Grade 3 Lesson plan
Where Ollerton's Sink Water Goes: A Grade 3 Wastewater Lesson
A 45-minute grade 3 lesson tracing used water from a school sink to a made-up town's cleaning plant, with criteria, limits, and minute-level tank times.
NGSS · Grades 3–5
3-5-ETS1-1 Define a design problem with criteria and constraints
Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
Why water teaches this standard well
A water filter challenge is the classic way to meet this standard: students define success as clear water and set constraints such as a fixed budget of sand, gravel, and cloth. Framing the problem the way a real utility does, with a target cleanliness and a cost limit, makes the criteria and constraints authentic.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
40 materials aligned to 3-5-ETS1-1
Lesson plans
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Where the Downspout Water Goes at Kirkhollow School
A 50-minute grade 4 lesson in which students walk the schoolyard, record what roof water has done to the ground at four downspouts, and rank the damage.
Grade 3 Lesson plan
Copperkettle Water Plant Tour: Designing Wayfinding Pictograms
A grade 3 art lesson where students design no-word picture signs to guide visitors through a water treatment plant tour, meeting set icon rules.
Grade 3 Lesson plan
Ferngate Flood Barrier: A Grade 3 Model Levee Design
A grade 3 engineering lesson where students build and test a clay-and-stick levee to keep model Ferngate dry when Otter Run floods, then judge the design.
Grade 3 Lesson plan
Larkspur Farm Water Lift: Designing a Tool to Raise Water
A grade 3 engineering lesson where students design and compare two tools that lift water from a low tub to a higher tub, modeling how a pump moves water uphill.
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Brookvale School's Flooded Bus Loop: A Rain Garden Design Lesson
A grade 4 engineering lesson where students define the flooding problem at a school bus loop and compare two rain garden designs to slow the runoff.
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Rain Barrels for the Robin Lane School Garden: A Sizing Plan
A grade 4 engineering lesson where students use whole-number multiplication and division to size a rain barrel plan for a fictional school garden.
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Cleaning Willowmere's Muddy Water: A Two-Step Treatment Design
A grade 4 lesson where students design and compare the order of two cleaning steps, settling then filtering, to clear a fictional river town's muddy water.
Grade 5 Lesson plan
Alder Grove Rain Garden: A Grade 5 Runoff Sizing Lesson
A grade 5 engineering lesson where students use the roof-runoff formula to size a rain garden for Alder Grove Elementary and decide whether it can hold a storm's water.
Grade 5 Lesson plan
Larkspur Water Tower: A Grade 5 Steady-Pressure Design Lesson
A grade 5 engineering lesson where students design a model water tower for Larkspur Elementary and calculate its rectangular tank storage in cubic feet and gallons.
Grade 4 Lesson plan
Watering the Bordray School Orchard From One Rain Barrel
A grade 4 lesson where students set criteria for a fictional school orchard's watering plan, then multiply and divide to test whether one rain barrel is enough.
Worksheets
Grade 3 Worksheet
Elmbury Orchard Watering Design: A Grade 3 Worksheet
A grade 3 worksheet comparing a sprinkler and a drip line at a fictional orchard, using liters and setup minutes to pick a design and improve it.
Grade 3 Worksheet
Choosing a Well Site at Vinehall: A Grade 3 Groundwater Worksheet
A grade 3 worksheet with invented test-hole data from a made-up village, where students subtract within 1000 and pick a well site that meets a goal and a limit.
Grade 3 Worksheet
Willowmere Water Plant Steps: A Grade 3 Design Worksheet
A grade 3 engineering worksheet where students order the cleaning steps at the fictional Willowmere water plant and compare two plant layouts to pick the better design.
Labs & experiments
Grade 3 Lab / experiment
Stonewick Settling Tank: A Grade 3 Water-Clearing Fair Test
A grade 3 engineering lab where students model a settling tank, change only the rest time in a fair test, and measure how much clear water forms on top of the mud.
Classroom activities
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Pipergate Low Pressure Design Review: A Grade 3 Role Play
A grade 3 role play where four water utility roles weigh a booster pump against a wider pipe for a fictional hilltop street and must agree on one fix.
Grade 4 Classroom activity
Marlowbend's Storm Day: A Stormwater Placement Game
A grade 4 team game in which students spend a fixed credit budget placing rain gardens, barrels, and porous pavement on a town grid to keep two low corners dry.
Grade 5 Classroom activity
Pennick Creek Intake Screen: A Grade 5 Mesh Choice Activity
Teams pour a model of leafy creek water through three mesh screens, time each one, and choose the mesh that meets a fictional town's two intake rules at once.
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Northwick's Broken Water Main: A Grade 3 Valve Map Activity
A 50-minute grade 3 activity where crews rotate through four repair stations and use a made-up valve map to shut off the fewest houses while fixing a leak.
