Grade 12 Lesson plan
Verrant Gorge Dam: Instrument Readings and Safety Decisions
Students act as dam safety technicians, computing average rates of change in seepage and piezometer data and weighing three surveillance responses against criteria.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-ETS1-3 Evaluate a solution against prioritized criteria and trade-offs
Evaluate a solution to a complex real-world problem based on prioritized criteria and trade-offs that account for a range of constraints, including cost, safety, reliability, and aesthetics as well as possible social, cultural, and environmental impacts.
Why water teaches this standard well
Water projects force real trade-offs among cost, safety, reliability, and community impact, which is precisely what this standard asks students to weigh. Evaluating whether a city should build a new reservoir, expand reuse, or invest in conservation puts every one of those constraints on the table at once.
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.
95 materials aligned to HS-ETS1-3
Lesson plans
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Dovegate Cast-Iron Mains: Pipe Lining or Open-Cut Replacement
A grade 10 lesson comparing cured-in-place lining with open-cut replacement for a fictional town's 1920s water mains, using annualized cost and a break-even price.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Pinewattle Flats Aquifer Storage and Recovery Feasibility
A grade 10 lesson sizing an aquifer storage and recovery scheme for a fictional town, from winter surplus and recovery efficiency to the number of injection wells.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Aldermoor Corrosion Control: Choosing a Lead-Reduction Treatment
A grade 11 engineering lesson where students weigh corrosion-control options for a lead exceedance and compute an orthophosphate feed rate with the pounds formula.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Sundale Farm Irrigation: Comparing Sprinkler and Drip Efficiency
A grade 11 engineering lesson where students compare sprinkler and drip irrigation efficiency for a drought-hit farm and compute the pumped flow each system needs.
Grade 12 Lesson plan
Water Age in the Quintrell Ridge Tank: A Turnover Lesson
A grade 12 lesson where students compute water age in a fictional storage tank from volume and daily throughput, then weigh storage size against disinfectant residual.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Ledgewater Water Loss Audit: Non-Revenue Water and Payback
A grade 9 lesson where students run a water balance for a fictional utility, find non-revenue water, and test whether a leak-detection program pays for itself.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Langmere Reservoir Turnover: Choosing an Intake Depth
A grade 10 lesson using an August depth profile of temperature, oxygen, and manganese to decide which intake a reservoir plant should draw from before fall turnover.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Nettleton Plant Breakpoint Chlorination: Reading the Curve
A 50-minute grade 10 chemistry lesson where students read a breakpoint chlorination curve, calculate chlorine demand, and find the dose for a target residual.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Rilbeck's Partial Lead Line Replacements: A Corrosion Lesson
A grade 10 lesson on why cutting out only part of a lead service line can raise tap lead, using sequential sampling data from two homes to evaluate a utility's policy.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Sterling Junction's Aging Water Mains: Evaluating a Fix
A 50-minute grade 10 lesson where students use break rates and costs to evaluate a fictional town's water main replacement plan against reliability trade-offs.
Grade 12 Lesson plan
Cross-Connection Control and Backflow at Ashbury School
A grade 12 science lesson on how pressure loss lets contaminated water enter a distribution main, with handout problems converting feet of head to psi.
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Tanager Ridge Parking Lot Runoff: A Bioretention Design Lesson
A 55-minute grade 10 engineering lesson where students calculate parking-lot runoff and size a bioretention cell to capture it within a fixed footprint.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Prioritizing Water-Main Replacement: A Dunmore Decision-Matrix Lesson
A grade 11 engineering lesson where students use a weighted decision matrix to rank which aging water mains the fictional city of Dunmore should replace first.
Grade 12 Lesson plan
Dunmore Reclamation Facility: BOD Removal Efficiency and Loading
A 50-minute grade 12 engineering lesson where students calculate BOD removal efficiency and pounds-per-day loading for a fictional secondary wastewater plant.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Ranking Water Main Replacements with a Decision Matrix
A 50-minute grade 9 engineering lesson where students build a weighted decision matrix to rank three aging water mains for replacement under a limited budget.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Sizing a Parking Lot Bioretention Cell by the Rational Method
A 55-minute grade 9 engineering lesson where students use the rational method to find parking lot runoff, compare it with lawn, and size a bioretention cell.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Marrow Creek's Forever Chemicals: PFAS Bonds and Treatment Trade-offs
Grade 11 students connect carbon-fluorine bond strength to PFAS persistence, compare fictional well results to the federal limit, and evaluate treatment options.
