Worksheet Grade 3 Social Studies & Civics
The Nolan Family's Dripping Tap: A Grade 3 Water Choice Worksheet
A grade 3 social studies worksheet where students add and multiply liters from the Nolan family's dripping taps and weigh the benefit and cost of a fix.
Objectives
- Students will add and multiply liters to find how much water dripping taps waste.
- Students will name one benefit and one cost of fixing a dripping tap.
- Students will decide whether fixing the taps is a good choice and give a reason.
Vocabulary
Key words: benefit, cost
Teacher overview
This worksheet gives students a small money-and-water choice to reason about, using only the numbers stated in the scenario. The Nolan family has two dripping taps, and students first measure the waste in liters, then weigh the benefit of a repair against its cost. A common student idea is that a slow drip wastes too little to matter, so the early questions add the drips up day by day to make the total clear before the benefit-cost questions.
Student Worksheet
Imagine the Nolan family has a dripping kitchen tap. They put a bucket under it. Each day the bucket catches 3 liters of water. Use this for the questions below.
The tap drips all week. How many liters does the bucket catch in 7 days?
How many liters would the same tap waste in 14 days?
The family finds a second drip in the bathroom. It catches 2 liters each day. How many liters do both taps waste in one day?
How many liters do both taps waste in one week of 7 days?
A pack of new washers costs 6 dollars and can fix both taps. Name one benefit of buying the washers.
Name one cost of buying the washers.
The family decides to fix both taps. Use your liter answers to tell why this is a good choice.
About how many liters would the kitchen tap waste in 10 days?
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: 21 liters. The tap catches 3 liters each day, and 3 times 7 days is 21 liters.
Answer: 42 liters. At 3 liters a day, 3 times 14 days is 42 liters.
Answer: 5 liters. The kitchen tap wastes 3 liters and the bathroom tap wastes 2 liters, and 3 plus 2 is 5 liters in one day.
Answer: 35 liters. Both taps waste 5 liters a day, and 5 times 7 days is 35 liters.
Answer: Saving water and money. Any reasonable benefit earns credit, such as wasting no more liters, lowering the water bill, or stopping the drip sound.
Answer: The 6 dollars and the time to fix it. Any reasonable cost earns credit, such as paying for the washers or the work of putting them in.
Answer: Fixing is a good choice. Look for a reason tied to the liters, such as the taps waste 35 liters every week, so 6 dollars once saves a lot of water over time.
Answer: 30 liters. At 3 liters a day, 3 times 10 days is 30 liters.
Differentiation
Support
Let these students use counters or a number line to build each product, and give them the day counts already circled. Accept a drawing of the bucket filling for items 1 and 2 as long as the liter total is correct.
Extension
Ask students to find how many liters both taps would waste in 4 weeks, then write one sentence saying whether the 6-dollar pack of washers is still worth it and why, using their new total.
ELL supports
Pre-teach benefit and cost with a simple two-column picture, a plus sign for benefit and a minus sign for cost. Allow items 5 and 6 to be answered with a single word or a small drawing before students explain their choice in item 7.