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Lesson plan Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics

Harwick's Stormwater Fee: A City Council Decision Lesson

A grade 7 civics lesson where students calculate a fictional city's stormwater fee based on paved area and weigh who should pay to manage runoff.

Objectives

  1. Students will calculate a property's monthly stormwater fee from its paved area and a stated rate.
  2. Students will compute the percent increase a new fee adds to a household's water bill.
  3. Students will explain why charging by paved area connects the fee to the cost it is meant to cover.

Vocabulary

Stormwater
Stormwater is rain or melted snow that flows off roofs, streets, and parking lots. In most towns it goes into storm drains and flows to a stream without being treated, carrying whatever it picked up.
Impervious surface
An impervious surface is any hard surface, like a road, roof, or parking lot, that rain cannot soak through. The more impervious surface a town has, the more stormwater rushes off it.
Rain garden
A rain garden is a shallow planted dip in the ground that catches rain running off a roof or driveway and lets it soak slowly into the soil. Its deep-rooted plants help clean the water.

Also: utility fee, runoff

Teacher overview

When rain falls on a roof or a parking lot, it cannot soak into the ground, so it runs off into storm drains that a city has to build and maintain. Many cities now pay for that work with a stormwater fee based on how much hard, paved surface a property has. This lesson puts students on the city council of the fictional city of Harwick, which is deciding whether to charge such a fee and how it would land on different property owners. A common misconception this lesson addresses is that a "flat fee" charged equally to every property is automatically the fairest choice; students will see that a fee tied to paved area asks the properties that create the most runoff to pay the most, which is a different idea of fairness worth debating.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Show an image of a large parking lot with rain running into a storm drain. Ask students, "Where does all this rain go, and who do you think should pay to handle it?" Collect a few responses. Explain that cities must build pipes, ponds, and drains to carry stormwater away, and that work costs money.

Direct instruction (15 min): Introduce the fictional city of Harwick and its proposed stormwater fee: $5 per month for every 1,000 square feet of hard (impervious) surface, such as roof and pavement, on a property. Explain that "impervious" means water cannot pass through it. Model the first calculation with the class: the Delgado family's home has 3,000 square feet of roof and driveway, which is 3 units of 1,000 square feet, so their fee is 3 × $5 = $15 per month. Emphasize that a property with more pavement pays more because it sends more runoff into the city's drains.

Guided practice (12 min): Work a second example together for a large property. Suppose a Harwick shopping center has 120,000 square feet of roof and parking lot. That is 120 units, so its fee is 120 × $5 = $600 per month. Ask students to compare the two fees and estimate, before calculating exactly, how many times larger the shopping center's fee is than the family's fee. Introduce the idea of a rain garden, a planted area that soaks up runoff, and Harwick's proposed 20 percent credit for properties that build one.

Independent practice (18 min): Students complete the Student Handout, calculating fees for several fictional Harwick properties, a percent increase on one household's bill, and the effect of the rain-garden credit. Circulate and check that students convert square feet to 1,000-square-foot units before multiplying by $5.

Closure / exit ticket (5 min): Each student answers on an index card: "Is a stormwater fee based on paved area fair? Give one reason, and use one number from today's lesson to support it." Collect and confirm each response cites a specific figure, such as the $15 household fee or the $600 shopping-center fee, rather than only an opinion.

Harwick's Stormwater Fee: A City Council Decision Lesson — Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Suppose you serve on the city council of the fictional city of Harwick. Harwick proposes a stormwater fee of $5 per month for every 1,000 square feet of hard, paved surface on a property. Use that rule for every question.

  1. The Delgado family's home has 3,000 square feet of roof and driveway. What is their monthly stormwater fee?
  2. A Harwick shopping center has 120,000 square feet of roof and parking lot. What is its monthly stormwater fee?
  3. How many times larger is the shopping center's fee than the Delgado family's fee?
  4. The new fee would raise the Delgado family's total water bill from $45 to $60 per month. What is the percent increase in their total water bill?
  5. A church pays a stormwater fee of $250 per month. How many 1,000-square-foot units of hard surface does the church have?
  6. Harwick offers a 20 percent credit to any property that builds a rain garden. What would the shopping center pay per month after the 20 percent credit?

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: $15 per month.
    3,000 square feet is 3 units of 1,000 square feet, so 3 × $5 = $15 per month.

  2. Answer: $600 per month.
    120,000 square feet is 120 units, so 120 × $5 = $600 per month.

  3. Answer: 40 times.
    $600 ÷ $15 = 40, so the shopping center's fee is 40 times the family's fee.

  4. Answer: about 33 percent.
    The increase is $60 − $45 = $15. As a percent of the original bill, $15 ÷ $45 = 0.333, which is about 33 percent.

  5. Answer: 50 units.
    $250 ÷ $5 = 50 units of 1,000 square feet, which is 50,000 square feet of hard surface.

  6. Answer: $480 per month.
    A 20 percent credit means the shopping center pays 80 percent of $600: 0.80 × $600 = $480 per month.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Provide a printed conversion reminder ("square feet ÷ 1,000 = number of units") and a worked model for a fourth property before students begin. Allow calculators for every step, and let students answer question 3 by lining up their answers to questions 1 and 2 before dividing.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write a short recommendation to the Harwick council proposing a fair way to help low-income homeowners afford the fee, such as a reduced rate, and to calculate what one household would pay under their proposal compared with the standard $5 rate.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "stormwater," "impervious surface," "utility fee," and "rain garden" with simple images (a raindrop bouncing off pavement versus soaking into a garden). Provide the fee rule on a visible reference card, and offer sentence starters for the exit ticket: "A fee based on paved area is fair / not fair because ___, for example ___."

Extensions

Have students look up whether their own city or county charges a stormwater fee and how it is calculated, using the local public works or utility website. Ask them to compare that real method with Harwick's paved-area rule in two or three sentences.