Classroom activity Grade 11 Health & Consumer Science

Fix-a-Leak Station Rotation: Ranking Household Water Waste

A grade 11 station-rotation activity where teams calculate and rank the yearly water wasted by four fictional household leaks and choose the top fix.

Grade: Grade 11
Subject: Health & Consumer Science
Material: Classroom activity
Time: 45 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Four printed station cards, Calculator, Recording handout for each student

Standards

HSN-Q.A.1 Common Core Math

Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays.

How this material aligns: At each station students convert a leak rate into gallons wasted per year, keeping units consistent from per-day or per-week to per-year, the units-as-a-guide reasoning this standard names.

All materials for HSN-Q.A.1 →

HSA-CED.A.1 Common Core Math

Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems. Include equations arising from linear and quadratic functions, and simple rational and exponential functions.

How this material aligns: Handout item 8 asks students to write and solve a one-variable inequality for the daily leak rate that would waste at least a stated yearly amount, the modeling this standard requires.

All materials for HSA-CED.A.1 →

Download Word file

This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will convert leak rates into gallons wasted per year at four stations.
Students will rank the four leaks by yearly water waste and justify the ranking.
Students will write and solve an inequality for a leak rate that meets a yearly waste threshold.

Vocabulary

Key words: leak rate, gallons per year, conservation, prioritize

Teacher overview

This is a four-station rotation for teams of three to four students. Each station card describes one fictional household leak with a stated rate, and teams calculate how many gallons that leak wastes in a year. After visiting all four stations, teams rank the leaks from most to least wasteful and decide which single fix saves the most water, which is how a household or a plumber sets priorities. The rotation teaches conservation math directly, because the ranking a team produces depends entirely on the yearly totals they compute.

Activity Directions

Before class, print the four station cards and place one at each of four spots around the room. Give every student the recording handout, which lists the same four leaks and the questions below. Keep the answer key for yourself.
Form teams of three to four students and send one team to each station to start. Explain that each station card states a leak rate, and the team's job is to compute the gallons that leak wastes in a full year and record it on the handout.
Give teams four to five minutes at each station. When you call time, teams rotate clockwise to the next station until every team has completed all four.
Station 1 (Alvarez home) states a kitchen faucet that drips once per second and gives EPA WaterSense's estimate that such a drip can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year; the handout uses 3,000 gallons. Station 2 (Reyes home) states a running toilet that wastes about 180 gallons per week. Station 3 (Okafor home) states a dripping showerhead that loses 12 gallons per day. Station 4 (Berg home) states an outdoor hose bib that leaks 30 gallons per day.
After all rotations, teams complete the ranking questions (items 5 through 8) at their seats using the four yearly totals they recorded.
End the activity when every team has a completed handout with all four totals, a ranking, and an answer to the inequality question.
Debrief with two questions: "Which leak surprised you as the worst, and why is a small daily leak still a large yearly total?" and "If a household could fix only two leaks this month, which two would you choose, and how many gallons per year would that save?"

Fix-a-Leak Station Rotation: Ranking Household Water Waste — Grade 11 Health & Consumer Science

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Record each leak's yearly waste, then answer the ranking questions. Use 52 weeks and 365 days in a year. These are fictional households.

Station 1 (Alvarez home): a kitchen faucet drips once per second. EPA WaterSense estimates that a drip this fast can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water per year, depending on drip size. Using 3,000 gallons, record the yearly waste for Station 1.
Station 2 (Reyes home): a running toilet wastes about 180 gallons per week. Using 52 weeks, how many gallons does it waste per year?
Station 3 (Okafor home): a dripping showerhead loses 12 gallons per day. Using 365 days, how many gallons per year is that?
Station 4 (Berg home): an outdoor hose bib leaks 30 gallons per day. Using 365 days, how many gallons per year does it waste?
Rank the four leaks from the most water wasted per year to the least.
Which single fix would save the most water in a year, and how many more gallons per year would it save than the second-place fix?
The team has time to fix only the two worst leaks. What is the combined yearly water saved by fixing those two?
Write an inequality using n for the number of gallons per day a leak loses that would waste at least 9,000 gallons in a 365-day year, then find the least whole number of gallons per day that meets 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

Answer: 3,000 gallons per year. The station gives this figure directly, from EPA WaterSense's estimate that a once-per-second drip can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year; the real total depends on the size of each drip.
Answer: 9,360 gallons per year. 180 gallons per week times 52 weeks is 9,360 gallons.
Answer: 4,380 gallons per year. 12 gallons per day times 365 days is 4,380 gallons.
Answer: 10,950 gallons per year. 30 gallons per day times 365 days is 10,950 gallons.
Answer: Station 4, Station 2, Station 3, Station 1. In order the yearly totals are 10,950, then 9,360, then 4,380, then 3,000 gallons.
Answer: 1,590 gallons per year. Station 4 (10,950) is the largest, and it saves 10,950 minus 9,360, or 1,590 gallons more per year than Station 2.
Answer: 20,310 gallons per year. Fixing Station 4 and Station 2 saves 10,950 plus 9,360, which is 20,310 gallons.
Answer: 25 gallons per day. The inequality is 365n ≥ 9,000, so n ≥ 24.66, and the least whole number of gallons per day that meets it is 25.

Differentiation

Support

Give supported teams the day-to-year and week-to-year multiplications already labeled on the handout (times 365, times 52), and pre-fill Station 1 as a model. Allow a calculator at every station and let a team member act as recorder.

Extension

Ask teams to add a fifth station for a leak of their own design that would rank second overall, state its daily rate, and show the calculation proving its yearly total falls between the current first- and second-place leaks.

ELL supports

Provide a picture card for each station (faucet, toilet, showerhead, hose bib) with the leak rate written beside it, and pre-teach "leak rate," "per year," and "rank." Offer a sentence frame for the debrief, such as "The worst leak is ___ because it wastes ___ gallons per year."