Grade 10 Lesson plan
Ferris Landing Lead Line Program: A Grade 10 Design Lesson
A 55-minute grade 10 lesson where students break a lead service line replacement program into stages and calculate the yearly pace and cost to meet a 10-year deadline.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-ETS1-2 Break a complex problem into solvable engineering pieces
Design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems that can be solved through engineering.
Why water teaches this standard well
A drinking water treatment train is a natural example of decomposition: coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection each solve one piece of the larger problem of making water safe. Students can design a full treatment system stage by stage, exactly as process engineers do.
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.
28 materials aligned to HS-ETS1-2
Lesson plans
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Merrowfen Plant Upgrade: Splitting a Design Among Six Teams
A 50-minute grade 9 lesson where students break a fictional plant upgrade into six work packages, match each to the role that leads it, and write criteria for two.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Osprey Flats Secondary Treatment: A Wastewater Design Lesson
A 55-minute grade 10 engineering lesson: students split a wastewater plant into stages and find the removal efficiency needed to meet the secondary standard.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Decomposing a Treatment Train: A Merrow River Design Lesson
A grade 11 engineering lesson where students break the problem of treating fictional Merrow River water into stages and size each stage against its own goal.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Driftwood Springs Water Treatment: Breaking Down the Treatment Train
A grade 10 lesson where students sequence a fictional plant's treatment stages and use turbidity data to judge compliance with a real federal limit.
Worksheets
Grade 11 Worksheet
Coldstream Well 4: Drawdown, Total Dynamic Head, and Pump Power
A grade 11 hydraulics worksheet where students compute drawdown, specific capacity, total dynamic head, and pump horsepower for a fictional municipal well.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Bristow Reclamation: BOD and TSS Removal-Efficiency Worksheet
A grade 11 worksheet where students compute BOD and TSS removal efficiency and loading for the fictional Bristow plant and check it against the secondary standard.
Math problem sets
Grade 10 Math problem set
Greywillow Plant: Detention Time and Filter Loading Rates
A grade 10 problem set at the fictional Greywillow treatment plant, computing basin volume, detention time, and filter loading rate and comparing each to design ranges.
Grade 10 Math problem set
Wickstead Wells: Oxidizing Iron and Manganese Before Filtration
Grade 10 problems that size a chlorine feed for iron and manganese oxidation at a well field plant, then check filter loading rates and backwash volumes.
Grade 11 Math problem set
Halden Ridge Booster Pumps: Head, Flow, and Pressure Problems
A grade 11 engineering set on the fictional Halden Ridge booster station, where students find total dynamic head, read a pump curve, and check delivered pressure.
Grade 10 Math problem set
Sawtooth Ridge Booster Pump Station: Flow and Pressure Problems
A grade 10 engineering math set sizing a booster pump station for a fictional hillside subdivision, chaining flow, pipe-velocity, and pressure-head conversions.
Classroom activities
Grade 9 Classroom activity
Wickhollow Main Break: A Valve Isolation Simulation
A 45-minute grade 9 activity where crews of students isolate a break on a fictional water main, count customers cut off, and size the flushing and disinfection work.
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Hobbleton Ridge Percolation Stations: Sizing a Drainfield
A grade 10 station rotation sizing a soil absorption field for a fictional rural school, from a percolation test through trench layout, reserve area, and tank volume.
Grade 11 Classroom activity
Brellin Vale Control Room: An Alarm Triage Simulation
A grade 11 role-play in which shift teams triage eight simultaneous plant and distribution alarms, rank them by consequence, and state the first operator action.
Grade 11 Classroom activity
Halverstock Campus Cross-Connection Survey Rotation
A grade 11 station rotation where student inspectors survey six campus cross connections and select the minimum adequate backflow prevention assembly for each one.
Grade 12 Classroom activity
Harrowgill Service Line Inventory and Replacement Sprint
Grade 12 teams classify service line records at four stations, then size the crews, budget, and schedule a fictional district needs to replace lead lines.
Grade 12 Classroom activity
Pinderloe GAC Contactor Sizing Relay for PFAS Removal
Grade 12 teams pass one spec sheet through four desks, size carbon vessels for a fictional plant, find the contact time falls short, and redesign the bed depth.
Projects
Grade 11 Project
Ledgemont Wastewater Plant: A Phosphorus Removal Upgrade
A grade 11 engineering project where teams design a phosphorus removal upgrade for a fictional wastewater plant, sizing a chemical feed system within a budget.
Grade 10 Project
Merritt Hollow's Water Supply Gap: A Drought Portfolio Project
A grade 10 engineering project where teams size well, reuse, conservation, and desalination options to close a fictional town's water-supply gap on a budget.
Grade 11 Project
Quillhaven Slow Sand Biofilter: A Build-and-Test Design Project
A grade 11 engineering build project where teams design, construct, and iteratively test a slow sand biofilter for the fictional Quillhaven field station within a budget.
Grade 9 Project
Juniper Bend Treatment Train Design Challenge
A grade 9 engineering project where teams design a four-stage drinking water treatment train for a fictional town within a flow, footprint, and budget.
Grade 12 Project
Booster Pump Station Design for Ridgeview Heights: A Capstone Project
A grade 12 engineering capstone where teams calculate pump head and flow capacity to serve a fictional hillside subdivision, then select equipment within a fixed budget.
Grade 9 Project
Cotton Bend Brackish Well: A Reverse-Osmosis Pilot Design Project
A grade 9 engineering project where teams design a reverse-osmosis pilot system for a brackish well, budgeting cost, capacity, and energy for a fictional water district.
Quizzes & test questions
Grade 11 Quiz & test questions
Vesper Flats Utility: A Grade 11 Water Engineering Unit Test
A grade 11 engineering assessment mixing multiple-choice, short-answer, and computation items on treatment-train design, detention time, chlorine dosing, and pressure.
Graphic organizers
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Burnthorpe Dam Cause-and-Effect Chain: Retrofit or Remove
A grade 10 cause-effect chain organizer tracing six consequences of a fictional aging river dam and pairing each one with the engineering response it calls for.
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Driftlow Avenue New Main: A Commissioning Sequence Organizer
A grade 10 sequence organizer for putting a fictional new water main into service, pairing each construction step with its acceptance test and its failure path.
Grade 11 Graphic organizer
Standish Creek Plant Upgrade: A Project Roles Organizer
A grade 11 phase-by-role organizer mapping who leads each stage of a water plant upgrade, what preparation each role takes, and which decisions are costly to reverse.
Grade 12 Graphic organizer
Bellowmere Creek Source Water Barriers: A Pathway Organizer
A grade 12 organizer tracing six land uses in a fictional watershed from pollutant to pathway to the barrier that interrupts it, plus a monitoring point.