Quiz & test questions Grade 4 Social Studies & Civics
Dunmoral's New Wells or a Shared Pipe: A Grade 4 Costs Quiz
A grade 4 quiz on a fictional town choosing between drilling its own wells and buying water from a neighbor, mixing benefit-and-cost items with multiplication.
Objectives
- Students will name one benefit and one cost of each water plan a town council is weighing.
- Students will multiply a four-digit number by a one-digit number to find a town's monthly water costs.
- Students will explain a cost of a water choice that is not measured in money.
Vocabulary
- Water bill
- The statement a household receives showing how much water it used and how much it owes. Reading it carefully can reveal hidden leaks and ways to save money.
Also: benefit, cost, well, town council
Teacher overview
This 30-minute quiz is worth 22 points and covers a water supply choice facing the fictional town of Dunmoral. It mixes two multiple-choice items, two short-answer items, and three computation items. The word cost is central to the quiz. Students who read it as the price tag alone will point to the plan with the smaller monthly bill and stop there. Item 7 asks instead for a cost that is not money, such as depending on another town for the supply, and the discussion afterward is usually where that idea takes hold.
Assessment
Read about the town. Then answer the questions.
Dunmoral is a fictional town with 1,200 homes. The town gets its water from 3 old wells. Two of those wells are running low. The town council must pick a plan.
Plan A: Drill two new wells inside Dunmoral. The town would own the new wells. Each home would pay $8 more each month.
Plan B: Build a pipe to the city of Brackmoor, 8 miles away, and buy water from Brackmoor. Each home would pay $5 more each month. The town would also send Brackmoor $2,400 each month for the water.
- (2 points) Which sentence names a benefit of Plan A?
- A) Dunmoral would own the new wells and control its own water.
- B) Dunmoral would send money to Brackmoor every month.
- C) Dunmoral homes would pay the smallest amount each month.
- D) Dunmoral would need a pipe that runs 8 miles.
- (2 points) Which sentence names a cost of Plan B?
- A) Dunmoral would have more water.
- B) Dunmoral would send money to Brackmoor every month.
- C) Dunmoral would own two new wells.
- D) Dunmoral homes would pay the larger monthly amount.
- (3 points) Write one reason a family in Dunmoral might like Plan B better than Plan A.
- (4 points) Dunmoral has 1,200 homes. Under Plan A, each home pays $8 more each month. How much more do all 1,200 homes pay in one month?
- (4 points) Dunmoral has 1,200 homes. Under Plan B, each home pays $5 more each month. How much more do all 1,200 homes pay in one month?
- (4 points) Under Plan B, Dunmoral would also send Brackmoor $2,400 each month for water. How much would the town send in 6 months?
- (3 points) A cost does not have to be money. Write one cost of Plan B that is not money.
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.
Plan A has the town drill and own its own wells, so Dunmoral keeps control of where its water comes from. Choice C is the common trap, because the smaller monthly amount belongs to Plan B, not Plan A. - Answer: B.
Under Plan B the town sends money out to Brackmoor every month for as long as it buys water. Choice D names the larger bill, which belongs to Plan A. - Answer: Accept any reasonable reason, most often the smaller monthly bill under Plan B.
Students may write that a family pays $5 more instead of $8 more, or that a family watching its budget would notice the smaller water bill each month. - Answer: 9,600 dollars.
1,200 homes multiplied by $8 for each home equals $9,600 in one month. Partial products give 1,000 times 8 equals 8,000, plus 200 times 8 equals 1,600, and 8,000 plus 1,600 equals 9,600. - Answer: 6,000 dollars.
1,200 homes multiplied by $5 for each home equals $6,000 in one month. Partial products give 1,000 times 5 equals 5,000, plus 200 times 5 equals 1,000. - Answer: 14,400 dollars.
$2,400 each month multiplied by 6 months equals $14,400. Partial products give 2,000 times 6 equals 12,000, plus 400 times 6 equals 2,400. - Answer: Accept any cost that is not money, such as depending on Brackmoor for the supply.
Students may write that Dunmoral would no longer control its own water, that Brackmoor could raise its price later, or that Brackmoor might need the water itself in a dry year.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the multiplication for items 4 and 5 already set up as 1,200 times 8 and 1,200 times 5, with a partial-product frame underneath. Provide a two-column chart labeled Benefit and Cost for the fictional town, and let students sort four prepared sentence strips into it before they write items 3 and 7.
Extension
Ask students to find the difference between the two monthly totals they calculated in items 4 and 5, then write one or two sentences about what that difference would buy the town over a year. Students who finish early can list one question they would ask the Brackmoor city council before Dunmoral signed an agreement.
ELL supports
Pre-teach benefit and cost with a pair of picture cards and a simple gesture for each, then practice with one non-water example such as choosing between two lunches. Offer sentence frames for items 3 and 7: "A family might like Plan B because ___." and "One cost that is not money is ___."
Extensions
Have the class hold a short council meeting in which four students argue for Plan A and four argue for Plan B, using the numbers from the quiz. Ask the rest of the class to vote and to write one sentence naming the strongest reason they heard. Students can then compare the fictional choice to how their own town or water district gets its water, using the water quality report their utility mails each year.