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Marsh Bend School Water-Saving Redesign Stations
A grade 3 engineering station-rotation activity where teams redesign four spots in a fictional school to save water and compare their fixes against a shared goal.
Grade 4 Classroom activity
Keeping Kingsbarn's Tank Above the Line: An Hourly Demand Game
A grade 4 engineering activity where teams track a storage tank hour by hour, find the hour it drops below the fire reserve, and test two design fixes.
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Garrowmoor's Dry Month: A Grade 3 Reservoir Gauge Game
A 45-minute grade 3 team game where students track a fictional town's reservoir gauge through four dry weeks and play saving cards to finish far above the line.
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Build a Mini Model of an Underground Water Supply: A Grade 3 Activity
Grade 3 teams pack two soil cups differently, pour equal water on each, and time which soil lets the water soak in faster in a fair test.
Grade 3 Classroom activity
Sparrow Hill's Water-Saving Sort: A Grade 3 Design-Criteria Relay
A grade 3 relay game where teams sort water-related action cards by two design criteria to decide which ones a kid could realistically use to save water.
Grade 4 Classroom activity
Design a Filter for Pinegrove's Cloudy Water: A Fair-Test Build
A grade 4 build activity where teams design a layered gravity filter within a layer limit and a time limit, then test it.
Projects
Grade 3 Project
Brindlewood Cafeteria Grease Catcher: A Grade 3 Design Project
A five-session grade 3 project building a sink catcher for a fictional school kitchen, tested twice against stated flow, catch, and cleaning limits.
Grade 4 Project
A Spillway for Pebblecreek Pond: A Grade 4 Flood Design Project
A four-session grade 4 project where teams build a model earth dam, watch it wash out in a storm pour, then design and fair-test a spillway on a token budget.
Grade 4 Project
A Sampling Pole for Thrushwater Creek: A Grade 4 Design Project
A four-session grade 4 project in which teams build and refine a pole that dips a water sample from four feet out over a creek without spilling or tipping.
Grade 5 Project
Halverd Farm Co-op Well Site: A Grade 5 Design Proposal
A three-session grade 5 project where teams rule out two well sites on setback and depth rules, price the survivors, size a tank, and pitch a site.
Grade 5 Project
Rushbeck Brook Sediment Plan: A Grade 5 Site Design Project
A four-session grade 5 project where teams design, model, test, and revise a mud-control plan for a fictional building site above a brook, then pitch it.
Grade 3 Project
Camp Alder Creek Filter Challenge: A Grade 3 Design Project
A four-session grade 3 engineering project where teams design and fair-test a sand and gravel filter for a fictional camp's muddy creek water on a fixed budget.
Quizzes & test questions
Grade 3 Quiz & test questions
Pinfold Farm Well Cover Choices: A Grade 3 Design Quiz
A grade 3 engineering quiz on three well cover designs for a fictional farm town, sorting design goals from limits and judging which cover to build.
Grade 4 Quiz & test questions
Ellaby Island Camp's Dry Month: Comparing Three Water Plans
A grade 4 design-review quiz in which students judge three water-supply plans for a fictional island camp against a supply target, a no-rain rule, and a token limit.
Grade 5 Quiz & test questions
Merrowgate Hydrant Map: A Grade 5 Design Review Quiz
A grade 5 quiz where students review a fictional town's hydrant plan on a coordinate grid, test it against a coverage rule, and judge a proposed move.
Grade 5 Quiz & test questions
Thackeray Mill Dam Fish Ladder: A Grade 5 Design Choice Quiz
A grade 5 quiz on two fish ladder designs for a fictional mill dam, mixing multiple choice, decimal computation, and a written design recommendation.
Graphic organizers
Grade 3 Graphic organizer
Limbrook Creek Mud Problem: A Grade 3 Design Frame
A grade 3 organizer that walks students from a muddy runoff chain behind a fictional school to written design goals, limits, and a choice between two fixes.
Grade 3 Graphic organizer
Longmoor Dry Summer Water Plan: A Grade 3 Design Organizer
A grade 3 decision organizer where students chart three water-saving fixes for a fictional school against a weekly saving goal and three stated limits.
Grade 4 Graphic organizer
Choosing a Hand Pump for Brindlefield Garden: A Trade-Off Matrix
A grade 4 trade-off matrix organizer for picking one of three hand pumps for a fictional village garden well, with a rule-check grid and a completed exemplar.
Grade 4 Graphic organizer
A Reed Bed for Quillton Park Pond: A Design Decision Chain
A grade 4 six-box decision chain organizer tracing a fictional park board's choice of a planted reed bed over a settling box or a chemical feeder, with an exemplar.
Grade 5 Graphic organizer
Oldencote Microbe Bed Choice Board: A Grade 5 Trade-Off Chart
A grade 5 trade-off organizer comparing three microbe-powered cleaning beds for a fictional town's small wastewater plant against four stated criteria.