Skip to content
LessonPrint

Keeping the Sea Clean is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on how communities use science to protect coasts and oceans, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS3-1. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per student

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Keeping the Sea Clean

5-ESS3-1

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

1.Why do scientists count seabirds on a cliff every year?
  • A.To notice early if their numbers start to fall, so the cause can be found
  • B.To scare the birds away
  • C.To feed the birds
2.Why do some places charge a small amount for plastic carrier bags?
  • A.To make bags stronger
  • B.Fewer bags are used, so fewer end up in rivers and the sea
  • C.To make the stores tidier
3.A town turns off its seafront lights during the turtle nesting season. How could it check this worked?
  • A.Count the streetlights
  • B.Count how many hatchlings reach the sea before and after
  • C.Ask people whether they liked the dark
4.A fishing town's catches fall year after year. What could help the fish recover?
  • A.Catching the fish faster
  • B.An area of sea where no fishing is allowed, so fish can breed
  • C.Using bigger boats
5.Waste water is cleaned at a works before it reaches the sea. What does that protect?
  • A.Sea life and the people who swim there
  • B.Nothing, the sea cleans itself
  • C.Only the pipes
6.Storm drains carry street litter into the sea. What could a town do?
  • A.Sweep the litter into the drains
  • B.Fit nets or screens on the drains to catch litter
  • C.Make the drains wider
7.A beach survey found most of the litter was plastic bottles and their tops. Which measure uses that evidence best?
  • A.Painting the bins blue
  • B.Closing the beach in winter
  • C.A scheme that pays people back for returning bottles
8.Why might a community replant seagrass and salt marsh along its coast?
  • A.They make the sea saltier
  • B.They keep tourists away
  • C.They shelter young fish and hold the mud in place

LessonPrint · 5-ESS3-1 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Keeping the Sea Clean

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.To notice early if their numbers start to fall, so the cause can be found
  2. 2.Fewer bags are used, so fewer end up in rivers and the sea
  3. 3.Count how many hatchlings reach the sea before and after
  4. 4.An area of sea where no fishing is allowed, so fish can breed
  5. 5.Sea life and the people who swim there
  6. 6.Fit nets or screens on the drains to catch litter
  7. 7.A scheme that pays people back for returning bottles
  8. 8.They shelter young fish and hold the mud in place

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-ESS3-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.