Project Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics
Where Should Ashwater Put Its New Water Tower?
A three-session grade 4 project weighing three sites for a fictional town's new water tower, ending in a site board, a letter to neighbors, and a council recommendation.
Objectives
- Students will explain why the height of a water tower matters for a town's pipes.
- Students will compare three tower sites and list two benefits and two costs of one site.
- Students will write a letter answering a neighbor's worry about the chosen site.
Vocabulary
- Water tower
- A water tower is a big tank raised high above town that stores drinking water. Its height is what pushes water through the pipes, keeping the pressure steady even when the power goes out.
Also: pressure, main, site, town council
Teacher overview
The driving question is which of three sites the fictional town of Ashwater should choose for a new water tower, and teams answer it with a site board, a letter to neighbors, and a three-minute recommendation to a town council played by the class. Session 1 should settle what a water tower is for. A tower looks like a large storage tank, and on that reading it would belong wherever the most people live. Height is the reason towers exist, because water sitting up high pushes itself through the pipes without a pump running every minute. Once that is clear, the tradeoff in the site cards becomes real, since the highest ground in Ashwater is also the farthest from the pipes and sits beside a park families use.
Project Brief
Driving question: Where should Ashwater build its new water tower, and what does the town give up for that choice?
Ashwater is a fictional town. Its old water tower is worn out. The town will build a new one. A water tower is a tank on tall legs or a tall hill. Water sitting up high pushes itself through the town pipes. The higher the tank sits, the more push the water has, and the fewer pumps the town must run all day.
The Ashwater town council picked three possible sites. Your team is a planning team. You will study all three. You will pick one. Then you will tell the council why.
Here are the three sites.
Hill Site. The highest ground in town. Water from here would reach every home with good push. It sits 1 mile from the town's main pipes, so the town would have to lay a new pipe that whole mile. It is also next to Ashwater Park, where many families spend Saturdays.
School Site. Near the middle of town on flat ground. The main pipes run right past it, so very little new pipe is needed. The ground is lower, so the tower legs would have to be much taller to lift the tank as high. It sits next to the school playground.
Mill Site. Low ground beside the river. The town already owns this land, so no land needs to be bought. It is the lowest of the three sites and the farthest from the newer neighborhoods on the north side.
Your team must follow these rules.
- Pick one site. Only one.
- Make a site board with the town map on it. Mark the tower. Draw the pipe route from the tower to the main pipes.
- List two benefits and two costs of your site on the board.
- Write a letter to the neighbors of your site. Answer one worry they might have. Write at least five sentences.
- Give a three-minute recommendation to the town council.
You will turn in three things. The first is your site board. The second is your neighbor letter. The third is your recommendation to the council, which your classmates will play.
Milestones
- Session 1 (Learn how a tower works and read the sites): Watch or read how a tower pushes water through pipes. Read all three site cards. Fill in the compare chart with one benefit and one cost for each site. Output: a compare chart covering all three sites.
- Session 2 (Choose a site and build the board): Vote as a team and pick one site. Mark the tower on the town map. Draw the pipe route with a ruler. Write your two benefits and two costs on the board. Output: a draft site board with the map, the route, and the four points.
- Session 3 (Write the letter and present): Write the neighbor letter and name the worry you are answering. Finish the board. Give your three-minute recommendation. Answer two questions from the council. Output: the final board, the letter, and the presentation.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Site choice and the height idea | Picks a site with no reason, or the reason ignores how a tower works | Picks a site and mentions height without connecting it to the pipes | Picks one site and explains how the site's height affects push in the town pipes | Picks one site, explains the height effect clearly, and says what the town would do about the weaker push if it chose a lower site |
| Benefits and costs | Fewer than three of the four points are listed | Lists four points but some are copied without fitting the chosen site | Lists two real benefits and two real costs of the chosen site | Lists two benefits and two costs, and ranks which single cost matters most to the town and why |
| Map and pipe route | Tower is not marked, or no route is drawn | Tower is marked but the route does not reach the main pipes | Tower is marked and the pipe route is drawn clearly to the main pipes | Tower and route are clear, drawn with a ruler, and the board notes roughly how much new pipe the route needs |
| Neighbor letter and presentation | Letter is missing, or the recommendation is not delivered | Letter is short of five sentences, or the worry is never named | Letter names one worry and answers it in five or more sentences, and the recommendation fits three minutes | Letter names a worry, answers it with a specific step the town would take, and the team answers both council questions using the board |
Differentiation
Support
Give these teams a compare chart with one benefit already filled in for each of the three sites, so their work is finding the costs and choosing. Provide the town map with the main pipes traced in a bright color and a string for measuring the route, and offer a letter frame with five sentence starters.
Extension
Ask a team to add a fourth site of its own invention somewhere on the town map, write a site card for it in the same style as the other three, and explain in two sentences why the council should or should not add that site to the list. The team can also mark on the map which neighborhoods would notice the weakest push at the top floor of a house.
ELL supports
Pre-teach water tower, push, main, and site with a simple side-view sketch showing a tank above a row of houses. Let the compare chart be filled with short phrases, and provide the letter frame "We understand you are worried about ___. Here is what the town would do: ___."
Extensions
Have students find the water tower nearest their school on a satellite map and note whether it stands on the highest ground nearby, then look up whether their utility posts the tank's height or the neighborhoods it serves. Students can compare that real tower's location with the site their team chose in the fictional town and write one sentence about what the two decisions have in common.