Lesson plan Grade 7 Art & Music
Storm Drain Stencil Campaign: A Civic Art Lesson for Alder Creek
A grade 7 art lesson where students design a stencil message and icon warning that storm drains carry runoff untreated into the fictional Alder Creek.
Objectives
- Students will design a stencil composition combining a short message and a simple icon.
- Students will explain how storm drain water differs from water sent to a treatment plant.
- Students will justify their design choices in terms of visibility and clarity for a passerby.
Vocabulary
- Storm drain
- A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.
- Stormwater
- Stormwater is rain or melted snow that flows off roofs, streets, and parking lots. In most towns it goes into storm drains and flows to a stream without being treated, carrying whatever it picked up.
Also: runoff
Teacher overview
Many cities run storm drain marking campaigns, painting or stenciling a short message and an icon next to street drains to remind residents that rainwater entering those drains usually flows directly into a nearby stream or lake without passing through a treatment plant first. This lesson has students design their own stencil for a fictional creek, Alder Creek, combining civic art with a real environmental concept: what enters a storm drain, from litter to lawn chemicals, can reach local water quickly and without being filtered or treated the way wastewater is.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students what they think happens to rain that runs off a street and disappears into a storm drain. Take a few guesses without correcting them yet, then tell students they will find out and design something to teach others the same thing.
Direct instruction (10 min): Explain that storm drains carry rainwater, along with anything the water picks up along the way (oil, litter, pet waste, fertilizer), directly into a nearby creek, river, or lake in most communities, without treatment. This differs from wastewater from sinks and toilets, which travels to a treatment plant before it is released. Introduce the tradition of storm drain marking campaigns, in which cities stencil a short message and a small icon near drains so that people connect the drain to the creek it feeds, and read a few messages from the prepared example list, such as "Only Rain Down the Drain" and "No Dumping, Drains to Creek." Present the design constraints for today's project: the message must be four to six words, the icon must be recognizable in one or two seconds, and the design must fit within the 12-by-18-inch template, since a real stencil has to be small enough to paint quickly and clearly.
Guided practice (10 min): As a class, brainstorm a list of simple icons associated with clean local water (a fish, a wave, a water drop, a leaf) and a separate list of possible short messages. Choose one icon and one message together as a class example, and sketch it once on the board so students see the constraints applied before working independently.
Independent/pair design work (15 min): In pairs, students sketch their own stencil design on the provided template, including one icon and a four-to-six-word message, then write one sentence on the back of the template explaining why they chose that icon and that message for someone walking past a storm drain.
Closure / share-out (5 min): Each pair shows their design to a neighboring pair in a brief gallery walk. Students then answer an exit-ticket question individually: "In your own words, why does it matter what enters a storm drain?"
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Exit ticket, expected answer: Storm drains usually carry rainwater and whatever it picks up on streets and sidewalks directly into a nearby creek, river, or lake without going through a treatment plant first, unlike water from sinks and toilets. Because of this, anything that enters a storm drain, such as litter, oil, pet waste, or lawn fertilizer, can reach local water quickly, which is exactly why civic marking campaigns and stencil designs like the ones students created aim to change what people do before those materials ever reach the drain.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Provide a small set of pre-drawn icon outlines (fish, wave, water drop, leaf) that students can trace or color rather than draw from scratch, and offer a short list of sample messages students may choose from or adapt instead of composing one from nothing.
Extension (above grade level)
Ask students to design a second, matching stencil meant for a different audience, such as one aimed at drivers changing their own motor oil, and explain in one sentence how the message or icon needed to change for that new audience.
ELL supports
Pre-teach storm drain and runoff using a simple diagram showing rain falling on a street, entering a drain, and flowing into a creek. Allow the written explanation of icon and message choices to be given as a short spoken response instead of writing, and the exit ticket may be answered by pointing to and labeling a simple diagram.
Extensions
Contact the local public works department to ask whether the community runs a real storm drain marking program and, if so, whether the class's designs could inform or accompany an actual stenciling event near school property.