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Worksheet Grade 7 Health & Consumer Science

The Halvorsen Home Leak Audit: Gallons and Dollars Wasted

A grade 7 consumer worksheet where students turn a fictional home's leaks into gallons and dollars per year using real EPA drip and leak figures.

Objectives

  1. Students will convert leak waste between yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily rates.
  2. Students will find what percent of a home's water use is lost to leaks.
  3. Students will compute the yearly dollar cost of wasted water at a given rate.

Vocabulary

Key words: leak, rate, percent, conservation

Teacher overview

Small leaks are easy to ignore because they waste water a few drops at a time. This worksheet has students audit the fictional Halvorsen home, turning known drip and leak figures into yearly totals, daily rates, dollars, and a percent of the home's water use. The scenario mixes real EPA figures with the family's fictional water price so students can see what leaks cost.

The Halvorsen Home Leak Audit: Gallons and Dollars Wasted — Grade 7 Health & Consumer Science
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Use these facts about the fictional Halvorsen home. EPA WaterSense says a faucet that drips about once per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water per year; the exact amount depends on the size of the drips, so use 3,000 gallons for this worksheet. Household leaks together waste an average of about 180 gallons per week, nearly 9,400 gallons per year. A standard showerhead flows at 2.5 gallons per minute, while a water-saving model uses 2.0 gallons per minute. The average US household uses about 300 gallons of water per day; assume the Halvorsen home matches this average. Their water utility charges $5.00 for every 1,000 gallons.

  1. The kitchen faucet drips about once per second. How many gallons does it waste in one year?
  2. How many gallons does that one dripping faucet waste in a single month? Divide the yearly amount by 12.
  3. The home's leaks together waste about 180 gallons per week. How many gallons is that over 4 weeks?
  4. Using the yearly leak total of 9,400 gallons, about how many gallons do the leaks waste each day? Round to the nearest gallon.
  5. The utility charges $5.00 for every 1,000 gallons. What does 9,400 gallons of wasted water cost the family in one year?
  6. The home uses about 300 gallons per day, and the leaks waste about 26 gallons per day. What percent of the home's daily water is lost to leaks? Round to the nearest whole percent.
  7. A standard showerhead uses 2.5 gallons per minute, and a water-saving showerhead uses 2.0 gallons per minute. How many gallons does each use in a 10-minute shower?
  8. How many gallons would the water-saving showerhead save during a 10-minute shower, and what percent saving is that?
  9. Explain in one or two sentences why fixing a leak that wastes only a few gallons a day still matters over a full year.
  10. After repairs, the leaks waste only about 5 gallons per day. How many gallons will that save in a 30-day month compared with the old 26 gallons per day?

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: 3,000 gallons. EPA WaterSense says a faucet dripping about once per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons in one year, and this worksheet uses 3,000 gallons.
  2. Answer: 250 gallons. 3,000 gallons divided by 12 months is 250 gallons per month.
  3. Answer: 720 gallons. 180 gallons per week times 4 weeks is 720 gallons.
  4. Answer: 26 gallons per day. 9,400 gallons divided by 365 days is about 25.75, which rounds to 26 gallons per day.
  5. Answer: $47.00. 9,400 gallons is 9.4 thousand-gallon units; 9.4 times $5.00 is $47.00.
  6. Answer: 9 percent. 26 gallons divided by 300 gallons is about 0.087, which rounds to 9 percent.
  7. Answer: 25 gallons and 20 gallons. The standard showerhead uses 2.5 times 10, or 25 gallons; the water-saving one uses 2.0 times 10, or 20 gallons.
  8. Answer: 5 gallons, a 20 percent saving. The saving is 25 minus 20, or 5 gallons; 5 divided by 25 is 0.20, or 20 percent.
  9. Answer: A few gallons a day becomes thousands of gallons a year, so a small daily leak wastes a large amount and adds real cost over twelve months.
  10. Answer: 630 gallons. The daily saving is 26 minus 5, or 21 gallons; 21 times 30 days is 630 gallons.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a filled-in first row and a labeled strip showing "yearly divided by 12 equals monthly" and "yearly divided by 365 equals daily." Allow calculators and accept unrounded answers on the division items.

Extension

Ask students to estimate the family's yearly dollar saving after repairs by finding how many gallons the repairs save in a year and pricing them at $5.00 per 1,000 gallons. Have them show the full calculation.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "leak," "rate," and "percent" with a simple picture of a dripping faucet filling a measuring jug. Provide sentence frames for item 9: "A small leak wastes about ___ gallons a year, so it matters because ___."