Worksheets
Grade 10 Worksheet
Pennyford Sanitary Sewer: Inflow and Infiltration Math
A grade 10 worksheet measuring storm water leaking into a fictional town's sanitary sewer, then pricing the extra treatment and testing what a lining project would fix.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Granite Ridge Transmission Main: Material and Pressure Class
A grade 9 engineering worksheet where students screen three pipe options for a transmission main against ranked requirements for pressure, schedule, and cost per year.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Chlorine Loss in Sarnwick's Pipes: Testing Two Decay Models
Grade 10 students test a constant-loss model against a halving model of chlorine residual, using sample readings from a fictional town's pressure zone.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Aldermere Plant UV Disinfection: Dose and Log Inactivation
A grade 10 science worksheet where students calculate ultraviolet dose from intensity and contact time, then test it against a fictional plant's inactivation targets.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Braemar Wells GAC Treatment for PFAS: Carbon Bed Breakthrough
A grade 10 science worksheet on PFAS removal, carbon contact time, and breakthrough for a fictional district's activated-carbon vessels, with a treatment trade-off.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Ilminster's Trihalomethanes: Water Age and Running Averages
A grade 11 worksheet on disinfection byproducts: students compute running annual averages at four sites, tie them to water age, and weigh a main-flushing program.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Alum Coagulant Dosing at the Penhallow Treatment Plant
A grade 12 worksheet applying the pounds formula, flow conversions, and turbidity removal efficiency across a fictional plant's coagulation and disinfection train.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Disinfection CT and Baffling at the Whitcombe Clearwell
A grade 12 science worksheet on chlorine CT: students find contact time from clearwell volume and flow, apply a baffling factor, and check CT against a target.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Corvale's PFAS Pilot: GAC Removal Efficiency Worksheet
A grade 9 science worksheet on a fictional town's activated-carbon pilot, where students calculate PFAS removal efficiency and compare treated water to the federal limit.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Hollin Gap Water Audit: Non-Revenue Water and Pipe Replacement
A grade 9 worksheet where students audit a fictional town's water losses, price the lost water, and weigh leak detection against a faster pipe replacement program.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Chlorine Contact Time at Merrowfield: A Grade 9 CT Worksheet
A grade 9 worksheet where students find contact time from basin volume and flow, calculate CT for disinfection, and solve for the residual a plant needs at peak flow.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Ridgecomb Booster Station: Pipe Flow and Pressure Math
A grade 9 science worksheet where students use operator formulas to find pipe flow, convert units, and calculate pump pressure for a fictional town's booster station.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Harwick Plant Sedimentation Basin: Volume and Detention Time
A grade 12 engineering worksheet where students find a fictional basin's volume in gallons and its detention time, then test it against the typical 2-to-4-hour range.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Sable Point Desalination: Salt Rejection and Recovery Rate Worksheet
A grade 10 worksheet where students calculate salt rejection, recovery rate, and energy use at a fictional coastal reverse-osmosis desalination facility.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Piloting Reverse Osmosis for Salt Fork's Brackish Well Water
A grade 9 worksheet in which students size a reverse osmosis pilot skid for a fictional town's brackish well, calculating recovery rate and concentrate salinity.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Chlorine Dosing at Thistle Hollow: A Grade 9 Unit-Conversion Worksheet
A grade 9 worksheet where students chain unit conversions and the pounds formula to calculate chlorine feed rates for a fictional town's water treatment plant.
Math problem sets
Grade 9 Math problem set
Brindlecote Intake Screen: Sizing for Through-Screen Velocity
A grade 9 set where students convert a fictional town's river intake flow from MGD to cfs, then size a cylindrical wedge-wire screen to hold through-screen velocity down.
