Pictured are Ethan Farrar and Jayden Park.

LEESBURG — Fifth grade students at Leesburg Elementary School recently completed a science unit about matter.

Topics the students studied included: how to measure matter, what is matter made of and how matter changes states. They participated in a variety of activities in the unit. These included multiple experiments.

The students enjoyed getting “hands-on” with their learning as they separated mixtures, weighed matter, calculated volume and caused water to form a cloud inside of a cup. The students focused on real-life application of what they were learning. Strong connections were made when students started asking questions about how evaporation and clouds worked to make it rain.

This led the teachers to integrate learning about the water cycle into the unit. A favorite moment for the students was seeing a cloud form when boiling water was poured into a cup, then immediately covered with a cold cup and ice. They also enjoyed watching it “rain” inside as steam from a boiling beaker gathered on the bottom of a bag of ice.

Up next for these fifth graders is an exciting robotics unit from Project Lead The Way. The teachers look forward to developing problem-solving skills as these scientists tackle what’s next.