Grade 12 Lesson plan
The Freshwater Lens Under Selvey Point
A 55-minute grade 12 lesson building a spreadsheet model of a barrier island's freshwater lens and testing which withdrawal rates keep seawater below the well screen.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-ESS3-3 Simulate resource management, sustainability, and biodiversity
Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among the management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
Clarification statement: Examples of factors that affect the management of natural resources include costs of resource extraction and waste management, per-capita consumption, and the development of new technologies. Examples of factors that affect human sustainability include agricultural efficiency, levels of conservation, and urban planning.
Assessment boundary: Assessment for computational simulations is limited to using provided multi-parameter programs or constructing simplified spreadsheet calculations.
Why water teaches this standard well
A spreadsheet water budget, balancing supply, demand, conservation, and reuse for a growing city, is exactly the kind of simplified simulation this standard allows. Students can model how management choices keep a reservoir sustainable or drain it, seeing the trade-offs real water planners run through every year.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , including its clarification statement and assessment boundary, and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
12 materials aligned to HS-ESS3-3
Lesson plans
Grade 12 Lesson plan
Tamarack Basin Drought Model: A Reservoir Water-Budget Lesson
A 55-minute grade 12 lesson where students build a spreadsheet water-budget model of a fictional reservoir and test how conservation extends the days of supply.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Halesworth Farms: Crop Water Footprints and Irrigation Efficiency
A 50-minute grade 9 lesson where students compare the water footprint of crops and the efficiency of flood versus drip irrigation on a fictional valley farm.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Tamarack Basin Water Budget: Inflow, Storage, and Loss
A 50-minute grade 9 Earth-science lesson where students build a one-year reservoir water budget for a fictional basin and calculate how storage and residence time change.
Worksheets
Grade 11 Worksheet
Ellingham's Peak Day: Per-Capita Demand and a Conservation Target
A grade 11 worksheet on per-capita demand, peaking factors, and how two ordinary conservation measures change a growing town's projected peak-day water use.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Havenmoor Watershed Water Budget: Recharge and Drought Math
A grade 11 earth-science worksheet building a water budget for a fictional watershed, partitioning precipitation into evapotranspiration, runoff, and aquifer recharge.
Math problem sets
Grade 11 Math problem set
Tamsin Reservoir Drawdown: A Drought Water-Budget Set
A grade 11 problem set on a fictional reservoir's drought drawdown, converting MGD to acre-feet and solving a linear storage equation for the days to an emergency level.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Highmarsh Reservoir Water Budget and Days of Supply
A grade 12 science problem set on a fictional reservoir: students move between acre-feet, gallons, and MGD to find net drawdown and how many days of supply remain.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Pinehaven Watershed Water Budget: Precipitation to Supply
A grade 12 problem set turning a fictional watershed's rainfall into acre-feet and gallons, then splitting it into evapotranspiration, runoff, and recharge.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Pinch Creek Reservoir: Graphing Two Drought Conservation Paths
A grade 9 math problem set where students build and graph linear equations for a fictional reservoir's storage under current withdrawal versus a conservation order.
Projects
Grade 10 Project
Ostlin's Drought Plan: A Spreadsheet Water Budget
A five-session grade 10 project where teams build a monthly spreadsheet water budget for a growing town, stress-test it, and choose a 15-year drought plan.
Grade 11 Project
Umberly Reservoir: Testing Covers Against Evaporation
A five-session grade 11 investigation where teams run a randomized evaporation-pan experiment, test it with a simulation, and scale the result to a fictional reservoir.