Worksheet Grade 6 Math

Calderwick Booster Pump Station: Flow, Runtime, and Daily Demand

A grade 6 worksheet where students use a fictional booster pump's flow rate to find gallons pumped, runtime, and percent of a neighborhood's daily demand.

Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Math
Material: Worksheet
Time: 30 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: Calculator

Standards

6.RP.A.3 Common Core Math

Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations, including finding a percent of a quantity and converting measurement units.

How this material aligns: Items 1 through 8 and 10 apply the constant flow rate in gallons per minute to find totals, runtime, and a percent of a day, the unit-rate and percent reasoning 6.RP.A.3 targets.

All materials for 6.RP.A.3 →

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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 use a pump's gallons-per-minute rate to find gallons moved over a given time.
Students will find how long a pump must run to meet a stated daily demand and what percent of a day that is.

Vocabulary

Flow rate: Flow rate measures how much water moves past a point in a certain amount of time, like gallons per minute through a garden hose. Bigger pipes and stronger pushes give bigger flow rates.

Also: booster pump, gallons per minute, demand

Teacher overview

Some neighborhoods sit uphill from the water tower, so a booster pump adds pressure and pushes water up to them. This worksheet follows one such pump in Calderwick, a fictional town, as it fills the Hillcrest neighborhood's daily need. Students use the pump's steady flow rate to find how much water it moves, how long it must run, and what share of the day it works. A common error is multiplying by hours when the rate is given per minute; watch for students who forget to match the time units before they multiply.

Calderwick Booster Pump Station: Flow, Runtime, and Daily Demand — Grade 6 Math

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Calderwick's Hillcrest neighborhood is served by one booster pump. Use these facts about the fictional town's pump for every problem. Round answers as directed.

The main pump moves 250 gpm (gallons per minute).
A smaller backup pump moves 150 gpm.
On a normal day, Hillcrest uses 90,000 gallons of water.
A full day is 24 hours, and one hour is 60 minutes.

The main pump moves 250 gpm. How many gallons does it move in 1 hour?
How many gallons does the main pump move in 4 hours?
The main pump must deliver Hillcrest's 90,000 gallons for the day. How many minutes must it run?
Change your answer from problem 3 into hours.
The main pump ran for 6 hours today. What percent of the 24-hour day was it running? Round to the nearest whole percent.
The backup pump moves 150 gpm. How many gallons does it move in 30 minutes?
In 10 minutes, how many more gallons does the main pump move than the backup pump?
One busy day, the main pump ran 6 hours and the backup pump ran 2 hours. How many gallons did the two pumps move together?
Hillcrest sits uphill from the water tower. In one or two sentences, explain why an uphill neighborhood may need a booster pump.
On a hot day, demand rises to 108,000 gallons and only the main pump runs. How many hours must it run? Round to the nearest tenth.

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: 15,000 gallons.
250 gpm times 60 minutes = 15,000 gallons in one hour.
Answer: 60,000 gallons.
4 hours is 240 minutes. 250 gpm times 240 minutes = 60,000 gallons.
Answer: 360 minutes.
90,000 gallons divided by 250 gpm = 360 minutes.
Answer: 6 hours.
360 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 6 hours.
Answer: 25 percent.
6 hours divided by 24 hours = 0.25, which is 25 percent.
Answer: 4,500 gallons.
150 gpm times 30 minutes = 4,500 gallons.
Answer: 1,000 gallons.
Main pump: 250 times 10 = 2,500 gallons. Backup: 150 times 10 = 1,500 gallons. The difference is 2,500 minus 1,500 = 1,000 gallons.
Answer: 108,000 gallons.
Main pump: 250 gpm times 360 minutes (6 hours) = 90,000 gallons. Backup: 150 gpm times 120 minutes (2 hours) = 18,000 gallons. Together, 90,000 plus 18,000 = 108,000 gallons.
Answer: An uphill neighborhood is higher than the water in the tower, so gravity alone gives it weak pressure. A booster pump adds pressure and pushes water up the hill so homes there get enough flow.
Answer: 7.2 hours.
108,000 gallons divided by 250 gpm = 432 minutes. 432 divided by 60 = 7.2 hours.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a labeled rate strip that reads "250 gallons every 1 minute" and "60 minutes every 1 hour," and work problem 1 aloud as a model before they try the rest. Allow a calculator for every division step, and let them keep a units label beside each number so they can check that minutes line up with minutes.

Extension

Ask students to find the flow rate, in gallons per minute, that a single pump would need in order to deliver all 90,000 gallons in exactly 5 hours, and to show the division that produces that rate.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "flow rate," "demand," and "booster pump" with a simple diagram of a tower, a hill, and a pump between them. Provide the sentence frame "The pump moves ___ gallons in ___ minutes," and allow students to answer problem 9 with a labeled sketch instead of full sentences.