Cruz’N With Science

Find out
for yourself.

A place to go when you want to know how something actually works. Demonstrations filmed in a science lab, sorted by the science inside them rather than the order they aired. Live instruments and working simulations you can open and push on yourself. True things about the world that sound invented, with the numbers to check them.

On air CH 05

Weather

Lightning is about five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

The Wow Files 01 / 07

8 true things about the world. Read them all

Start here4 episodes

If you have never seen the show, open one of these first.

Built on the actual standards26 of 37 benchmarks

Everything on this site is pinned to Florida's fifth grade science benchmarks, quoted word for word from the state's own document. 26 of the 37 have an episode; the rest have a destination that covers them. Teachers, that page is for you.

Open the standards map

Episode strand

Matter & Chemistry

Solids, liquids, gases, and the changes that cannot be undone. Density, polarity, phase change, polymers, enzymes and reactions — including the two most-watched episodes the show ever aired.

9 episodes · 1 h 26 m

  • Food science
  • Asking a testable question
  • Chemical change
  • Reaction rate
  • States of matter
  • Phase change
  • Dissolved gas
  • Pressure
  • Polymers
  • Absorption
  • Enzymes
  • Decomposition reaction
  • Density
  • Polarity
  • Chemical change
  • Combustion
  • Demonstration
  • Science communication

Episode strand

Forces, Heat & Energy

Gravity, heat, charge and radiation — the things that move other things. Why a metal spoon burns you, why a doorknob bites in winter, and how turning a handle becomes sound.

5 episodes · 48 min

  • Thermal conduction
  • Insulators
  • Gravity
  • Free fall
  • Air resistance
  • Energy transformation
  • Induction
  • Static electricity
  • Electric charge
  • Microwave radiation
  • Conductors

Episode strand

Air, Weather & Earth

Air is a substance with mass, and it is pressing on you right now. Atmospheric pressure, condensation, the water cycle, and how a tornado gets its spin.

5 episodes · 46 min

  • Air pressure
  • Properties of matter
  • Water cycle
  • Condensation
  • Air pressure
  • Volume
  • Atmospheric pressure
  • Weather
  • Vortices
  • Tornado formation

Episode strand

Specials & Seasonal

The two long-form episodes: a Halloween dry-ice hour and a season-one clip show. Looser, funnier, and the fastest way to get the flavour of the whole series at once.

2 episodes · 29 min

  • Sublimation
  • Dry ice
  • Lab safety
  • Season one highlights

New for 2026–27

The 5th Grade Classroom

Short unit films for Mr. Cruz's fifth grade science students, built against the Florida standards. Students, this is your tab — it grows as the year does.

2 episodes · 5 min

  • Course trailer
  • 2026–2027
  • Scientific investigation
  • Evidence vs. opinion

SC.5.N.1.1 · SC.5.N.2.1 · SC.5.N.2.2

Interstitials

The Wow Files

Eight true things about the world that sound made up. Every number here is real and every one connects to somewhere you can go next — checking them is the entire point.

8 files · every one checkable

Thirty-three destinations

Somewhere Else Entirely

Doors out of this website and into the actual instruments: NASA's live solar system, the wind moving over the planet right now, working simulations from the University of Colorado, and cameras pointed at animals who do not know you are watching. Every link checked by hand.

33 links · all verified 29 July 2026 · every one opens in a new tab

Water, Weather & Earth8 destinations

Live instruments. What the atmosphere and the ground are doing at the moment you load the page.

Reference The water cycle, mapped U.S. Geological Survey The USGS water cycle diagram with every arrow explained, and the ocean sitting where it belongs — at the centre of the whole system rather than off to one side. Reference Weather and atmosphere collection NOAA Assembled by the agency that actually forecasts the weather: air pressure, humidity, wind, clouds, hurricanes and climate zones, with data and lessons for each. Live data National Weather Service NOAA The live forecast for your zip code, straight from the source instead of from a television. Click the map and read the actual discussion the forecasters wrote. Live data Live global wind map nullschool Every wind on Earth, moving, drawn from live forecast models. Switch the overlay to temperature or pressure and weather stops being weather and becomes a system you can read. Live data National Hurricane Center NOAA The real forecasts Florida runs on. During season you can watch a storm's cone get drawn and redrawn as new evidence arrives — science correcting itself in public. Activity Build a family disaster plan Ready.gov The federal preparedness site's section for students, including a fill-in family plan. This is the one benchmark on the whole list you can finish at your kitchen table tonight. Live data Live earthquake map U.S. Geological Survey Every earthquake detected anywhere on the planet in the last hour, plotted as the readings come in. Check it across a week and the plate boundaries draw themselves. Gallery Scientific Visualization Studio NASA NASA's own studio turns satellite data into animations: ice thickness, ocean currents, carbon moving through the atmosphere over a year. Real measurements, made watchable.

