Introduction
I currently teach grades K–5 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) at an urban elementary school in Richmond, Virginia. I also teach 5th grade science classes. This unit, Beyond Ranch: The Science of Mixtures & Solutions with Salad Dressing, is designed for my 5th grade students. My students thrive during hands-on investigations and collaborative learning experiences, especially when activities connect to their daily lives. They are often willing to try new foods, ideas, and challenges when they feel ownership over the process, particularly when they have grown or created something themselves. My STEAM classroom is intentionally designed to support inquiry-based learning, with flexible spaces and materials that allow students to work collaboratively through experiments, design challenges, and scientific investigations.
While my students are highly engaged in active learning environments, there are also instructional challenges I hope to address through this unit. Some students struggle with productive collaboration and effective communication during small-group work. To support growth in these areas, I plan to intentionally model cooperative learning strategies, assign clear group roles, and provide sentence stems that help students participate in discussions. Additionally, many students read below grade level, so I intend to incorporate scaffolded reading passages, accessible scientific articles, visual recipes, and supported writing activities that allow all learners to successfully engage with the content. By integrating science, food systems, collaboration, and real-world problem solving, this unit aims to make science both academically rigorous and personally meaningful for my students.
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