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Worksheet Grade 12 Art & Music

Carrowmoor Canal Danger Sign: Pictograms, Panels, and Letter Size

Grade 12 students design a bilingual danger sign for a fictional irrigation canal, choosing signal word, pictogram, and type treatment and sizing letters for distance.

Objectives

  1. Students will select a signal word, panel colors, and a pictogram that match the severity and mechanism of a canal drowning hazard.
  2. Students will set bilingual safety text so that both languages are equally legible.
  3. Students will size capital letters for stated reading distances and choose a sign blank that fits the signal word.
  4. Students will rewrite a vague hazard message in plain language that names the hazard, the consequence, and the action.

Vocabulary

Key words: signal word, pictogram, cap height, legibility, prohibition symbol, retroreflective, visual hierarchy

Teacher overview

Irrigation districts move water to farms through open canals, and canals built for efficient delivery are hazardous to anyone who falls in: the water is often fast and cold, and smooth, steep lining gives a person nothing to hold. Warning signs along canals are therefore a real design problem with a mixed audience of farm crews, cyclists, and children, some of whom read English, some Spanish, and some neither with confidence. This worksheet sets students inside that problem for the fictional Iverdale Irrigation District. The signal-word table on the sheet summarizes the U.S. safety-sign convention found in the ANSI Z535 family of standards, and the letter-size rule is a fictional district rule written for this scenario. The misconception addressed directly is that a warning sign is mostly a matter of writing the right words; the signal-word color, the pictogram, and the letter size carry the message to people who are moving, still far away, or reading in a second language, while the wording is read last, by people who are already close to the sign.

Carrowmoor Canal Danger Sign: Pictograms, Panels, and Letter Size — Grade 12 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

In our scenario, the fictional Iverdale Irrigation District delivers water to farms through the Carrowmoor Canal, an open channel lined with concrete. In summer the canal runs deep, fast, and cold. Its smooth, steep sides are very hard to climb once someone is in the water. Farm crews, cyclists, and families from a nearby neighborhood cross the canal at six road bridges. People in the area read English or Spanish, and some read neither well. The district wants one sign design to post at every bridge.

The district uses the common U.S. format for safety signs:

Signal word Use it when the hazard, if not avoided... Signal word panel
DANGER will cause death or serious injury White letters on red
WARNING could cause death or serious injury Black letters on orange
CAUTION could cause minor or moderate injury Black letters on yellow

Each sign has a signal word panel, a pictogram panel, and a message panel.

The district's sign guide (fictional) sets this sizing rule: capital letters must be at least 1 inch tall for every 25 feet of distance from which the sign must be read.

  1. Which signal word fits the Carrowmoor Canal? Explain using the table.
  2. What colors does the signal word panel use for the word you chose in item 1?
  3. The designer has three pictogram drafts. Draft A shows three wavy lines. Draft B is a side view of the canal: a figure in the water below the top of a steep wall, with arrows showing the current. Draft C is a skull and crossbones. Which draft should the district use? Explain.
  4. On the first proof of Draft B, the figure and the canal walls are drawn with thin outlines on a 12-inch pictogram panel. From the road they disappear. What change to the line and shape treatment would fix this?
  5. A second pictogram means "no swimming" and uses a red circle with a slash across a swimming figure. In which direction should the slash run?
  6. The draft sets the Spanish message below the English message in light italic type about two-thirds the size of the English. How should the redesign set the Spanish message? Explain your choice.
  7. The signal word must be readable from 75 feet away, where drivers first see the bridge. What is the minimum cap height for the signal word?
  8. The message panel must be readable from 20 feet away, at the bridge rail. What is the minimum cap height for the message text?
  9. The signal word DANGER has 6 letters. In our scenario, each capital letter in the chosen typeface is 0.8 times as wide as its cap height, and the space between two letters is 0.2 times the cap height. Using the cap height from item 7, how wide is the word DANGER?
  10. The district stocks blank signs that are 18, 24, and 30 inches wide. The signal word needs at least 1 inch of clear space on each side. What is the narrowest blank that fits the word from item 9?
  11. Which of the three panels must sit at the top of the sign? Explain.
  12. The draft message reads: "Canal waters may present hazardous conditions." Rewrite it in plain language, in no more than 20 words, so that it names the hazard, what it can do to a person, and what to do.
  13. A board member suggests printing the message in white letters over a photograph of the canal's rippling water to make the sign more attractive. Would you accept the suggestion? Explain.
  14. Cyclists cross the bridges after dark. What sign material should the district specify so the sign is visible at night? Explain how it works.

