Project Grade 5 Art & Music
A Wall Wrap for the Sorrelby Road Booster Pump Station
A four-session grade 5 art project where teams design a printed wrap for a fictional pump station wall, working around a door and vent and passing a three-second test.
Objectives
- Students will plan a composition that works around fixed features of a building wall, a door and a vent that must stay uncovered.
- Students will show the job of a booster pump, lifting water uphill to a storage tank, with correctly directed lines and arrows.
- Students will use one focal point, few words, and a four-color limit so a design can be read in a few seconds.
- Students will write an opinion letter supported by reasons from their own test results.
Vocabulary
Key words: booster pump, storage tank, gravity, focal point, composition, mock-up, legible
Teacher overview
The town of Cobbhaven is fictional. Its Sorrelby Road Booster Pump Station is a plain brick building at the foot of Owlcombe Hill, and its pumps push water up a pipe to a storage tank on the hilltop, from which gravity carries the water back down to homes in the valley. The fictional utility, Cobbhaven Water, wants the station's front wall covered with a printed wrap that looks good and tells passers-by what the building does. Over four sessions, teams design that wrap on a scaled template, work around a door and a vent that must stay clear, test whether a viewer can read the design in three seconds, and write an opinion letter to the utility board.
Two misconceptions tend to appear in the first session. Many fifth graders believe that the tank on the hill draws water up to itself, or that water in pipes travels on its own to wherever it is needed, and their first sketches often show arrows running downhill from the station to the tank or show no direction at all. Have each team draw the side-view flow sketch in Session 1 and check its arrows before any wall design begins: the pumps lift the water uphill, and gravity brings it down to homes. The design misconception is that more detail makes a stronger wrap. A wall seen from a passing car has to work at a glance, so the three-second test gives teams evidence, rather than the teacher's opinion, that a single large focal point reads better than a crowded scene.
The wall template uses a scale of 1 inch to 1 foot, so students can check any size on it with a ruler. Print the templates with the door and vent already outlined, since the point of the project is composing around them rather than measuring them. The template is wider than letter paper, so print it on legal-size paper or copy it onto larger drawing paper.
Project Brief
Driving question: How can a wrap on a plain brick wall show drivers what the building does, in the three seconds it takes them to drive past?
The client: The town of Cobbhaven is a fictional town in a valley, with a big water storage tank on top of Owlcombe Hill. At the bottom of the hill, on Sorrelby Road, stands a small brick building called a booster pump station. Inside it, pumps push water up a pipe to the tank on the hill. From the tank, gravity pulls the water back down through pipes to homes in the valley. Many drivers pass the station every day without knowing what it does. Cobbhaven Water wants a printed wrap for the front wall that looks good and shows the station's job.
The wall: Use the template your teacher gives you, where 1 inch stands for 1 foot.
- The wall is 12 feet wide and 8 feet tall, so the template is 12 inches wide and 8 inches tall.
- A metal door that is 3 feet wide and 7 feet tall starts 1 foot from the left edge. Workers use it every day, so it must stay plain gray, and your design cannot go on it.
- An air vent that is 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall sits in the top right corner. The pump motors get warm and need air flowing through the vent, so the wrap cannot cover it.
Design rules:
- Colors: The print shop can print 4 colors plus white, so pick your 4 colors before you start. The gray door is not printed, so it does not count as one of your colors.
- Words: Put the name "Cobbhaven Water" on the wall. You may add a message of 6 words or fewer.
- The pump's job: Your design must show water moving up from the station to the tank on the hill, and every arrow or flowing line must point the right way.
- The three-second test: A classmate who sees your mock-up for 3 seconds should be able to say what the building does.
- Use the wall: Plan your shapes so they flow around the door and the vent. You may even make them part of the picture. For example, a painted pipe could start right at the edge of the door.
Audience: Your viewers are drivers on Sorrelby Road, people waiting at the bus stop across the street, and students walking to school.
What you turn in: Your team turns in three things. The first is a colored mock-up on the wall template. The second is a three-second test record. The third is a letter to the Cobbhaven Water board that explains why your design should be chosen.
