Project Grade 5 Art & Music

Magnifier Panels for the Merriwick Treatment Wetland Boardwalk

A five-session grade 5 art project in which teams design three boardwalk panels that use zoom circles and a color key to show wetland bacteria cleaning water.

Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Project
Time: 5 sessions, ~225 min total
Prep: Moderate prep
Materials: Drawing paper cut to 12 by 9 inches, three sheets per team plus spares, Scrap paper for thumbnail sketches, Pencils, erasers, and rulers, Colored pencils or markers in a wide range of colors, Round objects or a compass for tracing 4-inch circles, Masking tape and printed rail test sheets

Standards

5-LS2-1 NGSS

Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.

How this material aligns: The loop diagram in Milestone 1 and the three finished panels together model matter moving from waste in the water to bacteria acting as decomposers, then as nutrients into reed plants, and back to the bacteria through fallen leaves. This covers the plant, decomposer, and environment parts of the standard's model; animals are not part of the loop, so the project addresses the standard only in part.

All materials for 5-LS2-1 →

W.5.2 Common Core ELA

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

How this material aligns: The visitor guide paragraph written in Milestone 5 explains to the nature center staff what each panel shows and what each key color stands for, which is a short informative text that conveys ideas and information clearly; the short panel captions do not count toward it.

All materials for W.5.2 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-24.

Objectives

Students will model how bacteria in a treatment wetland break down waste and pass nutrients on to reed plants.
Students will use a zoom circle tied to its source by connecting lines to show something too small to see at its real size.
Students will apply a limited color key consistently across a set of three panels.
Students will revise a panel based on evidence from a viewer test.

Vocabulary

Key words: decomposer, bacteria, biofilm, nutrient, treatment wetland, zoom circle, color key, scale

Teacher overview

The town of Merriwick is fictional. Its wastewater plant sends treated water through a treatment wetland, where the water moves slowly past reeds and gravel before it reaches Purslane Creek. Over five sessions, teams design three half-size panels for the wetland boardwalk that show visitors what they cannot see from the rail: bacteria living in a slimy biofilm on roots and stones, using leftover waste as food, and releasing nutrients that the reeds take up. The final deliverable is the three-panel set with a color key, a rail test record, and a visitor guide paragraph addressed to the fictional nature center staff.

Two misconceptions shape the teaching. The first is scientific. Many students assume that the reeds strain the water clean the way a sieve would, or that all bacteria are harmful germs. In a treatment wetland, much of the cleaning is done by bacteria acting as decomposers, and the reeds matter partly because their roots give those bacteria a surface to live on and partly because they take up the nutrients the bacteria release. Ask each team early on who is eating the waste, and do not accept "the plants" as the whole answer. The second is a drawing problem. Fifth graders often draw bacteria at the same size as a reed stem in a single scene, which tells a viewer that bacteria can be seen with the naked eye. The zoom circle, a magnified view tied by two lines to the spot it enlarges, is the design convention that fixes this, and the rubric scores it as its own criterion.

The project also asks students to hold a color key steady across three separate pictures. Most students are used to choosing colors panel by panel, so the key card made in Session 1 should stay on the table through every later session.

Magnifier Panels for the Merriwick Treatment Wetland Boardwalk — Grade 5 Art & Music

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Driving question: How can three boardwalk panels show visitors the tiny living things that clean the water, when those living things are too small to see?

The client: The town of Merriwick is a fictional town. Its wastewater plant cleans the used water from homes, and then the water flows slowly through a treatment wetland full of reeds before it goes into Purslane Creek. A wooden boardwalk crosses the wetland so that visitors can walk above the water. The Merriwick Nature Center wants three panels for the boardwalk rail, and your team will design them.

What happens in the wetland: Your panels must show these facts.

The water that flows in still carries tiny bits of waste, and you cannot see most of them.
Bacteria live on reed roots and on stones under the water, where they grow in a thin, slimy layer called a biofilm.
The bacteria use the waste as food and break it down into simpler materials. That is why scientists call them decomposers.
Some of those simpler materials are nutrients, which reeds take in through their roots and use to grow.
In the fall, old reed leaves die and drop into the water. Bacteria break them down too, so the matter keeps moving in a loop.
The water that flows out to the creek is cleaner than the water that flowed in.

The three panels:

Panel 1, "Water Flows In," shows where the water enters the wetland, and its zoom circle shows tiny bits of waste in the water.
Panel 2, "Tiny Cleaners at Work," shows reed roots and stones under the water, and its zoom circle shows bacteria in the biofilm breaking down waste.
Panel 3, "Reeds Grow, Water Leaves Cleaner," shows tall reeds and the path out to the creek, and its zoom circle shows nutrients moving into a reed root.

Design rules:

Size: Each real panel will be 24 inches wide and 18 inches tall. You will draw at half size, on paper that is 12 inches wide and 9 inches tall.
Zoom circle: Each panel needs one zoom circle at least 4 inches across. Draw two lines from the circle to the spot it zooms in on, so that a visitor can tell where the close-up came from.
Color key: Use no more than 5 colors in all, not counting the black pencil you use for outlines and letters. Each color stands for one thing, and it must stand for the same thing on every panel. For example, if waste is brown on Panel 1, it must also be brown on Panel 2. Put the key in a corner of Panel 1.
Arrows: Use arrows to show where matter moves, and make sure every arrow points the right way.
Words: Each panel gets its title plus no more than 12 other words. Title letters must be at least 1 inch tall on your half-size drawing so that a visitor standing at the rail can read them.
Audience: Families walk this boardwalk, and some visitors are only 6 years old, so the panels must make sense without a guide.

