Quiz & test questions Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics
Marsh Rowan's Cranberry Bogs: A Grade 3 Water and Work Quiz
A 22-point grade 3 quiz on how growers at a fictional cranberry farm reshape wet land to hold water, including a scaled bar graph of the harvest.
Objectives
- Students will describe two ways growers change wet land to farm cranberries.
- Students will draw a scaled bar graph from a table of harvest amounts.
- Students will solve how-many-more and total problems from harvest data.
Vocabulary
Key words: bog, dike, ditch, harvest
Teacher overview
This 35-minute quiz is worth 22 points and follows a unit on how people shape land to work with water. It mixes three multiple-choice items, three short-answer items, and two graph-and-compute items set at Marsh Rowan, a fictional cranberry farm near the town of Fernquay. Third graders often assume that farms only take water away from a place, so items 2, 3, and 7 focus on the ditches, dikes, and reused flood water that let one small supply serve four bogs in turn. A second point worth making aloud before the quiz is that cranberries do not grow underwater; the bogs are flooded only at harvest and in hard frost, and are drained the rest of the year.
Assessment
Marsh Rowan is a made-up farm. Read about it, then answer the questions.
Marsh Rowan sits on low, wet land near the town of Fernquay. Cranberry vines grow there in flat fields called bogs. The vines grow in sand and peat, not in water. The growers dug ditches to move water in and out of each bog. They also raised low walls of sand and soil, called dikes, around each bog. A dike holds the water in when the growers want it to stay.
The growers flood a bog twice a year. In fall, the flood water lifts the ripe berries so they float and can be gathered. In winter, a thin sheet of water on top keeps a hard frost from killing the vines. After each flood, the growers open a gate and let the same water flow to the next bog instead of taking new water from the creek.
This table shows how many barrels of berries each bog gave last fall.
| Bog | Barrels picked |
|---|---|
| North Bog | 70 |
| Long Bog | 40 |
| Stone Bog | 90 |
| Little Bog | 30 |
(2 points) Why do the growers flood a bog in winter?
- A) To keep a hard frost from killing the vines
- B) To wash the farm road
- C) To make ice for the town
- D) To fill the town water tower
(2 points) What is a dike at Marsh Rowan?
- A) A tall barn for storing berries
- B) A low wall of sand and soil that holds water in a bog
- C) A boat used at harvest
- D) A machine that sorts berries
(3 points) Give one reason the growers send the same flood water on to the next bog instead of taking new water from the creek each time.
(4 points) Use the table to draw a scaled bar graph of the four bogs. Let one square stand for 10 barrels. How many squares long is the bar for Stone Bog?
(3 points) How many more barrels did Stone Bog give than Long Bog?
(3 points) How many barrels did North Bog and Little Bog give in all?
(2 points) Which one is a change the growers made to the land?
- A) They dug ditches to move water between bogs.
- B) They moved the ocean closer.
- C) They stopped the rain from falling.
- D) They built the town of Fernquay.
(3 points) Name one job at Marsh Rowan that needs a worker who understands water.
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: A) To keep a hard frost from killing the vines. The passage says a thin sheet of water protects the vines in winter.
Answer: B) A low wall of sand and soil that holds water in a bog. The growers raised dikes around each bog so flood water would stay put.
Answer: Accept any answer noting that reusing the flood water saves water, leaves more water in the creek, or means the growers do not have to pump as much.
Answer: 9 squares. Stone Bog gave 90 barrels, and 90 divided into groups of 10 makes 9 squares. The other bars are 7 squares for North Bog, 4 for Long Bog, and 3 for Little Bog.
Answer: 50 barrels. 90 - 40 = 50.
Answer: 100 barrels. 70 + 30 = 100.
Answer: A) They dug ditches to move water between bogs. Digging ditches changed the land so the growers could move water where they needed it.
Answer: Accept any one of these: the ditch crew, the gate tender who opens and closes the flood gates, the harvest crew that works in the flooded bog, or the grower who decides when to flood.
Differentiation
Support
Give students grid paper with the four bog names and the scale key already printed, so item 4 asks only for the bar lengths. Provide a two-color diagram of a bog, one color for the dike and one for the ditch, and read the passage aloud before students begin.
Extension
Ask students to write two sentences explaining what would happen at Marsh Rowan if the creek ran low in early fall, and to name one change the growers could make in response.
ELL supports
Pre-teach bog, dike, ditch, and harvest with photographs or simple sketches, and post the four words on a labeled cross-section drawing. Allow items 3 and 8 to be answered orally or with a sentence frame: "The growers reuse the water because ____."
Extensions
Have students compare Marsh Rowan with a farm in a dry place that must bring water in through canals, and list one way each farm changed its land to fit the water it had.