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Quiz & test questions Grade 7 Careers & CTE

Nettleby's Storm Drain Crew: An Inspection-Season Quiz

A grade 7 careers quiz on a fictional stormwater crew's inspection season, combining map-scale problems, percent items, and questions about crew safety rules.

Objectives

  1. Students will compute actual distances from a scaled stormwater map and find the same length on a map drawn at a new scale.
  2. Students will calculate a percent completed and a percent increase from crew inspection counts.
  3. Students will explain the safety and documentation rules a stormwater crew works under.

Vocabulary

Catch basin
A catch basin is a storm drain inlet with a sump underneath that traps sediment, leaves, and trash before water flows on into the storm sewer pipe. Crews periodically clean out catch basins so they do not clog or send debris downstream.
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.

Also: confined space, work order, scale

Teacher overview

This 30-minute quiz is worth 22 points and mixes two multiple-choice items, four computation items, and two short-answer items. Every figure comes from one fall inspection season at the fictional Nettleby public works department. In most communities the water entering a street storm drain runs to a creek or river with little or no treatment rather than to the wastewater plant, and items 1 and 8 both turn on that distinction. A crew member who explains it correctly to a resident is doing a real part of the job.

Nettleby's Storm Drain Crew: An Inspection-Season Quiz — Grade 7 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Crew notes. The fictional town of Nettleby runs a two-person stormwater crew each fall. The crew carries a printed map of the storm sewer, checks catch basins, and writes a work order when a basin is blocked. Every figure below was invented for this quiz.

  1. (2 points) Where does water that goes down a Nettleby street storm drain end up?
    • A) At the drinking water plant, where it is filtered
    • B) At the wastewater treatment plant, with the sewage
    • C) In a nearby creek, with little or no treatment
    • D) In a storage tank under the street until summer
  2. (2 points) The crew needs to inspect the inside of a storm sewer manhole. What does the confined space rule require?
    • A) One worker may enter alone if the job takes under ten minutes
    • B) A trained attendant stays at the surface while the other worker enters
    • C) Either worker may enter once the cover is off and the air smells clean
    • D) No attendant is needed, because the work is outdoors
  3. (3 points) On the crew's map, 1 inch represents 40 feet. One pipe run measures 6.5 inches on the map. How long is that pipe run in feet?
  4. (3 points) The mapping technician redraws the same map at a new scale, where 1 inch represents 20 feet. How many inches long will that same pipe run measure on the new map?
  5. (3 points) The crew's fall list has 120 catch basins. By the end of October the crew had inspected 84 of them. What percent of the list had been inspected?
  6. (3 points) Last fall the fictional crew inspected 96 basins in total. This fall it inspected 120. What was the percent increase from last fall to this fall?
  7. (3 points) Explain why the crew photographs a blocked catch basin before clearing it.
  8. (3 points) A resident stops the crew and asks where the water from the storm drain goes. Write what the crew member should say, in two sentences a neighbor would understand.

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: C) In a nearby creek, with little or no treatment.
    Storm drains and sanitary sewers are separate systems in most towns. Choice B is the common misconception, and it is why litter and motor oil at the curb become a creek problem.
  2. Answer: B) A trained attendant stays at the surface while the other worker enters.
    A manhole is a confined space, so entry is planned work with an attendant, air testing, and a way to get the entrant out. Choice C describes the reasoning that gets people hurt, because a space can be dangerous without smelling like anything.
  3. Answer: 260 feet.
    Each inch stands for 40 feet, so multiply 6.5 by 40. That gives 260 feet.
  4. Answer: 13 inches.
    The run is 260 feet long, and on the new map each inch stands for 20 feet. Divide 260 by 20 to get 13 inches. The drawing gets longer because each inch now covers less ground.
  5. Answer: 70 percent.
    Divide 84 by 120, which equals 0.7. As a percent that is 70 percent of the fall list.
  6. Answer: 25 percent.
    The increase is 120 minus 96, which is 24 basins. Divide 24 by the starting count of 96 to get 0.25, which is 25 percent. Dividing by 120 instead of 96 is the most common error here.
  7. Answer: Accept any answer naming a record of the original condition.
    The photograph shows what the basin looked like before the crew touched it. It supports the work order, it shows the supervisor why the crew spent an hour there, and it becomes evidence if the same basin floods again.
  8. Answer: Accept any two-sentence explanation that keeps the two systems separate.
    A sample response: "This drain goes straight to the creek behind the school, not to the treatment plant. Anything that washes into it, including oil and grass clippings, ends up in the creek."

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a strip of the fictional Nettleby map marked with the scale and one worked example, so item 3 begins from a model rather than from a blank page. Allow items 7 and 8 to be answered orally and recorded by a partner.

Extension

Ask these students to write the work order the fictional crew would submit for a blocked basin, naming the location, what the crew found, what it did, and what the street department should schedule next.

ELL supports

Pre-teach catch basin, storm drain, confined space, and work order with a labeled sketch of a curb, a grate, and a pipe. Provide a frame for item 8: "This drain carries water to ___. It does not go to ___."

Extensions

Ask students to walk their own street with an adult and note how many storm drains they pass and whether any carry a stamped message about the water body downstream. Students can then compare what they found with the fictional Nettleby crew's list of one hundred twenty basins.