Florida NGSSS · Science · Grade 5

Grade 5, Benchmark by Benchmark

All thirty-seven fifth grade science benchmarks, quoted exactly as the state writes them, each one wired to the episodes and the outside destinations that actually teach it. Built for the students sitting the test and the teachers planning around it.

37 benchmarks · 26 with an episode · all 37 with somewhere to go

The Practice of Science7 of 8 with an episode

Eight benchmarks about how knowing anything actually works — testable observations, repeated trials, control groups, and the difference between evidence and a confident opinion. This is the part of fifth grade science that outlives fifth grade.

SC.5.N.1.1

Define a problem, use appropriate reference materials to support scientific understanding, plan and carry out scientific investigations of various types such as: systematic observations, experiments requiring the identification of variables, collecting and organizing data, interpreting data in charts, tables, and graphics, analyze information, make predictions, and defend conclusions.

Watch

SC.5.N.1.6

Recognize and explain the difference between personal opinion/interpretation and verified observation.

Watch

Properties & Changes in Matter3 of 5 with an episode

Five benchmarks on what matter is and what heat does to it. The show's two most-watched episodes live here, and so does the strangest idea in the whole grade: that everything is built from parts nobody can see.

SC.5.P.8.1

Compare and contrast the basic properties of solids, liquids, and gases, such as mass, volume, color, texture, and temperature.

Watch

SC.5.P.8.2

Investigate and identify materials that will dissolve in water and those that will not and identify the conditions that will speed up or slow down the dissolving process.

Watch

Forms of Energy & Energy Transfer6 of 6 with an episode

Six benchmarks on energy: the six forms it takes, how it changes from one into another, and why electricity needs a complete loop. Four episodes cover this ground, including the one with no battery in it anywhere.

Forces & Changes in Motion4 of 4 with an episode

Four benchmarks on pushes, pulls, mass and balance. The gravity episode covers the first three; the fourth — why a thing can have enormous force on it and not move at all — is the whole point of The Bone Crusher.

SC.5.P.13.4

Investigate and explain that when a force is applied to an object but it does not move, it is because another opposing force is being applied by something in the environment so that the forces are balanced.

Watch

Earth Systems & Patterns5 of 7 with an episode

Seven benchmarks on water, weather and climate — the most Florida-relevant group on the list. Barometric pressure, wind, precipitation, climate zones, and a family plan for the storm that is eventually coming.

Earth in Space & Time0 of 3 with an episode

Three benchmarks on the solar system and our own galaxy. No episode of the show covers this yet — so this group is entirely external, and every destination in it is one NASA built.

Living Organisms & Their Environments1 of 4 with an episode

Four benchmarks on bodies and survival: every major organ and what it does, how plants and animals solve the same problems differently, and what happens to a population when its environment changes.

Florida NGSSS, Science, Grade 5 (2016 standards document). Benchmark text is quoted verbatim. Benchmark wording belongs to the Florida Department of Education and is reproduced here so students and families can read what is actually being asked of them.

Full index

The Complete Archive

Every public film on the channel, in the order it originally aired. Search by title, topic, or the science inside it.

23 films · 21 show episodes · 3 h 33 m

  • Food science
  • Asking a testable question
  • Chemical change
  • Reaction rate
  • Thermal conduction
  • Insulators
  • Air pressure
  • Properties of matter
  • States of matter
  • Phase change
  • Water cycle
  • Condensation
  • Sublimation
  • Dry ice
  • Lab safety
  • Gravity
  • Free fall
  • Air resistance
  • Dissolved gas
  • Pressure
  • Air pressure
  • Volume
  • Energy transformation
  • Induction
  • Static electricity
  • Electric charge
  • Season one highlights
  • Polymers
  • Absorption
  • Enzymes
  • Decomposition reaction
  • Density
  • Polarity
  • Atmospheric pressure
  • Weather
  • Chemical change
  • Combustion
  • Microwave radiation
  • Conductors
  • Vortices
  • Tornado formation
  • Demonstration
  • Science communication
  • Course trailer
  • 2026–2027
  • Scientific investigation
  • Evidence vs. opinion

SC.5.N.1.1 · SC.5.N.2.1 · SC.5.N.2.2