Grade 9 Lesson plan
Ambleside Dam Retrofit: Sizing a Micro-Hydropower Turbine
A grade 9 lesson where students estimate the power, yearly energy, and value of adding a small turbine to a fictional existing dam, then judge the retrofit.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-ESS3-2 Evaluate design solutions for managing energy and mineral resources
Evaluate competing design solutions for developing, managing, and utilizing energy and mineral resources based on cost-benefit ratios.
Clarification statement: Emphasis is on the conservation, recycling, and reuse of resources (such as minerals and metals) where possible, and on minimizing impacts where it is not. Examples include developing best practices for agricultural soil use, mining (for coal, tar sands, and oil shales), and pumping (for petroleum and natural gas). Science knowledge indicates what can happen in natural systems—not what should happen.
Why water teaches this standard well
The cost-benefit reasoning this standard teaches transfers cleanly to water supply choices: desalination versus recycled water, new reservoirs versus aggressive conservation. Students can build the same cost-benefit ratios for competing water strategies that a utility board weighs when planning for drought.
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-ESS3-2
Lesson plans
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Wystan Gorge and the New Deal Dams: Hydropower Trade-Offs
A grade 11 science and history lesson on why the New Deal built giant dams, how hydropower works, and the cost-benefit trade-offs of a fictional dam proposal.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Cobble Flats Irrigation: Water, Energy, and the Cost of Efficiency
A 55-minute grade 9 lesson comparing furrow and center-pivot irrigation on a fictional farm, testing whether the water and energy savings pay for the new system.
Grade 12 Lesson plan
Desalination Recovery Rate and Salt Rejection at Talon Point
A grade 12 lesson where students calculate a fictional plant's permeate flow, salt rejection, and concentrate TDS, benchmarked against the real Carlsbad plant.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Kettle Bend Dam: Weighing Fish Passage Options With Cost-Benefit Math
A grade 9 ecology lesson where students evaluate three options for a fictional dam blocking trout habitat, calculating cost per mile of habitat regained for each.
Worksheets
Grade 11 Worksheet
Halcombe Bay Desalination: Recovery, Rejection, and Membrane Flux
A grade 11 reverse osmosis worksheet: students calculate recovery, salt rejection, brine mass balance, membrane flux, and energy use for a fictional desalination plant.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Oshton's Biosolids: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and the Agronomic Rate
A grade 11 worksheet turning a plant's daily solids production into an application area, then showing why phosphorus rather than nitrogen limits how many acres it covers.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Reverse Osmosis Flux and Specific Energy at Corravale
A grade 12 science worksheet on a fictional seawater desalination plant: students compute recovery, membrane flux, and the energy penalty per gallon of desalting.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Ferngate High-Service Pump: Tank Fill, Pressure, and Energy
A grade 12 science worksheet using operator math to find a fictional booster station's tank fill time, discharge pressure, and daily energy cost.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Ravenglass Dam Hydropower: Head, Flow, and Energy
A grade 12 physics worksheet using the hydropower equation to find power, daily energy, and capacity factor for a fictional dam, with a drought sensitivity case.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Gantry Falls Dam: Calculating Hydropower Output and Demand
A grade 9 worksheet using head, flow, and efficiency to find a fictional dam's power and yearly energy, then weighing its output against a town's electricity demand.
Math problem sets
Grade 11 Math problem set
Harwick's Pumping Bill: Energy, Efficiency, and Cost per Gallon
A grade 11 problem set where students turn a fictional utility's flow, head, and pump efficiency into daily energy, annual cost, and the savings from an upgrade.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Kingsley Cove Brackish RO: Recovery and Mass Balance
A grade 12 problem set on a fictional reverse-osmosis plant, finding recovery, salt rejection, a brine mass balance, concentration factor, and daily treatment energy.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Pump Station Horsepower at Haldane: A Grade 9 Energy Problem Set
A grade 9 problem set where students find water horsepower, brake horsepower, motor power, and the daily energy cost of a fictional high-service pump station.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Marlow Springs Aeration: Oxygen Demand and Blower Energy
A grade 9 problem set where students find the BOD load a fictional plant removes, convert it into oxygen demand, and compare blower energy, cost, and payback.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Seawater Desalination at Sable Coast: A Reverse Osmosis Problem Set
A grade 9 problem set where students find recovery, salt rejection, and the daily energy and cost of a fictional seawater reverse-osmosis plant.
Debate kits
Grades 10–11 Debate kit
The Direct Potable Reuse Debate: Recycled Water for Rioverde
A structured classroom debate on whether a drought-stressed city should purify wastewater into drinking water, with a two-sided evidence file built from real projects.
Grade 10 Debate kit
Should Harroway Sell Water to a New Data Center?
A grade 10 science debate kit on a town water contract for a data center, weighing evaporative cooling against closed-loop cooling and the energy each design uses.
Grade 11 Debate kit
Thurlow Bend Dam: Remove It or Relicense It
A grade 11 debate on whether a fictional utility should remove an aging hydroelectric dam or relicense it with fish passage, using sediment and energy evidence.
Quizzes & test questions
Grade 9 Quiz & test questions
Cindermill's Next Water Source: Supply Gap, Reuse, and Cost per MGD
A 40-point grade 9 quiz on a fictional city's water supply gap, mixing multiple choice, computation, and short answer across reuse, wells, energy, and cost per MGD.