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: DANGER.
    A fall into a fast, cold canal with steep, smooth sides will cause death or serious injury if the person cannot get out. The table reserves DANGER for hazards that will, not merely could, cause death or serious injury.
  2. Answer: White letters on red.
    The table assigns white letters on a red panel to the DANGER signal word.
  3. Answer: Draft B.
    Draft B shows the mechanism of the hazard, steep walls and moving water that trap a person, without needing any words. Draft A only says that water is present. Draft C is widely read as poison or a toxic substance, so it would send the wrong message.
  4. Answer: Use bold, filled silhouettes with heavy strokes and less detail.
    Thin outlines lose contrast at a distance. Solid black shapes on a white field, with small details removed and the wall edges and current arrows drawn as heavy strokes, keep the figure readable from the road. Accept any answer that thickens the marks, fills the shapes, and simplifies the drawing.
  5. Answer: From upper left to lower right.
    The prohibition slash runs diagonally from the upper left of the circle to the lower right, and the figure beneath it should stay recognizable.
  6. Answer: At the same size and weight as the English, set apart by position.
    Smaller, lighter italic type is harder to read from a distance and signals that Spanish readers matter less, even though they face the same hazard. Give the Spanish message its own block of equal size and weight, separated from the English by a thin rule or a consistent position, such as English on the left and Spanish on the right. Accept a layout that distinguishes the languages by position or a small language label while keeping size and weight equal.
  7. Answer: 3 inches.
    The rule requires 1 inch for every 25 feet. 75 ÷ 25 = 3, so the capital letters must be at least 3 inches tall.
  8. Answer: 0.8 inches.
    20 ÷ 25 = 0.8, so the message capitals must be at least 0.8 inches tall. A designer would likely round up to a standard size such as 1 inch.
  9. Answer: 17.4 inches.
    Each letter is 0.8 × 3 = 2.4 inches wide, and 6 letters take 6 × 2.4 = 14.4 inches. There are 5 spaces between 6 letters, each 0.2 × 3 = 0.6 inches, for 5 × 0.6 = 3 inches. The word is 14.4 + 3 = 17.4 inches wide.
  10. Answer: 24 inches.
    The word plus 1 inch on each side needs 17.4 + 2 = 19.4 inches. The 18-inch blank is too narrow, so the 24-inch blank is the narrowest that fits.
  11. Answer: The signal word panel.
    The signal word announces the level of hazard and is sized to be read from the greatest distance, so it must be seen first. The pictogram and message panels follow below it.
  12. Answer: A plain message of 20 words or fewer naming the hazard, the harm, and the action.
    Example: "Fast, cold water and steep sides can trap and drown you. Stay off the banks and out of the water." Accept any version that names the fast or cold water or steep sides, says that a person can drown or be trapped, and gives a clear action, within 20 words.
  13. Answer: No.
    A photograph behind the letters gives a background that changes from light to dark across every word, which lowers contrast and makes the message hard to read from a distance. The safety sign should keep solid black letters on a plain white field. A photograph could appear on a separate interpretive panel where legibility at a distance matters less.
  14. Answer: Retroreflective sheeting.
    Retroreflective material sends light from a headlight or bike light back toward its source, so the sign appears bright to the rider approaching it. Accept "reflective sign sheeting" if the student explains that it returns light toward the viewer.

Differentiation

Support

Work item 7 together as a class, writing the rule as a ratio of 1 inch to 25 feet and then scaling it to 75 feet. For item 9, give students a strip of six boxes with five gaps between them and have them label each box 2.4 inches and each gap 0.6 inches before adding. Provide the three pictogram drafts as quick teacher sketches on the board so students can compare them visually for item 3.

Extension

Ask students to draw the full sign at one-quarter scale on grid paper, using the 24-inch blank, with all three panels, both languages, and real cap heights. They should then write a short specification that states the panel heights, the space between panels, and the sheeting material. A second challenge is to design a version of the sign with no words at all except the signal word and to test it on three people who have not seen the worksheet.

ELL supports

Pre-teach signal word, pictogram, cap height, and legibility with a labeled diagram of a three-panel sign. Provide the example message from the item 12 answer key with a Spanish translation beside it so students can compare how each language carries the same three pieces of information. Allow items 3, 4, 13, and 14 to be answered with a sketch and a short phrase, and offer the frame "I would / would not accept this because ___."

Extensions

Students can photograph two or three safety signs around the school or community, with permission, and evaluate each one against the choices in this worksheet: signal word, pictogram, panel order, letter size, and contrast. Ask them to redraw the weakest sign with their improvements and write a two-sentence note explaining which change matters most for a person who is moving past it.