Lesson plan Grade 6 Social Studies & Civics
Who Gets the Water Under Felbrigg County?
A 50-minute grade 6 civics lesson in which students compare two groundwater rules and apply each one to a well dispute between a farm and a town.
Objectives
- Students will explain how pumping from one well can lower the water level in a neighboring well drawing on the same aquifer.
- Students will compare two groundwater rules and identify which users each rule protects.
- Students will recommend a county rule and support the recommendation with a reason drawn from the case brief.
Vocabulary
- Aquifer
- An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
- Groundwater
- Groundwater is water that has soaked into the ground and fills the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rock underground. It is a large underground source of fresh water that wells and springs draw from.
- Water table
- The water table is the underground level below which the ground is completely soaked with water. Dig a hole deeper than the water table and it will start filling with water.
Also: ordinance, irrigation
Teacher overview
Someone has to decide who may pump groundwater and how much, which makes groundwater a civics question as well as a science question. This lesson hands students a fictional county with one shared aquifer, two users who both have a fair claim, and two rules the county could adopt. The misconception worth addressing directly is the common student belief that groundwater sits in an underground lake or river, which leads students to assume that a well a mile away cannot possibly affect a neighbor's well. In most aquifers the water fills the spaces between grains of sand, gravel, and cracked rock, and steady pumping pulls the water level down in a wide cone around the well.
Procedure
Framing the case (7 min): Distribute the case brief and read the first paragraph aloud. Ask students to mark the four town wells and the new farm well on a simple sketch map they draw from the brief, with the town wells on the north side and the farm well two miles west, using two different colors. Ask what the two users have in common, guiding students toward the answer that both draw from the same body of water even though they own separate land.
Building the model (10 min): Fill a clear tub with gravel, then pour water in until it stands partway up the gravel. Draw water out from one side with a turkey baster, or with a straw capped by a finger and never by mouth, while students watch the surface. Students should see the water level in the tub drop as water is removed. Explain that in a real aquifer, where water moves slowly through sand and gravel, the drop is deepest near the well and forms a cone. Name this a cone of depression, and connect it to the case: the farm well and the town wells sit in the same gravel, not in separate underground pipes. If the tub is unavailable, sketch the cone on the board and have students copy it onto the map.
Reading the two rules (10 min): Students read Rule A and Rule B on the handout with a partner and underline the phrase in each rule that decides the case. Rule A gives the landowner the right to pump whatever the land will yield. Rule B allows pumping that is reasonable and does not harm a neighbor's existing well. Ask each pair to state, in one sentence, what a county clerk would have to check before issuing a permit under each rule.
Group application (13 min): Assign each group of four one of these roles: the Arlen Farms owner, the Duncorn town water board, a household on a shallow private well, and the county commission. Groups answer handout questions 1 through 5 from their assigned point of view and prepare a thirty-second statement for the commission.
Hearing and vote (7 min): Run a short hearing. Each group gives its statement, then every student votes by show of hands for Rule A or Rule B. Record the tally on the board and ask two students who voted differently to name the strongest point on the other side.
Exit ticket (3 min): Students answer handout question 6 on a half sheet and turn it in. Collect and sort into three piles as students leave: recommends a rule with a reason from the brief, recommends a rule without a reason, and no clear recommendation. If more than a third of the class lands in the last two piles, reteach how to support a recommendation with a reason from the brief at the start of the next class.
Student Handout
Case brief. Felbrigg County sits above the Caskey Aquifer, a layer of sand and gravel that holds water in the spaces between its grains. The town of Duncorn has about 9,000 residents and pumps its drinking water from four public wells on the north side of the county. Arlen Farms owns 700 acres two miles west of those wells. Last spring the farm drilled a deep irrigation well and began pumping for its corn fields. By August, the water level in two of the town wells had dropped about 11 feet, and three families on shallow private wells nearby reported that their pumps were pulling air. Arlen Farms says the well is on its own land and was drilled legally. Duncorn says the town wells came first and serve thousands of people. The county commission must now choose a rule.
Rule A. A landowner owns the water beneath the land and may pump as much of it as the land will yield, for any lawful use. The county issues a permit to any owner who files the paperwork.
Rule B. A landowner may pump a reasonable amount for use on the land, but may not pump in a way that harms a neighbor's existing well. Before issuing a permit, the county must review nearby wells and may set a pumping limit.
Answer these questions using the brief and the two rules.
- Under which rule may Arlen Farms keep pumping at its current rate even though the town wells dropped? Name the rule and quote the phrase that decides it.
- Under Rule B, what must the county check before it issues the farm a permit?
- The farm well and the town wells sit two miles apart. Explain how pumping at one well can lower the water level at the other.
- Which rule gives a farmer more confidence when planning a costly irrigation system? Explain in one sentence.
- Which rule better protects the three families on shallow private wells? Explain in one sentence.
- Which rule should Felbrigg County adopt? State your choice and give one reason drawn from the case brief.
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: Rule A. The deciding phrase is that a landowner "may pump as much of it as the land will yield," which sets no limit tied to a neighbor's well.
- Answer: Nearby existing wells. Rule B requires the county to review wells near the applicant and lets the county set a pumping limit before granting the permit.
- Answer: Both wells draw from the same aquifer. Pumping lowers the water level in a cone around the pumping well, and when that cone reaches far enough, the level in nearby wells falls as well.
- Answer: Rule A. The farm knows in advance that its permit will not be reduced later because of a neighbor's complaint, so a large investment carries less risk.
- Answer: Rule B. It lets the county limit pumping that harms an existing well, and the three families were pumping before the farm well was drilled.
- Answer: Accept either rule when the student names a reason tied to the brief. Strong Rule A answers cite the farm's legal drilling and its own land. Strong Rule B answers cite the 11-foot drop in the town wells or the three failing household wells.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a copy of the brief with the four decisive sentences already highlighted, and pair them with the county commission role, which summarizes rather than argues. Provide the cone of depression sketch already drawn on the map so they can point to it while answering question 3.
Extension
Ask students to draft a third rule that borrows from both, such as a rule that permits large withdrawals but requires the pumper to repair or deepen any household well that fails within a mile. Have them name one group that would object to their rule and explain why.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "aquifer," "well," "permit," and "ordinance" with the gravel tub model, labeling each part in English and, where possible, in the student's home language. Provide sentence frames for the group statement: "Our group supports Rule ___ because ___." and "This rule protects ___ because ___."
Extensions
Invite a county or utility water planner to describe how well permits are handled locally, and ask students to compare that real process with Rule A and Rule B. Students can also compare Felbrigg County's choice with the way many western states share river water, where users are ranked by who first put the water to use rather than by land ownership.