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Quiz & test questions Grade 6 Engineering & Design

Ferrow Bend Ice Rink Meltwater Reuse Assessment

A 25-point quiz on a fictional rink's plan to capture and reuse ice-resurfacer meltwater, with multiple-choice and computation items on volume, savings, and fill time.

Objectives

  1. Students will define water reuse and identify the uses that reclaimed water may serve.
  2. Students will calculate daily capture volume, leftover volume, and tank fill time for a reuse system.
  3. Students will compare a system's purchase price with the savings it produces over several seasons.

Vocabulary

Key words: water reuse, reclaimed water, meltwater, capture tank

Teacher overview

This assessment covers a fictional community ice rink in the town of Ferrow Bend and the design it is considering for capturing and reusing the meltwater its ice resurfacer produces. The assessment is worth 25 points and takes about 30 minutes. It combines two multiple-choice items with nine computation items, so students both recall what reuse means and apply rate and capacity reasoning to a design they have not seen before.

Ferrow Bend Ice Rink Meltwater Reuse Assessment — Grade 6 Engineering & Design
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Ferrow Bend and every number in this assessment are fictional, invented for these questions. After each resurfacing, the machine dumps 200 gallons of shaved ice into a melt pit, and the rink resurfaces the ice 8 times a day. Right now that meltwater goes down the sewer. The rink is considering a capture tank that holds 2,000 gallons, with a filter, so the water can be reused.

  1. (2 points) Which statement best describes water reuse?
    A. Treating water until it is safe to drink and then piping it to homes.
    B. Capturing water that has already been used and putting it to a job that does not need drinking water quality.
    C. Pumping from a deeper well when the shallow well runs dry.
    D. Adding chlorine to water before it enters the pipes.
  2. (2 points) The resurfacer dumps 200 gallons after each resurfacing, and the rink resurfaces 8 times a day. How many gallons of meltwater are produced in one day?
  3. (2 points) The capture tank holds 2,000 gallons. If one day's meltwater goes in and nothing is drawn out, how many gallons of room are left in the tank?
  4. (2 points) The rink restrooms use 900 gallons a day and the ballfield needs 500 gallons a day. What is the total daily demand for reused water?
  5. (3 points) Compare the daily meltwater from item 2 with the daily demand from item 4. How many gallons are left over each day?
  6. (3 points) Capturing the meltwater lets the rink avoid $8.00 in water and sewer charges for every 1,000 gallons. Count all 1,600 gallons captured in a day. What does the rink save on one day?
  7. (3 points) The rink operates 120 days in a season. Assume it captures and counts all 1,600 gallons every day. Using item 6, what does the rink save in one season?
  8. (2 points) The capture tank and filter cost $6,000. Using item 7, how many whole seasons of savings does it take to reach $6,000?
  9. (2 points) The rink will use the meltwater to flush toilets but not to fill the drinking fountain. Which reason best explains that choice?
    A. The meltwater is colder than fountain water.
    B. The meltwater has not been treated to drinking water standards, so it may only go to uses that do not require them.
    C. The meltwater would not fit in the fountain's pipes.
    D. Towns are not allowed to reuse water indoors.
  10. (2 points) The leftover amount from item 5 builds up in the 2,000-gallon tank each day. How many days would it take for that leftover to fill the tank?
  11. (2 points) Ferrow Bend could add a second 2,000-gallon tank. Using item 10, how many days would the leftover then take to fill both tanks?

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: B. Reuse means capturing water that has already served one purpose and directing it to a use that does not require drinking water quality. Choice A describes ordinary treatment, choice C describes a new source, and choice D describes disinfection.
  2. Answer: 1,600 gallons. Eight resurfacings at 200 gallons each give 8 x 200 = 1,600 gallons a day.
  3. Answer: 400 gallons. The tank holds 2,000 gallons and one day adds 1,600 gallons, so 2,000 - 1,600 = 400 gallons of room.
  4. Answer: 1,400 gallons. Restrooms use 900 gallons and the ballfield uses 500 gallons, so 900 + 500 = 1,400 gallons a day.
  5. Answer: 200 gallons. The rink captures 1,600 gallons and uses 1,400 gallons, so 1,600 - 1,400 = 200 gallons left over each day.
  6. Answer: $12.80. The 1,600 gallons make 1.6 groups of 1,000 gallons, so 1.6 x 8.00 = 12.80 dollars saved in a day.
  7. Answer: $1,536. At 12.80 dollars a day for 120 days, 12.80 x 120 = 1,536 dollars a season.
  8. Answer: 4 seasons. Three seasons give 3 x 1,536 = 4,608 dollars, which is short of 6,000 dollars, while four seasons give 4 x 1,536 = 6,144 dollars, which passes it.
  9. Answer: B. Reclaimed water is matched to uses whose quality requirements it meets, and a drinking fountain requires drinking water quality that this meltwater has not been treated to reach. The other choices name reasons that have nothing to do with the water quality requirement.
  10. Answer: 10 days. The tank holds 2,000 gallons and 200 gallons build up each day, so 2,000 / 200 = 10 days.
  11. Answer: 20 days. Two tanks hold 2,000 + 2,000 = 4,000 gallons, and 4,000 / 200 = 20 days at the same 200 gallons a day.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students the fictional scenario restated as a labeled diagram showing the resurfacer, the melt pit, the tank, and the two reuse destinations with their daily amounts written beside them, so items 4 and 5 can be read from the picture. Allow a multiplication chart for item 2.

Extension

Ask students to find how large a single tank would have to be, in whole hundreds of gallons, for this fictional rink to go a full 30 days before the leftover filled it, and to state whether that tank would still fit the same purchase price per gallon of storage.

ELL supports

Provide a word bank containing reuse, meltwater, capture, tank, and demand with a one-line definition for each, and allow students to answer item 9 by pointing to the matching definition. Read the scenario paragraph aloud twice before students begin.

Extensions

Have students list three places in their own school where water is used once and sent to the drain, then choose one and write a short paragraph naming a second use that water could serve and what would have to be true about its quality first.