Worksheet Grade 8 Careers & CTE

Sizing Ashford Falls' Water Treatment Plant: Operator Career Math

A grade 8 worksheet combining scientific notation and one-variable equations with real operator wage and workforce data at a fictional treatment plant.

Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Careers & CTE
Material: Worksheet
Time: 40 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: calculator

Standards

8.EE.A.3 Common Core Math

Use numbers expressed in the form of a single digit times an integer power of 10 to estimate very large or very small quantities, and to express how many times as much one is than the other.

How this material aligns: Items 4, 5, and 7 require expressing the plant's daily and annual treatment volumes in scientific notation and comparing how many times larger one volume is than another.

All materials for 8.EE.A.3 →

8.EE.C.7 Common Core Math

Solve linear equations in one variable, including equations with variables on both sides, and recognizing equations with one solution, infinitely many solutions, or no solutions.

How this material aligns: Item 9 requires writing and solving a one-variable linear equation to find how many months are needed to save for new plant equipment.

All materials for 8.EE.C.7 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-15.

Objectives

Students will express large water-treatment volumes in scientific notation and compare their relative size.
Students will apply the pounds formula and solve a one-variable linear equation using realistic plant data.
Students will connect this math to real wage, job-opening, and workforce data for water treatment operators.

Teacher overview

Water and wastewater treatment plant operators earned a median $60,020 per year as of May 2025, a licensed career that typically begins directly after high school with on-the-job training and a state exam. Nationally, about 10,000 operator openings are projected each year, on average, from 2025 to 2035, all from replacing workers who retire or move to other occupations, and roughly one-third of the current water workforce becomes retirement-eligible within the next decade, which is one reason utilities are working to recruit new operators now. This worksheet uses a fictional treatment plant to combine grade 8 scientific notation and one-variable equation skills with the same pounds formula and volume math operators use on the job and on state licensing exams.

Sizing Ashford Falls' Water Treatment Plant: Operator Career Math — Grade 8 Careers & CTE

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Ashford Falls is a fictional town used for this worksheet. Its water treatment plant treats an average of 2 million gallons of water per day (2 MGD).

Read the Overview. What was the median annual salary for water and wastewater treatment plant operators as of May 2025?
About how many operator job openings are projected nationally each year, on average, from 2025 to 2035?
The Overview describes how operators enter the field. What level of education do you typically need to begin working as a water treatment operator?
Ashford Falls treats 2 million gallons a day. Write that volume in standard (long-form) notation. Then express it in scientific notation.
Use 2 million gallons per day as Ashford Falls' daily treatment rate. Assume 365 days in a year. Calculate the plant's approximate annual treatment volume in gallons. Express your final answer in scientific notation.
The plant adds chlorine at a dose of 2 mg/L to disinfect the water. The pounds formula is Loading (lbs/day) = Concentration (mg/L) x Flow (MGD) x 8.34. Calculate how many pounds of chlorine the plant uses per day at its average flow of 2 MGD.
A larger regional plant treats 200,000,000 gallons per day. That can be written as 2 x 10^8 gallons per day. Ashford Falls treats 2 x 10^6 gallons per day. How many times larger is the regional plant's daily volume?
Nationally, roughly one-third of the water sector workforce is eligible to retire within the next decade. Ashford Falls' plant currently employs 12 operators. Using that national estimate, about how many of them would be eligible to retire within the next decade? Round to the nearest whole operator.
The town council wants to save enough to buy a new piece of equipment costing $99,000. The utility sets aside $8,250 each month. Write and solve a linear equation for the number of months, m, needed to reach that goal.
Some people want to begin working and earning a wage directly after high school. Explain in one or two sentences why a career as a water treatment operator might appeal to them.
The Overview says utilities are working to recruit new operators now. Explain why replacing retiring operators is a challenge for the water sector.

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: $60,020 per year.
This figure is stated directly in the Overview as the May 2025 median annual salary for water and wastewater treatment plant operators.
Answer: about 10,000 openings per year.
This is the national projection stated in the Overview for operator openings from 2025 to 2035.
Answer: a high school diploma, followed by on-the-job training and a state operator's license.
The Overview states that this career typically begins right after high school, with training and licensure completed on the job.
Answer: 2,000,000 gallons/day; 2 x 10^6 gallons/day.
Two million written in standard notation is 2,000,000; in scientific notation, that is a single digit (2) times 10 raised to the 6th power, since moving the decimal point six places gives 2,000,000.
Answer: 730,000,000 gallons/year (7.3 x 10^8).
2,000,000 gallons/day × 365 days = 730,000,000 gallons/year, which in scientific notation is 7.3 x 10^8.
Answer: 33.36 lbs/day.
Loading = 2 mg/L × 2 MGD × 8.34 = 4 × 8.34 = 33.36 pounds of chlorine per day.
Answer: 100 times larger.
Dividing 2 x 10^8 by 2 x 10^6 gives 10^(8-6) = 10^2 = 100, so the regional plant's daily volume is 100 times larger than Ashford Falls' volume.
Answer: about 4 operators eligible to retire.
12 operators × one-third = 4 operators, rounded to the nearest whole operator.
Answer: 12 months.
The equation is 8,250m = 99,000. Dividing both sides by 8,250 gives m = 12 months.
Answer: Answers will vary. Strong answers note that the career offers a path to a stable, licensed profession with steady wages, with training and licensure completed on the job and through a state licensing exam.
Answer: Answers will vary. Strong answers connect the roughly one-third retirement-eligible figure from the Overview to the roughly 10,000 openings projected each year, explaining that so many experienced operators leaving in a short period creates a large and ongoing need for new operators to be trained and licensed.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide the scientific notation conversion rule as a printed reference ("move the decimal until one digit remains before it, and count how many places you moved it for the exponent") and work through item 4 as a class example before students attempt item 5 independently.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to research, using only the Overview's figures, how many of the roughly 10,000 annual national openings a single state might reasonably expect if it employs about 5 percent of the nation's water and wastewater operators, and to show their calculation.

ELL supports

Pre-teach scientific notation, median, and retirement-eligible with simple visual number-line examples before item 4. Allow items 10 and 11 to be answered with a short list of two or three words or phrases rather than complete sentences.