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Worksheet Grade 5 Social Studies & Civics

Rules for Sunfield Creek: A Grade 5 Civics Worksheet

A grade 5 civics worksheet where students read a short case about a polluted creek and work out how a town develops a rule to protect a shared waterway.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the public problem and the people who can develop a rule to solve it.
  2. Students will propose a water-protection rule and explain one benefit and one cost of it.

Vocabulary

Storm drain
A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.
Watershed
A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.

Also: pollution, policy, council

Teacher overview

Sunfield Creek is a fictional stream running through the town of Sunfield. This worksheet gives students a short case to read, then asks them to work like citizens and council members: naming the public problem, deciding who can act, and drafting a rule to protect the creek. The scenario is invented, but the way a town turns a shared problem into a written rule is real. Students practice pointing back to the text for evidence and weighing the benefits and costs of a rule.

Rules for Sunfield Creek: A Grade 5 Civics Worksheet — Grade 5 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read the case, then answer the questions.

The case. Sunfield Creek flows through the middle of town. After heavy rain, water rushes across streets and parking lots into storm drains. In Sunfield, those storm drains carry the water straight to the creek without cleaning it. The rushing water picks up litter, oil drips, and lawn chemicals along the way. Last summer, residents noticed dead fish and a bad smell near the creek. A group of neighbors asked the town council to do something before the creek got worse.

  1. In one sentence, what is the public problem in Sunfield?
  2. Copy the sentence from the case that explains how the pollution reaches the creek.
  3. Who in the case has the power to make a rule for the whole town?
  4. Name two things the rushing storm water picked up before reaching the creek.
  5. Whose job is it to notice a problem like this and ask the town to act? Explain using the case.
  6. The case does not say the storm water is cleaned first. What can you infer about why the pollution reaches the creek so easily? Support your answer with a detail from the text.
  7. Write a rule the Sunfield council could adopt to protect the creek.
  8. Name one benefit and one cost of the rule you wrote.
  9. A "watershed" is all the land where rain drains toward one stream or river. Explain why cleaning up only the creek itself, and not the streets that drain into it, might not solve Sunfield's problem.
  10. Imagine a different town where storm drains flow to a treatment plant before reaching the river. Would that town have the same problem as Sunfield? Explain why or why not.

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

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Polluted storm water is flowing into Sunfield Creek, harming the fish and making the water smell bad. Accept any clear statement of the pollution problem.
  2. Answer: "In Sunfield, those storm drains carry the water straight to the creek without cleaning it." This sentence explains how the pollution reaches the creek.
  3. Answer: The town council. The case says the neighbors asked the council to act, showing the council makes rules for the town.
  4. Answer: Any two of: litter, oil drips, and lawn chemicals. The case lists these as what the rushing water picked up.
  5. Answer: Residents, or ordinary citizens. In the case, a group of neighbors noticed the dead fish and asked the council to act, which shows citizens can raise a public problem.
  6. Answer: Because the storm drains carry the water straight to the creek without cleaning it, so anything the water picks up flows in untreated. Students should cite the "without cleaning it" detail.
  7. Answer: Sample rule. "No dumping of oil, litter, or lawn chemicals near storm drains, and the town will add screens to catch trash before it reaches the creek." Accept any reasonable rule aimed at the pollution.
  8. Answer: Sample response. Benefit: the creek gets cleaner and the fish recover. Cost: the town must pay for screens or enforcement, and residents must change some habits.
  9. Answer: Because the streets are part of the creek's watershed, rain keeps washing new pollution off the streets into the creek. Cleaning only the creek would not stop the pollution that keeps arriving.
  10. Answer: No, that town likely would not have the same problem, because its storm water is cleaned at a treatment plant before reaching the river, so the pollution would be removed first. Accept clear reasoning tied to the treatment step.

Differentiation

Support

Highlight the four key sentences of the case for these students before they begin, and provide a word bank (council, storm drain, watershed, pollution) for the written answers. Allow items 7 and 8 to be answered in a single sentence each.

Extension

Ask students to write a short "public comment" they could read at a Sunfield council meeting, stating the problem, their proposed rule, and one reason the council should adopt it, in three or four sentences.

ELL supports

Provide the case with a simple diagram showing rain, a street, a storm drain, and the creek, with arrows for the water's path. Give sentence frames for items 7 and 8: "The council could make a rule that ___," and "One benefit is ___. One cost is ___."