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Classroom activity Grade 11 Art & Music

Ravensford Reclamation Tour: Wayfinding Sign Stations

Four rotating stations in which grade 11 students size signs, draw pictograms, and scale a route map for a fictional reclaimed water plant's public tour.

Objectives

  1. Students will size sign lettering from a stated viewing distance rule.
  2. Students will draw a pictogram set inside a fixed field and gap.
  3. Students will select a map scale that fits a stated route inside a sheet.

Vocabulary

Key words: wayfinding, pictogram, clear zone, viewing distance, map scale

Teacher overview

Water reclamation plants that run public tours have to guide visitors past working process equipment without a staff member at every turn, and the sign system does that work. This is a four-station rotation for groups of three to four students, in which each station produces one component of a wayfinding system for the fictional Ravensford Water Reclamation Facility: the pictogram set, the sign panel sizing, the color and legend rules, and the route map. The rotation holds the components to one set of rules, because a group cannot finish the walk test at the end unless every station's work was built to the same stated rules. Groups then post their signs around the room and watch a classmate try to follow the route.

Activity Directions

  1. Setup and briefing (8 min). Arrange four stations, each with its station card, card stock, rulers, and markers. Assign groups of three to four and give every student the handout. Read the two facility rules aloud: letter height in millimeters equals the viewing distance in meters multiplied by 5, and a sign panel must be at least three times its letter height plus 40 mm of margin. That margin is the clear zone, the band above and below the lettering that no other element may enter. Tell groups they will rotate on your timer and that the last group at a station leaves the finished component behind.
  2. Station 1, pictogram set (10 min). Groups draw three pictograms inside 40 mm square fields: one for the tour entrance, one for hearing protection, and one for reclaimed water not intended for drinking. No words are allowed on the pictograms themselves. Groups complete handout item 9 at this station.
  3. Station 2, panel sizing (10 min). Groups compute the letter heights and panel sizes for the three signs described on the handout and cut one panel to the size they calculated. Groups complete handout items 1 through 5 at this station.
  4. Station 3, color and legend (10 min). Groups assign the purple code used for reclaimed water lines, choose a second color for the visitor route, and write the legend block. They must also pair each color with a word and a fill pattern so the system still works in a black-and-white photocopy. Groups complete handout item 11 at this station.
  5. Station 4, route map (10 min). Groups draw the tour route on a sheet whose live width is 210 mm, testing the three candidate scales on the handout. Groups complete handout items 6 through 8 at this station.
  6. Walk test (9 min). Post every group's signs around the room in the tour order. Send one student from each group along the route without speaking to anyone. The activity ends when every group has sent a walker or when the timer expires, whichever comes first. Groups record where their walker hesitated.
  7. Debrief (8 min). Ask two questions and take answers from at least four groups. First, which single sign did walkers rely on most, and what made it work. Second, name one place where a word was doing a job a pictogram should have done, or the reverse. Students then answer handout item 10 individually.
Ravensford Reclamation Tour: Wayfinding Sign Stations — Grade 11 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

The fictional Ravensford Water Reclamation Facility is building a sign system for its public tour. Use these facility rules for every item.

Letter height in millimeters equals the viewing distance in meters multiplied by 5. A sign panel must be at least three times its letter height, plus 40 mm of margin split between the top and the bottom. Blank panel stock is 300 mm tall.

Sign A is read from 6 meters away. Sign B is read from 12 meters away. Sign C is a handrail label read from 2.5 meters away.

  1. What letter height does Sign A need?
  2. What letter height does Sign B need?
  3. What letter height does Sign C need?
  4. What is the smallest panel height allowed for Sign B?
  5. Does the Sign B panel fit the 300 mm stock? Give the amount left over.
  6. The tour route is 240 meters from end to end. Drawn at a scale of 1 to 1000, how long is the route on the map?
  7. The map sheet has a live width of 210 mm. Does the route from item 6 fit across it? Give the amount by which it fits or misses.
  8. The three candidate scales are 1 to 1000, 1 to 1250, and 1 to 1500. Which is the largest scale that fits the live width, and how long is the drawn route at that scale?
  9. Three pictograms sit in a row. Each occupies a 40 mm square field, and a 4 mm gap separates neighbors. How wide is the row?
  10. Explain why the route relies on arrows and pictograms rather than sentences.
  11. The reclaimed water code is a purple color. Explain why the legend has to pair that color with a word and a fill pattern.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 30 mm. Multiplying the 6 meter viewing distance by 5 gives 30 mm.
  2. Answer: 60 mm. Multiplying the 12 meter viewing distance by 5 gives 60 mm.
  3. Answer: 12.5 mm. Multiplying the 2.5 meter viewing distance by 5 gives 12.5 mm.
  4. Answer: 220 mm. Three times the 60 mm letter height is 180 mm, and adding the 40 mm of margin gives 220 mm.
  5. Answer: 80 mm left over. Subtracting the 220 mm panel from the 300 mm stock leaves 80 mm.
  6. Answer: 240 mm. Dividing 240 meters by 1000 gives 0.24 meters, which is 240 mm.
  7. Answer: No, it misses by 30 mm. The 240 mm route is 30 mm longer than the 210 mm live width.
  8. Answer: 1 to 1250, drawn at 192 mm. Dividing 240 meters by 1250 gives 0.192 meters, or 192 mm, which fits inside 210 mm. The scale 1 to 1000 gives 240 mm and overruns, so 1 to 1250 is the largest of the three that fits.
  9. Answer: 128 mm. Three fields of 40 mm total 120 mm, and the two gaps of 4 mm add 8 mm.
  10. Answer: A visitor on a moving tour reads a sign in passing, often while walking and from an angle. An arrow and a pictogram carry direction and hazard in one glance, and they hold for visitors who read little English. Sentences also demand a smaller type size to fit the panel, which pushes the sign below the letter height the viewing distance requires.
  11. Answer: Color alone fails for readers with color vision deficiency, in low light, and in any black-and-white copy of the map. Pairing the purple with the words for reclaimed water and with a distinct fill pattern gives two more channels that survive those conditions, so the code still reads when the color does not.

Differentiation

Support

Give groups a station card with the two facility rules restated as a worked example using a different viewing distance, so items 1 through 4 begin from a model. Pre-cut one panel to the correct Sign B size for comparison. Provide the pictogram fields already ruled at 40 mm with the gaps marked, so drawing time is not spent measuring.

Extension

Ask a group to add a fourth sign for a viewing distance they choose, then to prove that the panel fits the stock and that the letter height does not crowd the pictogram beside it. They should also propose a rule for the smallest viewing distance at which the facility should stop using panels and switch to a handrail label, with a reason drawn from their own measurements.

ELL supports

Pre-teach wayfinding, pictogram, clear zone, and legend using a labeled sample sign kept posted for the whole rotation. Provide a bilingual card pairing the words distance, height, and scale with small diagrams. Allow items 10 and 11 to be answered with an annotated drawing plus a short phrase, and offer the frame "A picture works better here because a visitor has time to ___."

Extensions

Have groups repeat the walk test with the signs turned to grayscale, either by photocopying them or by covering the color with tracing paper. Ask walkers to report which signs still worked. Groups then revise one sign so that it survives the grayscale test, and write a single sentence naming the channel that carried the meaning once the color was gone.