental effects could include loss of habitat due to dams, loss of habitat due to surface mining, and air pollution from burning of fossil fuels.

4-ESS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

4. Waves: Waves and Information

4-PS4-1 | Waves
Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves can cause objects to move.

Clarification statement: Examples of models could include diagrams, analogies, and physical models using wire to illustrate wavelength and amplitude of waves.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include interference effects, electromagnetic waves, non- periodic waves, or quantitative models of amplitude and wavelength.

4-PS4-1: Grade 5 test questions

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4-PS4-3 | Information Transmission
Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

Clarification statement: Examples of solutions could include drums sending coded information through sound waves, using a grid of 1’s and 0’s representing black and white to send information about a picture, and using Morse code to send text.

4-PS4-3: Grade 5 test questions

4. Structure, Function, and Information Processing

4-PS4-2 | Light and the Eye
Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include knowledge of specific colors reflected and seen, the cellular mechanisms of vision, or how the retina works.

4-PS4-2: Grade 5 test questions

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4-LS1-1 | Organism Structures and Function
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Clarification statement: Examples of structures could include thorns, stems, roots, colored petals, heart, stomach, lung, brain, and skin.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to macroscopic structures within plant and animal systems.

4-LS1-1: Grade 5 test questions

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4-LS1-2 | Information Processing
Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on systems of information transfer.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the mechanisms by which the brain stores and recalls information or the mechanisms of how sensory receptors function.

4-LS1-2: Grade 5 test questions

4. Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

4-ESS1-1 | Evidence From Rock Formations and Fossils
Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.

Clarification statement: Examples of evidence from patterns could include rock layers with marine shell fossils above rock layers with plant fossils and no shells, indicating a change from land to water over time; tilted rock layers indicate past crustal movement; glacial scratches on rock formations indicating glacier movement; and, a canyon with different rock layers in the walls and a river in the bottom, indicating that over time a river cut through the rock.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include specific knowledge of the mechanism of rock formation or memorization of specific rock formations and layers. Assessment is limited to relative time.

4-ESS1-1 standard page

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4-ESS2-1 | Weathering and Erosion
Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.

Clarification statement: Examples of variables to test could include angle of slope in the downhill movement of water and/or loose Earth materials due to gravity, amount of vegetation, speed of wind, relative rate of deposition, cycles of freezing and thawing of water, cycles of heating and cooling, and volume of water flow.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to a single form of weathering or erosion.

4-ESS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

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4-ESS2-2 | Maps
Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.

Clarification statement: Maps can include topographic maps of Earth’s land and ocean floor, as well as maps of the locations of mountains, continental boundaries, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

4-ESS2-2: Grade 5 test questions

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4-ESS3-2 | Earth's Impact on Humans
Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

Clarification statement: Examples of solutions could include designing an earthquake resistant building and improving monitoring of volcanic activity.

4-ESS3-2 standard page

5. Structure and Properties of Matter

5-PS1-1 | Particle Nature of Matter
Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.

Clarification statement: Examples of evidence supporting a model could include adding air to expand a basketball, compressing air in a syringe, dissolving sugar in water, and evaporating salt water.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include the atomic-scale mechanism of evaporation and condensation or defining the unseen particles.

5-PS1-1: Grade 5 test questions

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5-PS1-2 | Conservation of Matter
Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances the total amount of matter is conserved.

Clarification statement: Examples of reactions or changes could include phase changes, dissolving, and mixing that form new substances. Assume that reactions with any gas production are conducted in a closed system.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include distinguishing between mass and weight.

5-PS1-2: Grade 5 test questions

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5-PS1-3 | Identifying Materials by Properties
Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties.

Clarification statement: Examples of materials to be identified could include baking soda and other powders, metals, minerals, and liquids. Examples of properties could include color, hardness, reflectivity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, response to magnetic forces, and solubility; density is not intended as an identifiable property.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include density or distinguishing between mass and weight.

5-PS1-3: Grade 5 test questions

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5-PS1-4 | Mixture vs Chemical Change
Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

Clarification statement: Examples could include mixing baking soda and water compared to mixing baking soda and vinegar.

5-PS1-4: Grade 5 test questions

5. Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

5-PS3-1 | Energy Flow
Use models to describe that energy in animals’ food (used for body repair, growth, motion, and to maintain body warmth) was once energy from the Sun.

Clarification statement: Emphasis should be on plants converting light energy by photosynthesis into usable energy. Examples of models could include diagrams and flow charts.

5-PS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

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5-LS1-1 | Origin of Plant Matter
Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the idea that plant matter comes mostly from air and water, not from the soil.

5-LS1-1 standard page

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5-LS2-1 | Cycling of Matter
Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants (producers), animals (consumers), decomposers, and the environment.

Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the flow of energy and cycling of matter in systems such as organisms, ecosystems, and/or Earth.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include molecular explanations.

5-LS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

5. Earth’s Systems

5-ESS2-1 | Interactions Between the Geosphere, Biosphere, Hydrosphere, and Atmosphere
Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.

Clarification statement: Examples could include the influence of the ocean on ecosystems, landform shape, and climate; the influence of the atmosphere on landforms and ecosystems through weather and climate; and the influence of mountain ranges on winds and clouds in the atmosphere. The geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere are each a system.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to the interactions of two systems at a time.

5-ESS2-1: Grade 5 test questions

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5-ESS2-2 | Water Distribution
Describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, ground water, and polar ice caps, and does not include the atmosphere.

5-ESS2-2 standard page

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5-ESS3-1 | Protecting Earth's Resources and Environment
Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect Earth’s resources and environment.

Clarification statement: Emphasis should be on how communities use information to sustain resources and the environment locally, regionally, nationally, and/or internationally.

5-ESS3-1: Grade 5 test questions

5. Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System

5-PS2-1 | Gravity
Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.

Clarification statement: “Down” is a local description of the direction that points toward the center of the spherical Earth.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include mathematical representation of gravitational force.

5-PS2-1 standard page

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5-ESS1-1 | Relative Distances of Stars
Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the Sun compared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.

Assessment boundary: Assessment is limited to relative distances, not sizes, of stars. Assessment does not include other factors that affect apparent brightness (such as stellar masses, age, stage).

5-ESS1-1: Grade 5 test questions

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5-ESS1-2 | Patterns: Shadows, Day/Night, Seasonal Appearance of Stars
Represent data in graphical displays to reveal patterns of daily changes in length and direction of shadows, day and night, and the seasonal appearance of some stars in the night sky.

Clarification statement: Examples of patterns could include the position and motion of Earth with respect to the Sun, moon, and some stars that are visible only in particular months.

Assessment boundary: Assessment does not include causes of seasons.

5-ESS1-2: Grade 5 test questions

3-5. Engineering Design

3-5-ETS1-1 | Defining a Design Problem
Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

3-5-ETS1-1 standard page

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3-5-ETS1-2 | Comparing Possible Solutions
Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

3-5-ETS1-2: Grade 5 test questions

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3-5-ETS1-3 | Testing and Improving Designs
Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

3-5-ETS1-3: Grade 5 test questions