Tinwick School's Downspout Puddle: A Splash Pad Design Lesson

Getting started (8 min). Read aloud: "Rain runs off the school roof. It goes down a pipe called a downspout. At Tinwick School, the water lands on bare dirt by Door 3. Now there is a big puddle there." Show a photograph of any downspout, or sketch one on the board. Ask each student to name one thing they would want to look at before fixing this. Collect answers on chart paper.

Defining the problem (10 min). Groups of three list three observations they could gather: how wide the wet spot is, what the ground is made of, where children walk. Each group then writes the problem in one sentence on a sentence strip, using the frame "The problem is ___ because ___." Post the strips. This is the formative check: every group's sentence must name both the water and the people who walk there. Rewrite any strip that names only one.

Sketching a solution (10 min). Explain that a splash pad is a flat pad of stone or concrete set under a downspout. Water hits the pad, spreads out sideways, and soaks into the ground around it instead of digging a hole. Each student sketches a splash pad from above, labels its length and width in inches, and adds one arrow showing where the water goes. Require the label; a sketch without dimensions cannot be built.

Building and testing the model (10 min). Each group lines a tray with dirt or sand, sets their splash pad model in place using gravel, craft sticks, or a folded index card, and pours water from the watering can from about 12 inches above. Groups watch what happens at the landing spot and report one word for the result: hole, spread, or river.

Handout and closing (7 min). Students complete the six handout items independently. Close by asking two groups to read their problem sentence again and say whether their model solved it.