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Worksheet Grade 3 Engineering & Design

Willowmere Water Plant Steps: A Grade 3 Design Worksheet

A grade 3 engineering worksheet where students order the cleaning steps at the fictional Willowmere water plant and compare two plant layouts to pick the better design.

Objectives

  1. Students will put the four cleaning steps of a water plant in the correct order.
  2. Students will name the plant's design goal and one limit on the design team.
  3. Students will compare two plant layouts and choose the one that better meets the goal.

Vocabulary

Key words: screen, settle, filter, plant

Teacher overview

Willowmere is a fictional town with a water plant that cleans river water before it reaches homes. The plant does its job in four steps, and the order of those steps matters. This worksheet gives students the four steps out of order and asks them to think like the plant's design team: put the steps in the right order, name the design goal and one limit, and compare two plant layouts to pick the better one.

Willowmere Water Plant Steps: A Grade 3 Design Worksheet — Grade 3 Engineering & Design
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

The Willowmere plant cleans river water in four steps. Here are the steps, mixed up:

  • Filter: sand traps the small bits.
  • Screen: a net catches sticks and trash.
  • Clean: add a safe amount of cleaner to kill germs.
  • Settle: the water rests so dirt sinks to the bottom.

After all four steps, the water goes to homes.

  1. Write the four steps in the right order, from first to last.
  2. Why should the screen step come first? Tell what would happen if it came last.
  3. What is the goal of the plant? Say it in your own words.
  4. Name one limit the design team must work with, like money, space, or time.
  5. Which step lets the dirt sink to the bottom?
  6. Which step traps the smallest bits?
  7. Team A filters first, then lets the water settle. Team B settles first, then filters. Which plan is better? Tell why.
  8. Why does the plant test the water before it goes to homes?
  9. Draw or name one more step you would add to the plant. Tell why you would add it.

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: Screen, settle, filter, clean. The net catches trash first, then dirt sinks, then sand traps small bits, then the cleaner kills germs.
  2. Answer: The screen comes first so it can catch sticks and trash. If it came last, the trash would clog the other steps before the water was clean.
  3. Answer: The goal is to make the river water clean and safe to drink. Accept any answer that names clean or safe water.
  4. Answer: Accept money, space, time, or another real limit, such as how many workers the plant has.
  5. Answer: The settle step. The water rests and the dirt sinks to the bottom.
  6. Answer: The filter step. The sand traps the smallest bits.
  7. Answer: Team B is better. When water settles first, most of the dirt sinks, so the filter does not clog as fast and stays clean longer.
  8. Answer: The plant tests the water to make sure it is clean and safe before people drink it. Accept any answer about checking for safety.
  9. Answer: Accept any sensible step with a reason, such as a second filter to catch more bits, or a taste-and-smell check to make sure the water is good.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students four step cards they can slide into order with their hands before writing item 1. Provide a labeled picture of each step so they can match the word to what it does.

Extension

Ask these students to add a fifth step and redraw the whole plant as a labeled flow map with arrows. Have them explain where their new step fits and why it does not belong at the start or the end.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "screen," "settle," "filter," and "clean" with a picture for each step. Provide sentence frames for items 2 and 7, such as "Team ___ is better because ___." Allow students to number the four step cards instead of writing full sentences for item 1.

Extensions

If a nearby water utility offers a virtual tour or a simple diagram of its treatment steps, have students match the real plant's steps to the four they ordered here and note any extra steps a real plant uses.