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Lesson plan Grade 2 Careers & CTE

The Leak Listener of Norwood: A Grade 2 Water Careers Lesson

Second graders learn how a leak detection worker finds pipe leaks by listening, then add and subtract the gallons three fictional leaks lose in an hour.

Objectives

  1. Students will explain how a leak detection worker uses sound to find a pipe leak underground.
  2. Students will add and subtract gallon amounts within 100 using a three-leak table.
  3. Students will write a short job card with two facts about the leak listener's work.

Vocabulary

Key words: leak, pipe, gallon, listening stick

Teacher overview

Mr. Boateng works for the water crew in the town of Norwood, and his job is to find water that is escaping from pipes buried under the street. He walks the sidewalk after dark with a listening stick, a metal rod with a headset on top, and he stops every few steps to listen for the soft hiss a leak makes. Nothing is visible from above, so the whole job runs on sound. This lesson gives second graders that idea through a short sound demonstration, then turns three leaks into an addition and subtraction table within 100.

The misconception this lesson is built to correct is that a leak has to be seen to be real. Students often assume a leak means a puddle, so the demonstration matters: they hear water through a tube before they ever see it.

Procedure

Sound demonstration (8 min): Hold a cardboard tube against a desk and tap the far end of the desk with a spoon while a student listens through the tube. Ask what changed compared with listening through the air. Pour water from a cup into a bowl and have a listener describe the sound through the tube. Tell students that a leak underground makes a small, steady hiss, and that a listening stick works the way their tube just did.

Meet the leak listener (10 min): Walk through Mr. Boateng's night in order: he parks the truck, puts on the headset, listens at one valve, walks half a block, listens again, and marks the sidewalk with chalk where the sound is loudest. In the morning a digging crew opens the street at his chalk mark. Ask students why he works at night. Guide them to the idea that cars, voices, and lawn mowers are all quieter then, so the hiss is easier to hear.

Model one problem (7 min): Draw the leak table on the board and work the first line together. Think aloud through the first sum, adding the tens and then the ones, and check the answer by counting up on a number line.

Student handout (15 min): Students complete the handout, then write a four-sentence job card on an index card: one sentence naming the job, one fact about the tool, one fact about the night work, and a closing sentence. Circulate and check that students combine all three amounts on item 3 rather than stopping after the first two.

Closing share (5 min): Four students read their job cards aloud. As a formative check, ask the class to show a thumb up if the card named a tool and a thumb down if it did not. Any card missing a tool goes back for one more sentence before it is posted.

The Leak Listener of Norwood: A Grade 2 Water Careers Lesson — Grade 2 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Read aloud: Mr. Boateng found three leaks under the streets of the town of Norwood. This table shows how many gallons each leak loses in one hour.

Leak Gallons lost in one hour
Leak A 30
Leak B 25
Leak C 20
  1. How many gallons do Leak A and Leak B lose together in one hour?
  2. How many more gallons does Leak A lose than Leak C in one hour?
  3. How many gallons do all three leaks lose together in one hour?
  4. The crew fixed Leak B. How many gallons do the two leaks that are left lose in one hour?
  5. Write one fact about the leak listener's job.
  6. Write one sentence. Tell why night is a good time to listen for leaks.

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

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 55 gallons. 30 + 25 = 55.
  2. Answer: 10 gallons. 30 - 20 = 10.
  3. Answer: 75 gallons. 30 + 25 = 55, and 55 + 20 = 75.
  4. Answer: 50 gallons. 75 - 25 = 50, which is the same as 30 + 20.
  5. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any fact stated in the lesson, such as that he uses a listening stick, that he works at night, or that he marks the sidewalk with chalk for the digging crew.
  6. Answer: Answers will vary. Accept reasoning about the street being quieter at night, so the hiss of a leak is easier to hear over fewer other sounds.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide base-ten blocks or a hundred chart and pre-fill item 1 as a worked example. Cut the job card to two sentences, and give the frames "A leak listener uses ____" and "He works at night because ____."

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to invent a fourth leak, choose a gallon amount that keeps the four-leak hourly total under 100, and prove their choice works with an equation. They can also figure out how many gallons the three leaks lose in two hours.

ELL supports

Pre-teach leak, pipe, and hiss with the tube demonstration and a gesture for each word. Let students listen a second time before answering. Accept the job card in the home language with the tool word added in English during a short conference.

Extensions

Have the class hunt for drips in the school with the custodian's permission, listening at each fixture the way Mr. Boateng listens at a valve, and report anything they find. A short thank-you note to the custodian afterward keeps the careers thread going.