What you turn in: Your team turns in three things. The first is the set of three finished half-size panels, with the color key on Panel 1. The second is a rail test sheet with your classmates' answers. The third is a visitor guide paragraph for the nature center staff that explains what each panel shows.

Milestones

Session 1, map the loop: Read the wetland facts together. Draw a loop diagram with five boxes labeled waste, bacteria, nutrients, reeds, and fallen leaves, and join the boxes with arrows that show where matter moves. Then choose your 5 colors and write what each one stands for on a key card. Output: a loop diagram and a color key card.
Session 2, try thumbnails: For each panel, draw two small sketches about the size of a playing card, placing the zoom circle in a different spot in each one. Circle the sketch where the zoom circle stands out best, and write one sentence that explains why. Output: six thumbnails, three of them circled, each with a reason.
Session 3, draw the panels: Draw all three panels in pencil on the 12-by-9-inch paper. Draw the scene first, and then add the zoom circle and its two lines. Check every arrow against your loop diagram. Letter the titles last, and measure them to be sure they meet the size rule. Output: three pencil drafts with zoom circles, arrows, and titles.
Session 4, color and run the rail test: Color the panels using only your key colors, and then tape them to the wall. Three classmates from another team stand about 8 feet back, like visitors at the rail, and answer three questions on the test sheet for each panel. What is the title? What does the zoom circle show? Which way does the matter move? Output: three colored panels and a filled-in rail test sheet.
Session 5, fix and present: Find one thing the rail test showed was unclear, and change it on your panel. Next, write the visitor guide paragraph, with at least one sentence about each panel. Then present your panels to the class while one classmate plays the nature center director and asks your team a question. Output: revised panels, the visitor guide paragraph, and a short team talk.

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

Rubric

Criterion	Emerging	Developing	Proficient	Advanced
Model of the matter loop	Panels show the wetland but not what the bacteria do.	Panels show bacteria breaking down waste but leave out the nutrients or the reeds.	Panels show waste, bacteria, nutrients, and reeds in order, and every arrow points the right way.	Panels show the full loop, including fallen leaves returning to the bacteria, with every arrow correct.
Zoom circles and scale	Bacteria are drawn at the same size as the reeds, with no zoom circle.	Zoom circles are present but smaller than 4 inches across or not tied to a spot in the scene.	Each panel has a zoom circle at least 4 inches across, tied by two lines to the spot it enlarges.	Zoom circles are tied to their spots and placed so the eye moves from the scene to the close-up without confusion.
Color key	More than 5 colors are used, or colors change meaning between panels.	Five or fewer colors are used, but one color changes meaning on one panel.	Five or fewer colors are used, each with one meaning on all three panels, and the key appears on Panel 1.	The key is followed on every panel, and the color choices themselves help a viewer, such as a dull brown for waste and a fresh green for new reed growth.
Readable from the rail	Titles are under 1 inch tall, or panels go well over the word limit.	Titles meet the size rule, but one panel is too wordy or crowded.	Titles are at least 1 inch tall, and each panel keeps to 12 words or fewer beyond its title.	Rail test answers show that every tester read every title and understood every zoom circle.
Revision and visitor guide	No change was made after the rail test, and the guide is missing or unclear.	A change was made but not linked to a rail test answer, or the guide skips a panel.	One change fixes a problem the rail test found, and the guide explains each panel clearly.	The change and the guide both refer to specific rail test answers, and the guide explains why the key colors were chosen.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a loop diagram with the five boxes already drawn and labeled, so students add only the arrows and check their direction. Offer a traced circle template exactly 4 inches across, and pre-cut 12-by-9-inch sheets with a light pencil line 1 inch below the top edge as a guide for title height. For the visitor guide, give a sentence frame for each panel, such as "Panel 2 shows the reed roots under the water, and the zoom circle shows..."

Extension

Ask students to design a fourth panel that uses a zoom circle inside a zoom circle: the first enlarges a reed root, and the second enlarges a patch of biofilm on that root. Students write two or three sentences explaining how they kept the two levels of enlargement clear for a young visitor, for example by changing the border color or thickness of each circle. A second option is to add a pattern or shape to each key color so the panels still work for a visitor who cannot tell some colors apart.

ELL supports

Provide a picture glossary for decomposer, bacteria, biofilm, nutrient, reed, and zoom circle, with each word labeled in English and, where possible, in the student's home language. Let students explain the loop diagram with gestures and labels before they write, and allow the visitor guide to be written as short labeled sentences under a small sketch of each panel.

Extensions

If a wastewater plant, marsh, or nature center near the school has public signs, students can compare how those signs show things too small to see with the zoom circles in the class panels. Students who have access to a classroom microscope can also sketch a drop of pond water as a real zoom circle, tied by two lines to a sketch of the jar it came from, to practice the convention from direct observation. Students should not drink the pond water and should wash their hands after handling it.