Grade 11 Lesson plan
Merrow Vale Stream pH: The Log Scale and Buffering
A 50-minute grade 11 lesson on the logarithmic pH scale and how carbonate alkalinity from limestone buffers a fictional stream against acid inputs.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-ESS2-5 Investigate the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials
Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on mechanical and chemical investigations with water and a variety of solid materials to provide the evidence for connections between the hydrologic cycle and system interactions commonly known as the rock cycle. Examples of mechanical investigations include stream transportation and deposition using a stream table, erosion using variations in soil moisture content, or frost wedging by the expansion of water as it freezes. Examples of chemical investigations include chemical weathering and recrystallization (by testing the solubility of different materials) or melt generation (by examining how water lowers the melting temperature of most solids).
Why water teaches this standard well
This standard is about the properties of water itself, from its expansion on freezing to its power as a solvent, which is precisely the chemistry behind treatment, corrosion, and weathering. Stream-table and solubility investigations here double as the science operators apply when they manage water quality and protect pipes.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
20 materials aligned to HS-ESS2-5
Lesson plans
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Ferncliff's Lead Pipes: The Chemistry of Corrosion Control
A grade 9 lesson on how corrosion control chemistry keeps lead out of drinking water, using the Flint example and a fictional town's decision to evaluate the solution.
Worksheets
Grade 11 Worksheet
Barrowgate Water Mains: Testing a Sediment Scour Threshold
A grade 11 worksheet testing a utility's proportional flushing model against turbidity results from eight main segments, then planning a controlled follow-up trial.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Elderbrook Water Hardness: From Limestone to Lime Softening
A grade 10 chemistry worksheet on water hardness, converting between mg/L and grains per gallon and finding softening removal for a fictional utility.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Vardley's Hard Groundwater: Hardness and Alkalinity Worksheet
A grade 11 chemistry worksheet on carbonate hardness and alkalinity, using a fictional town's limestone-aquifer water to compute total hardness and buffering.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Water Hardness Testing at Calderwood: A Grade 9 Titration Worksheet
A grade 9 worksheet where students turn drop-count titration readings into water hardness in mg/L as calcium carbonate, classify samples, and find percent removal.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Dunmore Lead Tap Sampling: Reading the Action Level
A grade 9 worksheet where students analyze a fictional town's lead tap-sampling data, find the 90th-percentile value, and compare it to the action levels.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Foxglen Reservoir: pH, Alkalinity, and Corrosion-Control Chemistry
A grade 10 chemistry worksheet where students use pH and alkalinity data from a fictional reservoir to reason about corrosion control and drinking water standards.
Labs & experiments
Grade 12 Lab / experiment
Quarryhill Soap Titration: Calibrating a Water Hardness Test
A grade 12 chemistry lab where students calibrate a soap titration with Epsom-salt standards, estimate tap-water hardness as CaCO3, and check it against EDTA.
Grade 11 Lab / experiment
Brindle Settling Column: Measuring Settling Velocity
A grade 11 lab measuring how fast coarse and fine sediment settle in a water column, linking settling velocity to clarifier design and river deposition.
Grade 11 Lab / experiment
Pentland Aquifer Materials: Porosity and Specific Yield Lab
A grade 11 lab measuring the porosity and specific yield of gravel, sand, and fine soil to compare how well each fictional aquifer material stores and releases water.
Grade 12 Lab / experiment
Conductivity as a Salinity Proxy: A Calibration Lab
A grade 12 lab building a calibration line between salt concentration and a meter reading, then estimating a fictional reservoir sample's salinity from it.
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Chalkwell's Karst Springs: A Limestone Dissolution Lab
A grade 9 lab where students measure chalk mass loss in three solutions, then use spring flow and hardness to calculate the limestone a fictional karst aquifer removes.
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Clearing Muddy Water: A Coagulation and Settling Lab
A grade 9 lab where students compare how muddy water clears with and without a coagulant, rating cloudiness over time and linking their results to real treatment plants.
Classroom activities
Grade 12 Classroom activity
Fellstone Spring: Fracture Widening and Conduit Growth
A grade 12 activity where teams measure how delivery rate controls limestone dissolution, then run three widening rounds until one fracture takes the flow.
Grade 11 Classroom activity
Ondry River Stream Table: Bank Erosion at an Intake
A grade 11 stream-table investigation where teams vary discharge, slope, and bank cover, then explain a migrating bend beside a fictional water intake.
Grade 9 Classroom activity
Frost Wedging and Winter Main Breaks in Grangemoor
A grade 9 four-station rotation investigating why water expands on freezing and how frost depth, not air temperature alone, drives a city's winter main breaks.
Grade 9 Classroom activity
Kestrelford Wellfield: A Sand-Tank Groundwater Model
A 50-minute grade 9 activity where student teams build a sand-tank aquifer, trace dye toward a stream, then pump a well and watch the flow direction reverse.
Quizzes & test questions
Grade 11 Quiz & test questions
Kellsworth Basin Water Cycle: A Watershed Budget Unit Test
A grade 11 unit test on the water cycle and a fictional watershed's budget, mixing multiple-choice, short-answer, and computation items on flows, storage, and recharge.
Grade 11 Quiz & test questions
Westmere Water Chemistry Unit Test: Quality and Treatment
A 30-point grade 11 unit test on a fictional utility's water chemistry, mixing multiple-choice, short-answer, and computation items on quality parameters and treatment.