Grade 10 Math problem set
Crestview Booster Pump: Horsepower, Energy, and Operating Cost
A grade 10 problem set where students chain the water-horsepower formula through efficiency to find a fictional pump station's daily energy use and cost.
Grade 10 Math problem set
Glenmoor Clearwell: Chlorine Contact Time and CT Values
A grade 10 problem set on disinfection where students size a clearwell, find contact time with a baffling factor, and compute the CT a fictional plant achieves.
Grade 11 Math problem set
Cheswick's UV Reactor: Dose, Transmittance, and Log Inactivation
A grade 11 problem set on ultraviolet disinfection, moving from exposure time and lamp aging to absorbance from transmittance and the survivors left after inactivation.
Grade 11 Math problem set
Cresswick Clearwell Disinfection: Chlorine Dose and CT Math
A grade 11 problem set on chlorine demand, the pounds formula, contact time, and CT values in a fictional plant's clearwell, with equations for a required residual.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Elmcrest Storage Tank: Fire Flow, Reserve, and Volume
A grade 9 problem set where students model a fictional town's cylindrical tank, find its volume in gallons, and track how much water a two-hour fire flow draws down.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Orrick Treatment Plant: Detention Time and Filter Loading
A grade 9 problem set where students find a sedimentation basin's detention time and a sand filter's loading rate for a fictional treatment plant.
Grade 11 Math problem set
Tarnbrook Brackish RO Pilot: Recovery, Rejection, and Energy Problems
A grade 11 engineering set on the fictional Tarnbrook brackish-water RO pilot, covering percent recovery, salt rejection, a mass balance, and specific energy use.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Gullwing Bay Desalination Plant: Recovery, Rejection, and Energy Math
A grade 12 reverse-osmosis problem set where students track flow and salt through a fictional seawater plant, finding recovery, salt rejection, and daily energy use.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Kingsley Bend Plant Chlorine Feed: Pounds-Formula and Demand Problems
A grade 12 problem set on chlorine disinfection at a fictional plant: students apply the pounds formula, find chlorine demand, and set a feed to hit a target residual.
Grade 12 Math problem set
Vantage Mesa Raw-Water Pump Main: Flow, Velocity, and Sizing Problems
A grade 12 engineering problem set on a fictional raw-water pump main: students convert MGD to gpm and cfs, then use continuity to size the discharge pipe.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Ash Creek Treatment Plant: Detention, Filters, Chlorine
A grade 9 engineering set on a surface water plant: students size a sedimentation basin's detention time, a filter loading rate, and a chlorine feed in pounds per day.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Birch Hollow Pump Station: Head, Pressure, and Flow Problems
A grade 9 engineering problem set on a booster pump station: students find total dynamic head, discharge pressure, flow conversions, and tank fill time.
Grade 9 Math problem set
Marsh Landing Seawater Reverse Osmosis: Recovery and Flux
A grade 9 engineering set on a seawater reverse osmosis plant: students find permeate and concentrate flows, membrane flux, a concentration factor, and daily energy.
Labs & experiments
Grade 11 Lab / experiment
Modeling Osmosis: A Dialysis-Tubing Investigation for Desalination
A grade 11 lab where students track osmosis into dialysis tubing holding 20% and 40% sucrose, estimate osmotic pressure, and weigh reverse-osmosis trade-offs.
Grade 10 Lab / experiment
Settling Column Test: A Grade 10 Sedimentation Design Lab
A grade 10 lab where students test how a coagulant changes how fast cloudy water clears, then connect the result to sedimentation basin design.
Grade 11 Lab / experiment
Aldwyn Reservoir Jar Test: Finding the Optimal Alum Dose
A grade 11 lab where students run a five-jar coagulation test on cloudy water, plot clarity against alum dose, and scale the best dose to a plant feed rate.
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Brackwell Creek Jar Test: Finding the Best Coagulant Dose
A grade 9 lab where students run a coagulation jar test on turbid water, compare alum doses, and find the dose that clears the water best before it settles.
