Worksheet Grade 6 Math

Pinnick Orchard's Drip Lines: Ratio Tables and Percent

A grade 6 worksheet where students build ratio tables for an orchard's sprinkler and drip watering, then find the percent of water the drip lines save.

Grade: Grade 6
Subject: Math
Material: Worksheet
Time: 40 min
Prep: No prep
Materials: None

Standards

6.RP.A.1 Common Core Math

Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities. For example, 'The ratio of wings to beaks in the bird house at the zoo was 2:1, because for every 2 wings there was 1 beak.'

How this material aligns: Items 1 and 2 ask students to simplify the 20-to-12 watering ratio and describe it in for-every language, which is the ratio description this standard names.

All materials for 6.RP.A.1 →

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 3 through 12 use a ratio table of trees and gallons and percent-of-a-quantity reasoning to compare the two watering systems across a season.

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 write and simplify a ratio comparing two watering methods.
Students will extend a ratio table from one tree to a whole orchard.
Students will find the percent of water saved by switching watering systems.

Vocabulary

Drip irrigation: Watering plants through tubes that release water slowly, drop by drop, right at the roots. Very little water is wasted along the way.

Also: ratio, percent, equivalent ratio

Teacher overview

Pinnick Orchard, a fictional apple orchard outside the town of Alderbury, replaced its overhead sprinklers with drip lines that release water slowly at the base of each tree. The orchard kept careful records of gallons per tree per week under both systems, and this worksheet uses those records for ratio and percent practice. The misconception this page is built to correct is the belief that "saving 40 percent" and "using 40 percent" describe the same situation; items 8 and 9 put the two questions side by side so students have to distinguish the part saved from the part still used.

Pinnick Orchard's Drip Lines: Ratio Tables and Percent — Grade 6 Math

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Pinnick Orchard has 240 apple trees. With the old sprinklers, each tree got 20 gallons of water per week. With the new drip lines, each tree gets 12 gallons per week. The watering season is 14 weeks long.

Write the ratio of sprinkler gallons to drip gallons for one tree in one week. Give the ratio in simplest form.
Use ratio language to describe that ratio in one sentence that begins "For every."
With drip lines, how many gallons do 25 trees need in one week?
With drip lines, how many gallons do 60 trees need in one week?
With drip lines, how many gallons do all 240 trees need in one week?
With the old sprinklers, how many gallons would all 240 trees have needed in one week?
How many gallons does the orchard save in one week by using drip lines?
The savings from item 7 is what percent of the sprinkler amount from item 6?
The drip amount from item 5 is what percent of the sprinkler amount from item 6?
Over the 14-week season, how many gallons does one tree get from the drip lines?
Over the 14-week season, how many gallons do all 240 trees get from the drip lines?
The orchard budgets 50,000 gallons for the season. What percent of that budget does the drip system use? Round to the nearest whole percent.
Explain why the ratio you wrote in item 1 stays the same whether you compare one tree or all 240 trees.

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: 5 to 3.
The ratio 20 to 12 has a common factor of 4. Dividing both numbers by 4 gives 5 to 3.
Answer: For every 5 gallons the sprinklers used, the drip lines use 3 gallons.
Accept any sentence that keeps the order sprinkler first, drip second, such as "For every 5 gallons of sprinkler water, 3 gallons of drip water do the same job."
Answer: 300 gallons.
25 trees times 12 gallons per tree equals 300 gallons.
Answer: 720 gallons.
60 trees times 12 gallons per tree equals 720 gallons.
Answer: 2,880 gallons.
240 trees times 12 gallons per tree equals 2,880 gallons.
Answer: 4,800 gallons.
240 trees times 20 gallons per tree equals 4,800 gallons.
Answer: 1,920 gallons.
4,800 gallons minus 2,880 gallons equals 1,920 gallons saved each week.
Answer: 40 percent.
1,920 divided by 4,800 equals 0.40, which is 40 percent saved.
Answer: 60 percent.
2,880 divided by 4,800 equals 0.60, which is 60 percent still used. Items 8 and 9 must add to 100 percent.
Answer: 168 gallons.
12 gallons per week times 14 weeks equals 168 gallons for one tree.
Answer: 40,320 gallons.
2,880 gallons per week times 14 weeks equals 40,320 gallons.
Answer: 81 percent.
40,320 divided by 50,000 equals 0.8064, which rounds to 81 percent.
Answer: Both amounts grow by the same factor, so the comparison does not change.
Going from 1 tree to 240 trees multiplies the sprinkler gallons and the drip gallons by 240. The pair 4,800 to 2,880 simplifies back to 5 to 3, so the ratio holds for any number of trees.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a partly filled ratio table with the columns Trees, Sprinkler gallons, and Drip gallons, and the rows for 1 tree and 10 trees already complete. Students then fill only the rows for 25, 60, and 240 trees. Give a percent bar divided into ten equal parts for items 8 and 9.

Extension

Ask students to find the number of trees the orchard could water for one week on 3,000 gallons using drip lines, and then to state how many trees that same amount would water with sprinklers. They should show both divisions and explain the size of the gap.

ELL supports

Provide a two-column picture card showing a sprinkler above a tree and a drip line at the base of a tree, labeled with 20 gallons and 12 gallons. Give the sentence frame "For every ___ gallons of sprinkler water, the drip lines use ___ gallons" for item 2 and allow item 13 to be answered in two short sentences.

Extensions

Students can extend the ratio table to a neighboring block of 90 pear trees that uses 15 gallons per tree per week, then write the ratio of pear-block water to apple-block drip water and explain which block uses more water per tree.