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Project Grade 6 Engineering & Design

A Phased Water Plan for the Gossett Ridge Homes

Teams take three water-sector roles and design a two-phase plan for a fictional hillside neighborhood, since the grant pays for only part of the work they want to build.

Objectives

  1. Students will write measurable criteria and constraints from a client's goals for a water service problem.
  2. Students will design a phase-one package that fits a fixed budget and a fixed deadline.
  3. Students will state plainly which problems their phase-one package leaves unsolved.

Vocabulary

Service line
A service line is the small pipe that connects the water main under the street to the plumbing inside one home or building. It is the last leg of the trip water makes to your tap.

Also: water district, community well, phase, constraint

Teacher overview

Gossett Ridge is a fictional neighborhood of forty homes whose private wells are running dry and testing badly, and the fictional Tulloway Valley Water District has a grant that pays for less than half of what full service would cost. The design problem is therefore not which single solution is best but which part of the work should be built first, and what the neighborhood will still be living with afterward. Teams of three take the roles of a design engineer, a treatment operator, and a rate analyst, assemble two possible first phases from a shared parts list, choose one, and present a phased plan to a mock district board. The final deliverable is a four-page proposal that includes a page naming the problems phase one does not fix.

A Phased Water Plan for the Gossett Ridge Homes — Grade 6 Engineering & Design
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

The driving question: the grant pays for part of the work, so what should Gossett Ridge build first, and what must the neighborhood live with until phase two?

Your client. The Tulloway Valley Water District board is fictional, and so is every number below. The board hires your team as design consultants. You report to the board in four weeks.

The problem. Gossett Ridge has forty homes. Each home has its own well. Eleven of those wells went dry last August. Six more tested high for nitrate. The homes sit 180 feet above the town water main, which ends 2 miles away.

The money. Full service for the whole neighborhood would cost about $690,000. The grant pays $320,000, and no other money is in hand. Phase two would be built in about five years, if a second grant comes through.

The parts list and its invented prices. Build each phase from these parts. You may put a part in either phase, and you may buy part of one.

  • Part A: extend the town main uphill, $180,000 for each mile, and the run is 2 miles.
  • Part B: a booster pump station, $120,000, needed if the main is extended.
  • Part C: one community well drilled on district land, $95,000.
  • Part D: a small treatment and pump building for the community well, $140,000.
  • Part E: a treatment unit installed at one home, $3,500 for each home, and there are 40 homes.
  • Part F: one shared filling station where families can take clean water home, $45,000.
  • Part G: distribution pipes and service lines through the neighborhood, $210,000.

The board's goals. Safe drinking water at every home. No home left without water in a dry August. A low monthly charge for each family. A system the district can still run in twenty years.

The constraints. Phase one must cost $320,000 or less. Phase one must be finished within two years. State rules require a certified operator for any system serving twenty-five homes or more. The hill is 180 feet high, so any piped plan must lift water that far.

Your team roles. Each team of three fills all three roles.

  • The design engineer draws the map and says which parts go where.
  • The treatment operator says what each part needs in staffing and upkeep.
  • The rate analyst builds the phase-one cost table and the monthly charge per home.

What you turn in. A four-page proposal with a labeled neighborhood map, a phase-one cost table, a phase-two list, and one page titled "What phase one does not fix." Each team also gives a five-minute presentation to the board panel and answers two questions from it.

Milestones

  1. Session 1, framing the problem. Turn in one page. Rewrite the board's four goals as criteria you can measure. List the four constraints. Rank the four goals and say which one phase one must serve first, with a reason drawn from the problem, not from preference. The teacher signs this page.
  2. Session 2, two phase-one packages. Each role writes half a page. The engineer covers layout, the operator covers upkeep, and the analyst covers cost. Your team then builds two different phase-one packages from the parts list, scores both against your criteria, and picks one. Write two sentences saying why the package you dropped lost.
  3. Session 3, drafting the phased plan. Draft the four pages. Build the phase-one cost table and check it against the $320,000 limit. Draw the labeled map. List what phase two would add. Write the page naming what phase one does not fix. Trade drafts with another team and give two written notes.
  4. Session 4, board presentation. Give the five-minute presentation. Every role speaks. Take two questions from the board panel. Hand in the final proposal the same day with the peer notes attached.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Rubric
Criterion 4, exceeds 3, meets 2, approaching 1, beginning
Criteria and constraints All four goals are rewritten as measurable criteria, all four constraints are named, and the ranking of goals is argued from the problem. All four goals are rewritten as criteria and all four constraints are named. Some goals stay vague, or one constraint is missing. Goals are copied without change and constraints are not separated from them.
Phase one fits its limits The cost table stays under the grant with a stated cushion, the two-year deadline is shown as a schedule, and the operator rule is addressed. The cost table stays under the grant and the plan fits the deadline. The table is close to the limit but unchecked, or the deadline is not addressed. Phase one exceeds the grant, or no cost table appears.
Two packages compared Both packages are scored on every criterion and the losing package is refuted point by point. Both packages are scored and the losing one is refuted on at least one criterion. Only one package appears, or the reason given is preference rather than a criterion. No comparison is made.
Honesty about phase one The page names each unsolved problem, says which homes it affects, and proposes an interim step for each. The page names the unsolved problems clearly. The page is vague, or it claims phase one solves more than the plan supports. The page is missing, or phase one is presented as complete service.

Differentiation

Support

Give these teams a parts list with a short picture beside each part, and a phase-one cost table with the row labels already written. Supply one worked example of a package built from two parts so the assembly step is modeled before they build their own.

Extension

Ask the team to add a phase-three section for the twenty-year horizon, and to name two measurements the district should take in the first year of phase one to find out whether the plan is working as promised.

ELL supports

Provide a role card for each of the three jobs with the tasks written as short steps, and a picture glossary for main, booster pump, well, and service line. Allow the presentation to be given from a labeled poster, and let a partner restate each board question before the student answers it.

Extensions

Invite a staff member from a local water utility or public works department to sit on the board panel, and ask them afterward to describe a project their own agency had to build in phases because the money arrived in pieces.