Grade 10 Lab / experiment
Upwood Creek Chlorine Demand: A Dose and Residual Lab
Grade 10 students dose four water samples that carry increasing amounts of leaf matter, measure the free chlorine left after 15 minutes, and calculate chlorine demand.
Grade 12 Lab / experiment
Jar Test Coagulation on Brindle Creek Water: Finding the Dose
A grade 12 lab where students run a five-jar coagulation test on fictional muddy source water, rate settled clarity, and find the lowest effective alum dose.
Grade 10 Lab / experiment
Comparing Column Filter Media: A Grade 10 Turbidity Design Lab
A grade 10 engineering lab where students build column filters, change the media, and test which design clears cloudy water best while keeping an acceptable flow rate.
Grade 12 Lab / experiment
Build and Test a Bench-Scale Sand Filter: Loading Rate and Clarity
A grade 12 engineering lab where students build a sand filter column, measure its flow, and compute the loading rate in gpm per square foot against the design range.
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Building and Testing a Multimedia Water Filter Column
A grade 9 engineering lab where students build a gravel, sand, and charcoal filter column, then test it by measuring water clarity and flow rate across two trials.
Classroom activities
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Ferrowdale Main Break: An Operations Tabletop
A 55-minute grade 10 tabletop exercise where student crews isolate a broken water main in timed rounds and calculate lost water, tank drawdown, and zone pressure.
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Westhorne's Cross-Connection Hazard Hunt Stations
A 50-minute grade 10 station rotation where teams inspect six cross-connection sites, choose backflow assemblies, and calculate the pressures that drive backflow.
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Pikehaven Valve Isolation Drill: Shutting Down a Main Break
Grade 10 teams work a fictional distribution loop, choose the valves that isolate a broken main, and calculate the customers and gallons taken out of service.
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Vellamore Reverse Osmosis Troubleshooting Rounds
A grade 10 station rotation where teams read operating data from four fictional membrane trains, calculate flow and salt passage changes, and diagnose each fault.
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
Vennacott Phosphorus Permit: A Nutrient Removal Charrette
Grade 12 teams rotate through three design desks, price chemical against biological phosphorus removal for a fictional plant, and defend one recommendation.
Grade 10 Classroom activity
Operator on Shift: A Silverton Incident-Response Role-Play
A grade 10 careers role-play where student teams act as operators at the fictional Silverton utility, judging incident responses against four operator criteria.
Reading passages
Grade 10 Reading passage
Turning Seawater into Drinking Water: The Carlsbad Desalination Plant
A grade 10 reading passage on the Carlsbad desalination plant, tracing how reverse osmosis works and weighing its costs against water reuse alternatives.
Grade 9 Reading passage
From Wastewater to Groundwater: Orange County's Recycling System
A grade 9 informational passage on the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System, tracing its three-step purification process and comparing it to ocean desalination.
Writing prompts
Grade 9 Writing prompt
Should Vanbrough Chlorinate Its Wells? An Argument Prompt
A grade 9 science argument prompt where students take a position on whether a fictional groundwater town should begin chlorinating its three deep wells.
Debate kits
Grade 10 Debate kit
Should Cardington Switch to Chloramine Disinfection?
A grade 10 science debate kit on converting a city's distribution system from free chlorine to chloramine, with two-sided evidence on byproducts, residual, and risk.
Grade 9 Debate kit
Where Ivenden's Concentrate Goes: River or Injection Well
A grade 9 science debate kit on whether a fictional brackish water plant should send its salty reverse osmosis concentrate to a river or into a deep injection well.
Grade 11 Debate kit
Chlorine or UV at Thistlewood: A Water Disinfection Debate Kit
A grade 11 debate kit on whether a fictional utility should replace chlorine with UV disinfection, weighing residual protection against chemical byproducts and handling.
Projects
Grade 10 Project
Quillback Creek Rainwater Cistern: A Grade 10 Design Project
Grade 10 teams size a rainwater cistern for a school garden, priced by tank surface area, to store 4,000 gallons on a 12-foot pad for $6,000 or less.
Grade 11 Project
Cindermoss Creek Mine Drainage: A Passive Treatment Design
A six-session grade 11 project: teams design a gravity-driven treatment train for an abandoned mine discharge, sized by iron loading and limited by land and budget.