Milestones
Session 1, study the wall and the job: Read the brief together. On your template, shade the door and the vent with gray pencil so that you remember not to cover them. Then draw a side-view sketch of the station, the pipe, the hill, and the tank. Add arrows that show which way the pump moves the water, and add more arrows that show which way gravity moves it back down to homes. Check your arrows with your teacher before you go on. Output: a marked template and a checked side-view sketch.
Session 2, try two layouts: Draw two small thumbnail layouts on scrap paper, each shaped like the wall. In Layout A, lead the eye with one big curving line, such as a pipe or a stream of water climbing the hill. In Layout B, use one large shape as the focal point, such as a giant water drop being lifted up the hill. Check each layout against the design rules, then choose one and write two reasons for your choice. Output: two thumbnails, a rules check for each, and your choice with two reasons.
Session 3, make the mock-up and test it: Draw your chosen layout on a fresh template, and color it with your 4 colors plus white. Then run the three-second test by showing your mock-up to three classmates from other teams, one at a time, for 3 seconds each. Ask each tester what the building does, and write down their exact words. Output: a colored mock-up and a test record with three answers.
Session 4, revise and write: Read your test answers. If a tester could not tell what the building does, change one thing to fix it, such as making the arrow bigger or cutting some words. Then write a letter to the Cobbhaven Water board that explains why your wrap should be chosen, with at least two reasons. At least one reason must come from your test results. Finally, share your mock-up and letter with the class. Output: a revised mock-up, the letter, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shows the pump's job | The design does not show water moving, or the arrows point the wrong way. | The design shows water moving, but the direction from station to tank is unclear. | Arrows or lines clearly show the pump lifting water up the hill to the tank. | The design shows the pump lifting water up to the tank and gravity bringing it down to homes, with every arrow correct. |
| Works with the wall | The design covers the door or the vent. | The door and vent are clear, but the design ignores them and looks cut off around them. | The door and vent are clear, and the shapes are planned to flow around them. | The door or vent is used as part of the composition, and the whole wall reads as one planned design. |
| Reads in three seconds | Testers could not say what the building does, and the wall is crowded with detail. | One tester could say what the building does, or the message is over 6 words. | At least two testers could say what the building does, with one clear focal point and a message of 6 words or fewer. | All three testers could say what the building does, and the team can explain which choice made the design readable. |
| Color limit | More than 4 colors plus white are used. | Four colors plus white are used, but some colors are so close that shapes blur together. | Four colors plus white are used, with enough contrast that the main shape stands out. | The four colors are chosen with a clear reason, such as blue kept only for water so it always means water. |
| Opinion letter | The letter gives no clear opinion or no reasons. | The letter gives an opinion with one reason. | The letter gives an opinion with at least two reasons, one from the test results. | The letter gives an opinion with well-ordered reasons, quotes a tester's words, and explains the change the team made. |
Differentiation
Support
Provide a side-view sketch with the hill, tank, pipe, and station already drawn so that students add only the arrows, and check those arrows with each team before Session 2. Hand out color sets already sorted into four colors, and give a letter frame with starters such as "Our wrap should be chosen because..." and "When we tested it, a classmate said..."
Extension
Ask students to design a second wrap for the back wall of the same station, which faces a walking path where people pass slowly and close up. Students write three or four sentences comparing the two designs and explaining how the viewer's distance and speed changed their choices about detail, lettering size, and the number of shapes.
ELL supports
Provide a picture glossary for pump, pipe, tank, hill, gravity, arrow, and wall, labeled in English and, where possible, in the student's home language. During the three-second test, let testers answer with a gesture or a quick sketch if they cannot yet say the words, and let the letter be written with sentence starters and a labeled sketch of the mock-up.
Extensions
Students can look for utility boxes, pump buildings, or water tanks with painted or printed art in their own community and sketch one from a safe spot with an adult. For each example, they note whether a viewer could tell what the structure does in three seconds and which design choice helps or gets in the way.