Project Grade 6 Art & Music

Nutrient Guardians: Fertilizer-Runoff Yard Signs for Loomis Creek

A grade 6 project where teams design three illustrated yard signs and a proposal urging neighbors to keep fertilizer nutrients out of Loomis Creek, within a fixed budget.

Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Project
Time: 4 sessions, ~180 min total
Prep: Moderate prep
Materials: Sketch paper and grid paper, Rulers, Markers or colored pencils, Printed fertilizer-runoff fact sheet, Printed print-shop price list, Calculators

Standards

W.6.1 Common Core ELA

Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

How this material aligns: The Session 4 one-page proposal argues that the three signs will change neighbor behavior, supporting that claim with reasons drawn from the runoff facts, which is the claim-and-reasons argument writing W.6.1 requires.

All materials for W.6.1 →

D2.Geo.4.6-8 C3 Framework

Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.

How this material aligns: Across the project students trace how a nearby economic choice, over-fertilizing lawns and fields, reshapes the Loomis Creek environment downstream, the cultural-and-economic-decisions-influence-environments reasoning this indicator names.

All materials for D2.Geo.4.6-8 →

6.RP.A.3 Common Core Math

Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations, including finding a percent of a quantity and converting measurement units.

How this material aligns: In Milestone 3 students total the sign costs and express that total as a percent of the fixed materials budget, finding a percent of a quantity exactly as 6.RP.A.3 asks.

All materials for 6.RP.A.3 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will design three illustrated signs that each state one action and one reason.
Students will keep their design within a fixed size and budget.
Students will write a short proposal that argues their signs will change behavior.

Vocabulary

Key words: nutrients, runoff, algae, yard sign, proposal

Teacher overview

Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus help plants grow, which is why they are in lawn and garden fertilizer. When too much fertilizer washes off yards and fields, those same nutrients flow into a creek and feed fast-growing algae. As the algae later die and break down, the process uses up oxygen in the water, and most fish need dissolved oxygen above 5 mg/L to live. Loomis Creek (a fictional creek for this project) has had summer algae blooms, and its watershed council wants student-designed yard signs that ask neighbors to fertilize carefully. Over four sessions, teams design three illustrated signs and write a short proposal, working inside a fixed size and a fixed budget. The driving question is how a small set of signs can change what neighbors do. Teachers can build the one-page fact sheet from the facts above: fertilizer nitrogen and phosphorus wash into the creek and feed algae blooms, and the decaying algae use up the dissolved oxygen that fish need.

Nutrient Guardians: Fertilizer-Runoff Yard Signs for Loomis Creek — Grade 6 Art & Music

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Driving question: How can three illustrated yard signs convince Loomis Creek neighbors to keep fertilizer nutrients out of the creek?

Scenario: The Loomis Creek Watershed Council (a fictional group for this project) has asked student teams to design a set of three yard signs for the neighborhoods near the creek. The signs will stand along walking paths where many neighbors pass.

Constraints:

Each sign is 18 inches wide and 24 inches tall. Every design must fit that size.
The team has a fictional materials budget of $75 to print and mount all three signs.
The print shop charges $15 per finished sign, a fictional print-shop price that covers color printing and a stake.
Each sign must show one clear action a neighbor can take and one reason it helps the creek.
The three signs together must cover three different actions, not the same one three times.

Final deliverable: Three finished sign designs, drawn to size on paper, plus a one-page written proposal to the watershed council. The proposal must argue why the signs will work and must include the team's budget math.

Milestones

Session 1, learn the problem: Using the fact sheet, each team writes a short fact card naming two ways extra fertilizer harms the creek and lists the three actions their signs will ask for. Output: one completed fact card.
Session 2, sketch three concepts: Teams sketch a thumbnail for each of the three signs. Each thumbnail shows one action and one reason in words and pictures. Output: three labeled thumbnail sketches.
Session 3, refine and budget: Teams draw each sign to its full 18-by-24-inch size and fill in a budget table. They find the total print cost and write it as a percent of the $75 budget. Output: three full-size designs and a completed budget table.
Session 4, write and present: Teams write the one-page proposal, including their budget math, and present the three signs to the class acting as the watershed council. Output: the finished proposal and a short presentation.

For the Session 3 budget table, three signs at $15 each cost $45 in all. That total is 45 out of 75, which is 60 percent of the budget, leaving $30 unspent.

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
Message clarity	Signs do not clearly state an action or a reason	Signs state actions but the reasons are unclear or missing	Each sign clearly shows one action and one reason	Each sign shows one action and one strong reason, and the three actions work together as a set
Design quality	Designs are hard to read or do not fit the sign size	Designs fit the size but are cluttered or hard to read from a path	Designs fit the size and read clearly with good contrast	Designs fit the size, read clearly from a distance, and use color and layout to guide the eye
Budget and constraints	Budget math is missing or the design breaks the size limit	Budget math is attempted but has errors, or one constraint is missed	Budget total and percent are correct and all constraints are met	Budget total and percent are correct, all constraints are met, and the team explains one tradeoff it made
Proposal and presentation	Proposal does not argue why the signs will work	Proposal states a claim but gives few reasons	Proposal argues the claim with clear reasons from the facts	Proposal argues the claim with clear reasons and answers a likely council question

Differentiation

Support

Give teams a fact sheet with the two harms already summarized in plain sentences, and provide a budget table with the price column filled in so students only compute the total and the percent. Offer a proposal frame with labeled blanks for the claim and reasons.

Extension

Ask a team to add a fourth possible sign, use the budget to show whether all four could be printed and what percent of the fictional $75 budget they would use, and then recommend which signs the council should print and why.

ELL supports

Provide the fertilizer-runoff facts as a labeled diagram showing fertilizer, runoff, algae, and low oxygen. Allow thumbnails and the proposal to use short phrases with pictures, and let each team rehearse its presentation with a partner before facing the class.