Grade 11 Project
Thistlecomb Road Culvert: A Fish Passage and Flood Design
A six-session grade 11 project in which teams size a stream crossing that passes the design storm, restores trout passage, and fits a fixed budget and closure window.
Grade 12 Project
Marrowgate Main Replacement: A Capital Plan Project
A grade 12 project where teams rank six aging water mains in a fictional town with a weighted scoring matrix, select a portfolio within budget, and pitch a capital plan.
Grade 9 Project
Cravenmoor Ridge After the Fire: A Backup Water Supply Design
A five-session grade 9 project where students design a backup supply for a fictional mountain water district under a fixed budget and a minimum pressure requirement.
Grade 9 Project
Crestmoor High Water Reuse: A Rainwater and Greywater Design
A grade 9 project where teams design a rainwater and greywater reuse system for a fictional school, sized to a runoff target and held to a fixed budget.
Grade 12 Project
Aquifer Storage and Recovery for the Lattimore Basin
A grade 12 science capstone in which students test whether winter surplus water can be stored underground, then defend a recommendation to a fictional agency board.
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 12 Project
Choosing Fenmarsh's Treatment Upgrade: Conventional Versus Membrane
A grade 12 engineering capstone where teams weigh a conventional filtration expansion against a membrane plant for a fictional growing town, then recommend one.
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 12 Quiz & test questions
Thornquay Cross-Connection Hazards: A Backflow Control Exam
A grade 12 exam on backflow protection for a fictional district, mixing hazard classification with head-to-pressure and life-cycle cost calculations.
Grade 11 Quiz & test questions
Harkin Row Campus Stormwater Retrofit: Design Assessment
A grade 11 engineering assessment on a campus stormwater retrofit, covering impervious area, runoff volume, bioretention storage, drawdown time, and cost per gallon.
Grade 9 Quiz & test questions
Quennfield Plant Upgrade: A Design and Sizing Unit Test
A 35-point grade 9 unit test on a fictional plant upgrade, mixing criteria and constraint items with detention time, chemical feed, filter loading, and pressure math.
Grade 12 Quiz & test questions
Redmarsh Plant Operations Exam: Operator Math and Unit Conversions
A grade 12 engineering unit test on plant operations math, mixing multiple-choice, short-answer, and computation items set at a fictional treatment plant.
Graphic organizers
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Quarryfen Wellfield Protection Zones: A Land-Use Organizer
A grade 10 organizer mapping four wellhead protection zones around a fictional public well, matching the threats in each zone to controls and to who enforces them.
Grade 11 Graphic organizer
Three Source Waters for Cardimore: A Treatment Selection Frame
A grade 11 three-column organizer comparing a river, a reservoir, and a sandstone aquifer across nine design criteria, with a completed exemplar for teachers.
Grade 11 Graphic organizer
Kelbrook Reclaimed Water: A Reuse Tier Organizer
A grade 11 tier organizer matching five reclaimed water end uses to the treatment barriers, quality targets, and monitoring each one demands, with a completed exemplar.
Grade 12 Graphic organizer
Fettleworth Orchard Irrigation: A Weighted Decision Matrix
A grade 12 organizer where students set criteria, assign weights, and score solid-set sprinklers against subsurface drip for a fictional orchard facing a pumping limit.
Grade 12 Graphic organizer
Trawdenmoor Mill Dam: A Failure Mode and Control Organizer
A grade 12 failure mode organizer for a fictional aging low-head dam, tracing each component from observed condition to mechanism, control, and risk score.
Grade 10 Graphic organizer
Carbon, Reverse Osmosis, or UV: What Each Home Treatment Removes
A grade 10 compare-and-contrast organizer that maps three home water treatment methods by how each works, what it removes, and its best use.
Grade 12 Graphic organizer
Comparing Household Water Treatment Options: A Grade 12 Organizer
A grade 12 organizer comparing no treatment, pitcher filters, reverse-osmosis systems, and whole-house filters on cost, upkeep, and contaminants addressed.