Classroom activity Grade 4 Careers & CTE

Maplewood Bend Water-Career Stations: A Job Investigation Carousel

A grade 4 careers activity where small groups rotate through five water-job stations, do a quick task at each, and record what each worker does.

Grade: Grade 4
Subject: Careers & CTE
Material: Classroom activity
Time: 45 min
Prep: Moderate prep
Materials: Five printed water-job role cards, Treatment-step cards for the operator station, A measuring cup and empty bottle for the sampler station, A picture of the parts of a pump for the pump station, A picture of a meter dial for the meter station, Grid paper for the engineer station, Printed recording sheets, A bell or timer for signaling rotations

Standards

W.4.7 Common Core ELA

Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

How this material aligns: At each station students gather facts from a water-job role card and record them, then combine what they found in the debrief, the short research investigation this standard describes.

All materials for W.4.7 →

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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 investigate five water-sector jobs and record what each worker does.
Students will combine what they learned to explain how the jobs work as a team.

Vocabulary

Pump: A pump is a machine that adds energy to water to move it or push it uphill, doing the job gravity cannot do on its own. Water systems use many different kinds of pumps to move water from wells, through treatment, and out to customers.

Also: operator, sample, meter, engineer

Teacher overview

This is a station-rotation activity for a whole class working in five small groups of four or five students. Each of the five stations stands for one real water-sector job, and students visit every station to find out what that worker does. The activity teaches that a water system is run by a team, because students visit all five jobs in turn and see how each one fits into the whole. The town of Maplewood Bend (an example town) is the setting on the role cards.

Activity Directions

Before class, set up five stations around the room. Give each station a role card and its prop: Station 1, plant operator, with a set of treatment-step cards to put in order; Station 2, sampling technician, with a measuring cup and an empty bottle; Station 3, pump technician, with a picture that shows the parts of a pump; Station 4, meter technician, with a picture of a meter dial; Station 5, engineer, with grid paper for sketching a water tank.
Tell the class that each station is a real job at Maplewood Bend's water utility, and that their task is to investigate what each worker does.
Split the class into five groups. Send each group to a different starting station.
At each station, the group reads the role card together and does the quick task on the card. Every student writes the job name and one fact about the job on the recording sheet.
After about six minutes, ring a bell. Each group rotates to the next station in order.
Keep rotating until every group has visited all five stations and filled in all five rows of the recording sheet.
Bring the class back together for the debrief. Have students answer the investigation question (item 6 on the recording sheet) and share their answers, using their recording sheets.

Maplewood Bend Water-Career Stations: A Job Investigation Carousel — Grade 4 Careers & CTE

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Recording sheet. At each station, write the job name and one fact you learned.

Station 1 job and one fact:
Station 2 job and one fact:
Station 3 job and one fact:
Station 4 job and one fact:
Station 5 job and one fact:
Investigation question: Choose two of the five jobs. Write two or three sentences that explain how those two workers help each other keep the town's water safe.

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: Plant operator. A correct fact is that the plant operator cleans the water and checks that it is safe before it leaves the plant.
Answer: Sampling technician. A correct fact is that the sampling technician fills bottles with water and takes them to a lab to be tested.
Answer: Pump technician. A correct fact is that the pump technician keeps the pumps and motors running so water can move through the pipes.
Answer: Meter technician. A correct fact is that the meter technician reads the meter to find out how much water a home used.
Answer: Engineer. A correct fact is that the engineer plans and designs the pipes, tanks, and plants for the town.
Answer: Answers will vary. A strong answer names two of the jobs and gives a clear link between them, such as the sampling technician testing the water that the plant operator cleaned, in two or three complete sentences.

Differentiation

Support

Pair students who need help with a partner at each station, and give these students a recording sheet that already lists the five job names so they only need to add one fact for each. Provide a sentence starter for the investigation question.

Extension

Ask students to add a sixth station for a job not shown, write a short role card for it, and add a row to the recording sheet explaining what that new worker does.

ELL supports

Put a picture on each role card and on each recording-sheet row so students can match the job to an image. Allow students to say their facts aloud to the group before writing, and let the investigation question be answered with two short sentences.