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Classroom activity Grade 7 Careers & CTE

A Day at Fairview Plant: A Water Careers Station Rotation

A grade 7 station-rotation activity where students perform a hands-on task representative of four real water-sector careers at a fictional treatment plant.

Objectives

  1. Students will describe the daily responsibilities and required education for four water-sector careers.
  2. Students will complete a hands-on task representative of each career's real work.
  3. Students will identify one educational requirement common to most of these careers.

Vocabulary

SCADA
The computer system operators use to watch and control a water system from a control room. It shows tank levels, pump status, and alarms in real time.

Also: state operator's license, technical certification

Teacher overview

This is a small-group station rotation for 16-32 students, run at the fictional Fairview Water Treatment Plant, where four stations each represent a real water-sector career and its actual daily work. Each station's rules directly model the career it represents: the Operator station requires putting treatment steps in the correct order, the SCADA Technician station requires reading a control-panel printout for an alarm condition, the Lab Analyst station requires testing and interpreting a water sample, and the Meter Reader station requires calculating water use from two meter readings. Each station is a short, concrete simulation of one career.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, set up four stations around the room, each with a sign, a role card describing that career's education path and typical tasks, and the station's specific materials (listed in Materials Needed). Divide students into four groups of 4-8.
  2. Operator station: Give each group four shuffled cards, each naming one treatment step (coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection). The group's task is to place the cards in the correct treatment order, the same sequence a real operator monitors throughout a shift.
  3. SCADA Technician station: Give each group the printed control-panel data sheet, showing tank levels and pump status for three pumps. For example, on a fictional data sheet created for this station: Pump 1, discharge pressure 52 psi (normal range 45-60 psi), tank level 68% and steady; Pump 2, discharge pressure 18 psi (normal range 45-60 psi, flagged), tank level 74% and steady; Pump 3, discharge pressure 55 psi (normal range 45-60 psi), tank level 24% and falling about 2% every 10 minutes. The group's task is to identify which pump shows an alarm condition (a status reading outside its normal range) and write one sentence explaining what a technician would do next.
  4. Lab Analyst station: Before class, fill the Sample A cup with plain tap water and the Sample B cup with tap water plus a spoonful of white vinegar, and test both with a strip yourself so you know the expected readings. Give each group the pH color-reference chart, the two labeled sample cups, and the pH test strips. Each group dips a fresh strip into each sample. Using the chart, the group matches each strip's color to a pH value and decides whether that value falls inside the typical 6.5-8.5 range used for drinking water. Remind students not to taste or drink the samples.
  5. Meter Reader station: Give each group the two printed meter readings (an old reading and a new reading, in hundreds of cubic feet). The group subtracts to find how much water was used between readings, the same subtraction a meter reader performs to prepare a customer's bill.
  6. Groups spend about 8 minutes at each station, reading the role card first and completing the task second. When the timer sounds, groups rotate clockwise to the next station.
  7. The rotation ends when every group has visited all four stations. Gather the whole class together for the debrief.
  8. Debrief: Ask the two debrief questions below as a whole-class discussion, calling on at least one group per question to share their answer and the reasoning behind it.

Debrief question 1: Which of the four careers required the most schooling beyond high school, based on the role cards, and which required the least?

Debrief question 2: Name one thing that at least three of the four role cards had in common in terms of education or training.

A Day at Fairview Plant: A Water Careers Station Rotation — Grade 7 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Print the four role cards below, several copies of each, and place one card at each station.

Role card: Water Treatment Operator

Typical tasks: Watches the treatment steps on a control screen, walks the plant to check pumps and filters, tests water samples, and adjusts chemical feeds.

Education and training: A high school diploma, then long-term on-the-job training under a licensed operator. Operators must pass a state exam to earn a license, and they take classes to renew it and to move up to higher license levels.

Role card: SCADA Technician

Typical tasks: Keeps the sensors and control screens accurate, calibrates sensors, repairs wiring, replaces failed equipment, and tracks down the cause of false alarms.

Education and training: Often a two-year associate degree in electronics or instrumentation. Some technicians come through military training or an apprenticeship instead. Many earn a technical certification and keep training as equipment changes.

Role card: Lab Analyst

Typical tasks: Tests water samples for things like pH, chlorine, and bacteria, follows exact lab methods, and records every result.

Education and training: An associate's or bachelor's degree in a science field such as chemistry or biology. Analysts keep training as new test methods come into use.

Role card: Meter Reader

Typical tasks: Visits homes and businesses to read water meters, records the readings for billing, and reports leaking or broken meters.

Education and training: A high school diploma and a short period of on-the-job training. A driver's license is usually required.

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. Operator station answer: Coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, in that order. This is the sequence a real treatment plant follows, and the operator role card should describe monitoring this same sequence throughout a shift.
  2. SCADA Technician station answer: Using the example data sheet, Pump 2 shows the alarm condition, since its 18 psi reading falls outside the 45-60 psi normal range. If a group's data sheet uses different numbers, the correct pump is whichever one falls outside the stated normal range; the expected next step is checking that pump in person rather than trusting the screen alone.
  3. Lab Analyst station answer: Exact readings depend on the local tap water and the strips used, so check them against your own test before class. Sample A (tap water) usually reads inside the 6.5-8.5 range. Sample B (tap water with vinegar) reads well below 6.5, outside the range, because vinegar is an acid. Students should match each strip's color to its pH value using the chart and correctly state whether that value falls inside or outside the range.
  4. Meter Reader station answer: The new reading minus the old reading equals the water used between the two readings; the exact number depends on the readings provided.
  5. Debrief question 1 answer: Based on the role cards, the Lab Analyst role requires the most schooling beyond high school, an associate's or bachelor's degree in a science field, while the Meter Reader role requires the least, a high school diploma and a short period of on-the-job training. The other two roles fall in between. The SCADA Technician often holds a two-year degree in electronics or instrumentation, and the Operator starts with a high school diploma and long-term on-the-job training and then earns a state license. This is why the water sector is described as offering paths at several different education levels rather than only one.
  6. Debrief question 2 answer: Most of these careers require some form of ongoing training, licensure, or certification beyond a single credential earned once, whether that is a state operator's license renewed over a career, a technical certification, or continuing education in a lab or technical field.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a simplified one-sentence summary of each career on its role card in addition to the full description, and assign a station helper (a co-teacher, aide, or peer) to read the SCADA and Lab Analyst instructions aloud before each group begins that station's task.

Extension (above grade level)

At the Operator station, ask groups to also explain in one sentence why disinfection happens last in the sequence rather than first. At the SCADA station, ask groups to identify a second, less obvious warning sign on the data sheet beyond the single alarm condition.

ELL supports

Add a simple icon to each station sign (a wrench for Operator, a screen for SCADA Technician, a test tube for Lab Analyst, a meter dial for Meter Reader) and provide the debrief questions in writing as well as aloud, allowing students to point to a station sign before explaining their answer verbally.

Extensions

Invite a local water or wastewater operator to visit the class, either in person or by video call, and have students prepare one question for each of the four careers represented in the stations to ask during the visit.