Quiz & test questions Grade 3 Engineering & Design

Pinfold Farm Well Cover Choices: A Grade 3 Design Quiz

A grade 3 engineering quiz on three well cover designs for a fictional farm town, sorting design goals from limits and judging which cover to build.

Grade: Grade 3
Subject: Engineering & Design
Material: Quiz & test questions
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

3-5-ETS1-1 NGSS

Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

How this material aligns: Items 2 and 3 ask students to pick the design goal and the material limit out of a mixed list, which is the criteria and constraints sorting this standard names.

All materials for 3-5-ETS1-1 →

3-5-ETS1-2 NGSS

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

How this material aligns: Items 4 through 6 judge three proposed well covers against the same three goals and name which goal each cover misses, the comparison of multiple solutions this standard requires.

All materials for 3-5-ETS1-2 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-23.

Objectives

Students will tell a design goal apart from a design limit in a well cover problem.
Students will judge three well covers against the same three goals.
Students will suggest one change that fixes a cover without losing a goal.

Vocabulary

Groundwater: Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.

Also: well, goal, limit, cover

Teacher overview

This 30-minute quiz is worth 20 points and mixes four multiple-choice items with four short-answer items. It checks whether students can separate a design goal from a design limit and then judge three proposed well covers against the same goals. Many students picture groundwater as an underground lake or river, so they expect a well to be an open hole holding standing water, and they design a cover the way they would design a lid for a pond. Groundwater fills the small spaces between grains of sand, gravel, and cracked rock, and a drinking water well is a sealed pipe, so the real design risk in this quiz is dirty surface water running down the outside of that pipe.

Pinfold Farm Well Cover Choices: A Grade 3 Design Quiz — Grade 3 Engineering & Design

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

The town of Pinfold takes its drinking water from one well at Pinfold Farm. The well is a sealed pipe that reaches deep into sand and gravel. A pump inside the pipe lifts the water up to the town. Rain washes mud and animal waste across the farm yard. The town asked a design team for a new well cover.

The town gave the team three goals. The cover must keep rain and mud out of the well pipe. The cover must let the pump wire pass into the pipe. The cover must open once a month for one worker.

The town also gave the team three limits. The team may use only the three items on the shop shelf, which are a flat board, a metal cap, and a plastic sheet. The team must finish the cover in one day. The cover must sit on the low mound of soil that is already there.

(2 points) Where does the water sit in the ground under Pinfold Farm?
- A) In a big open lake under the soil
- B) In a fast river under the rock
- C) In the small spaces between grains of sand and gravel
- D) In one wide pipe that workers laid long ago
(2 points) Which one of these is a design goal for the cover?
- A) The team may use only three items from the shelf.
- B) The cover keeps rain and mud out of the well pipe.
- C) The team must finish in one day.
- D) The soil mound is already there.
(2 points) Which one of these is a limit on the design?
- A) The cover keeps mud out.
- B) The cover opens once a month.
- C) The team may use only three items from the shelf.
- D) The town wants clean water.
(3 points) Design A is a flat board laid across the top of the pipe. Rain runs off the board and soaks into the soil right beside the pipe. Name one goal Design A misses. Tell why it misses that goal.
(3 points) Design B is a metal cap that seals the pipe with no hole in it. The pump wire must reach the pump inside the pipe. Explain why Design B fails, even though it keeps mud out.
(3 points) Design C is a metal cap with a sealed hole for the pump wire. It sits on the soil mound so rain runs away from the pipe. Name the two goals Design C meets that Design A or Design B misses.
(3 points) Design C is held down by twelve bolts. One worker needs a long time to open it each month. Suggest one change to Design C. Your change must still keep mud out.
(2 points) Two teams tested their covers. Each team poured one cup of muddy water over its own cover. Why did both teams pour the same amount?
- A) To make the test fair
- B) To fill the well with water
- C) Because the well was dry
- D) To wash the mud off the farm yard

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: C) In the small spaces between grains of sand and gravel. Groundwater is held in the tiny gaps between sand grains, gravel, and cracks in rock, not in an open lake or river.
Answer: B) The cover keeps rain and mud out of the well pipe. A goal states what the finished design must do. Choices A and C describe limits on materials and time, and choice D describes the site.
Answer: C) The team may use only three items from the shelf. A limit tells the team what they cannot go past. Choices A and B are goals, and choice D is the reason for the project.
Answer: Design A misses the goal of keeping rain and mud out of the well pipe. Accept any answer explaining that the board sheds rain onto the soil next to the pipe, so muddy water soaks down along the outside of the pipe and can reach the well water.
Answer: Design B misses the goal of letting the pump wire pass into the pipe. Accept any answer noting that a sealed cap with no hole leaves the pump with no wire, so the pump cannot run and the town gets no water.
Answer: Design C meets the goal of keeping rain and mud out and the goal of letting the pump wire pass. Accept wording that names both, and give partial credit for naming one goal with a correct reason.
Answer: Accept any change that keeps the seal while making the cover easier to open, such as using four bolts instead of twelve, adding a hinge on one side, or adding a latch with a gasket. The answer must say the cover still seals against mud.
Answer: A) To make the test fair. Pouring the same amount over each cover keeps everything the same but the design, so any difference in the result comes from the cover itself.

Differentiation

Support

Read the scenario aloud and highlight the three goals in one color and the three limits in another before students start. For items 4 through 6, provide a two-column chart with the three goals already listed so students only mark met or missed and then write one reason.

Extension

Ask these students to write a fourth design of their own using only the three shelf items, then to name which goal their design meets best and which goal it puts at risk. Have them explain what test they would run to check their claim.

ELL supports

Pre-teach well, cover, goal, and limit with a simple labeled drawing of a pipe in the ground. Provide sentence frames for the short-answer items, such as "Design A misses the goal of ___ because ___." Allow labeled drawings to stand in for written reasons on items 4 and 7.

Extensions

Invite a local utility staff member or a well driller to describe how a real well cap is sealed and how often it is checked. Students can compare the real cap to their own Design C change and note one thing the real cap does that the classroom designs did not.