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Project Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics

The Ironbell Creek Water Trail Guide: A Grade 3 Project

A four-session grade 3 geography project building a five-stop trail guide that follows water down a fictional creek, from a hill spring back to the creek again.

Objectives

  1. Students will place five water stops in the order the water travels along a creek.
  2. Students will name one change people made to the land at each stop.
  3. Students will write two clear sentences about each stop for museum visitors.

Vocabulary

Spring
A spring is a place where groundwater flows out of the ground on its own. Springs form where the water table meets the land surface, often on hillsides or at the bottom of slopes.
Reservoir
A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.

Also: intake, outfall

Teacher overview

The driving question for this project is how one creek can supply a town's drinking water and also receive the water the town has finished using. Over four sessions, students research five stops along Ironbell Creek in the fictional town of Hawkstone and produce a folded trail guide with a map for visitors to the town museum. Third graders commonly picture used water disappearing for good once it leaves a drain, so the fifth stop deliberately returns the cleaned water to the same creek below town. A second idea worth stating early is that every stop on this trail is a place where people changed the land on purpose, which is the geography thinking the project is built around. The stop numbers in the brief below are the answer key for the Session 1 sort, so print the stop cards without their numbers and shuffle each group's set.

The Ironbell Creek Water Trail Guide: A Grade 3 Project — Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Project Brief

Hawkstone is a made-up town in a valley. Ironbell Creek runs through it. The town museum wants a trail guide for visitors. You will make that guide.

Your job. Make a folded trail guide with a map and five stops. The stops follow the water from the spring in the hills to the creek below town.

Rules for the guide.

  • The guide has exactly five stops, in the order the water travels, from the spring to the creek below town.
  • Each stop needs a title, two sentences, and one drawing.
  • Each stop needs a numbered dot on the map that matches its number in the guide.
  • Each stop must name one change people made to the land there.
  • Every fact must come from a stop card or from the question you research.
  • The whole guide must fit on one folded sheet.

Stop card 1: Ridge Spring. Ironbell Creek begins at a spring high in the Halworth Hills. Water soaks into the hill and comes out cold and clear. The town put a fence around the spring and planted trees near it. The fence keeps animals out of the water.

Stop card 2: Greymoor Reservoir. The town built a low dam across the creek here. The dam holds back water for dry months. A screen at the intake pipe keeps fish and leaves from being pulled in. The reservoir also gives the town a place to boat and fish.

Stop card 3: the water plant on Mill Road. Water travels from the reservoir to this plant. The plant strains out mud, filters the water through sand, and adds a little chlorine. An operator checks the water all day and writes down what the meters say.

Stop card 4: the water tower on Kettle Hill. Pumps push clean water up into the tall tower. The tower sits high, so water flows down through the pipes to every faucet in town. The tower also holds extra water in case of a fire.

Stop card 5: the cleaning plant by the marsh. Used water from sinks, showers, and toilets flows here through the sewers. Screens, tanks, and tiny living cleaners take the waste out. The clean water goes back into Ironbell Creek below town, through a pipe called an outfall. The town planted a marsh beside the outfall to soak up what is left.

Your own question. Choose one question the stop cards do not answer, such as what happens at the plant during a big storm. Find the answer in a book, on your local utility's website, or by asking a water worker. Put the answer in a box on your guide.

What you turn in. One folded guide with a numbered map, five finished stops, and your question box, plus a two-minute tour you give to a partner using only your guide.

Milestones

  1. Session 1: sort the stops and mark the map. Read the five stop cards with your group. Put them in the order the water travels, from the spring to the creek below town. Number the five dots on the blank valley map. Turn in your ordered cards and marked map.

  2. Session 2: write the five stops. Write a title and two sentences for each stop. One sentence must name a change people made to the land there. Turn in all five drafts.

  3. Session 3: research your own question and draw. Write your question, find the answer, and write it in the question box. Then draw one picture for each stop. Turn in the question box and the drawings.

  4. Session 4: fold, check, and guide a partner. Fold your sheet and put the parts in order. Check that every map dot matches a stop number. Then walk a partner through your guide as if the partner were a museum visitor.

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

Rubric
Criterion Emerging Developing Proficient Advanced
Order of the stops The stops are not in an order the water could follow. Most stops are in order, with one out of place. All five stops run in the order the water travels, from the spring to the creek below town. All five are in order, and the guide explains why water moves from one stop to the next.
Changes people made No stop names a change people made. One or two stops name a change. Every stop names one change people made to the land there. Every stop names a change and tells why that place needed it.
Writing for visitors Sentences are missing or hard to follow. Some stops have two clear sentences, and others do not. Every stop has a title and two clear sentences a visitor could follow. Every stop is clear, and the wording keeps a visitor interested without adding facts that are not in the sources.
Map and drawings The map has no numbers, or drawings are missing. Some dots are numbered and some drawings are done. Five numbered dots match five stops, and each stop has a drawing. The map and drawings are accurate, and each drawing shows the change named in the text.
Research question No question is asked. A question is asked but not answered, or the answer has no source. The question is answered, and the student names where the answer came from. The question is answered, sourced, and connected to one of the five stops.

Differentiation

Support

Give students the map with the five dots already numbered, and provide sentence starters for each stop, such as "At this stop, people built ____." Let students record their two sentences aloud before writing, and pair them with a partner for the ordering task.

Extension

Ask students to add a sixth stop that is not on any card, such as a storm drain or a farm pond, and to explain in two sentences where that stop belongs in the order and why.

ELL supports

Pre-teach spring, reservoir, intake, and outfall with a labeled side-view drawing of the valley, and keep that drawing posted during all four sessions. Allow the two sentences per stop to be spoken and then copied, and accept a first-language label on each drawing alongside the English one.

Extensions

Have the class map the same five kinds of places in its own community, using a local map and the utility's website, and mark which of the five are close enough to visit on foot.