Worksheet Grade 6 Art & Music

Grid-Method Scale-Up: A Reverse Osmosis Poster for Marlin Cove

A grade 6 art-math worksheet where students use the grid method and a scale factor of 6 to enlarge a small reverse osmosis diagram into a hallway poster.

Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

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: Students apply the constant scale factor of 6, a unit rate of six poster inches per sketch inch, across items 1, 2, 4, 5, and 8 to enlarge each measurement, which is the ratio and rate reasoning 6.RP.A.3 requires.

All materials for 6.RP.A.3 →

6.NS.B.3 Common Core Math

Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

How this material aligns: Items 5 and 8 multiply the decimals 1.5 and 0.5 by 6 using the standard algorithm, applying the multi-digit decimal computation 6.NS.B.3 expects.

All materials for 6.NS.B.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 use a scale factor to enlarge a small diagram into poster dimensions.
Students will explain why the grid method keeps an enlarged drawing in proportion.

Vocabulary

Reverse osmosis: Reverse osmosis cleans water by pushing it through a membrane with holes so tiny that salt and most other dissolved things cannot fit through. It can even turn seawater into fresh water.

Also: scale factor, grid method, proportion, membrane

Teacher overview

The art club at Marlin Cove Middle School (a fictional school for this worksheet) is turning a small drawing of a reverse osmosis system into a large hallway poster. Reverse osmosis, or RO, pushes water through a fine membrane to leave salt and other particles behind, and the club's diagram shows four parts: a pre-filter, a high-pressure pump, the membrane, and the clean-water outlet. To enlarge the drawing without distorting it, students use the grid method, a technique that copies each square of a small sketch into a larger square on the poster. This worksheet has students find poster measurements using a scale factor of 6, so every inch on the sketch becomes six inches on the poster. A common student error is adding 6 instead of multiplying by 6, so watch for answers that are only slightly larger than the sketch values.

Grid-Method Scale-Up: A Reverse Osmosis Poster for Marlin Cove — Grade 6 Art & Music

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The small sketch is 5 inches wide and 4 inches tall. It is covered by a grid of 1-inch squares. On the poster, each 1-inch square is copied as a 6-inch square. Use this rule for every item: one inch on the sketch equals six inches on the poster.

The sketch is 5 inches wide. How wide is the poster, in inches?
The sketch is 4 inches tall. How tall is the poster, in inches?
Write the scale as a unit rate. Fill in the blank: for each 1 inch on the sketch, the poster shows ___ inches.
On the sketch, the membrane tube is 2 inches long. How long should it be on the poster?
On the sketch, the pump symbol is 1.5 inches wide. How wide should it be on the poster?
The sketch grid is 5 squares across and 4 squares down. How many 1-inch squares cover the whole sketch?
The poster keeps the same number of squares, but each square is 6 inches on a side. What is the area of one poster square, in square inches?
A label on the sketch is 0.5 inch tall. How tall should the label be on the poster?
The club has a paper roll that is 40 inches wide. Will the finished poster fit across it? Explain using your answer from item 1.
Explain your reasoning: why does copying square by square keep the enlarged drawing in the correct proportions?

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

Answer Key

Answer: 30 inches. The sketch is 5 inches wide and each inch becomes 6 inches, so 5 × 6 = 30 inches.
Answer: 24 inches. The sketch is 4 inches tall, so 4 × 6 = 24 inches.
Answer: 6 inches. The scale is six poster inches for each sketch inch, a unit rate of 6.
Answer: 12 inches. The membrane is 2 inches on the sketch, so 2 × 6 = 12 inches.
Answer: 9 inches. The pump symbol is 1.5 inches on the sketch, so 1.5 × 6 = 9 inches.
Answer: 20 squares. The grid is 5 across and 4 down, so 5 × 4 = 20 squares.
Answer: 36 square inches. Each poster square is 6 inches on a side, so 6 × 6 = 36 square inches.
Answer: 3 inches. The label is 0.5 inch on the sketch, so 0.5 × 6 = 3 inches.
Answer: Yes. The poster is 30 inches wide (from item 1), and 30 is less than the 40-inch roll, so it fits with 10 inches to spare.
Answer: The grid method enlarges every square by the same scale factor, so each part of the drawing grows by the same amount and the shape stays in proportion instead of stretching in one direction.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a printed copy of the sketch grid and a blank 6-inch poster grid so they can copy one square at a time before doing the arithmetic. Allow a calculator for items 5 and 8, and provide the sentence frame "___ inches on the sketch × 6 = ___ inches on the poster."

Extension

Ask students to redo items 1, 2, and 4 with a scale factor of 8 instead of 6, then describe in writing how the poster size changes and why the diagram still looks correct. Have them predict the area of one poster square before calculating it.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "scale," "enlarge," "square," and "proportion" with a simple picture of a small photo copied into a larger gridded frame. Pair the word "factor" with the phrase "the number you multiply by," and allow students to answer item 10 with a labeled sketch alongside a short sentence.