Grade 10 Lesson plan
Sizing Sattersley's Constructed Treatment Wetland
A 60-minute grade 10 lesson where students size a constructed wetland that strips nitrogen from treated wastewater, using loading rate and detention time.
NGSS · High School (9–12)
HS-LS2-7 Design a solution reducing human impacts on the environment
Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Clarification statement: Examples of human activities can include urbanization, building dams, and dissemination of invasive species.
Why water teaches this standard well
Dam building is one of the standard's own examples of a human activity to address, which opens debates on fish passage, dam removal, and river restoration. Students can design and refine a solution, a fish ladder, managed flow releases, or wetland reconstruction, that reduces a water project's toll on biodiversity.
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.
26 materials aligned to HS-LS2-7
Lesson plans
Grade 10 Lesson plan
Bell Hollow Lake: Nutrients as Resource and Pollutant
A 45-minute grade 10 lesson tracing how excess nutrients drive an algal bloom and oxygen crash, then having students design a nutrient-reduction solution.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Hartwell's Discharge Permit: The Clean Water Act on the Sindle River
A grade 11 lesson where students analyze a fictional wastewater discharge permit, connecting the Clean Water Act and secondary treatment to dissolved oxygen in a river.
Grade 12 Lesson plan
The Sablefield Polishing Wetland: Loading and Nitrogen Removal
A grade 12 science lesson on treatment wetlands, with handout problems on hydraulic loading rate, areal nitrogen loading, detention time, and removal efficiency.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Larkspur Lake Algae and Nutrients: A Grade 9 Ecology Lesson
A 50-minute grade 9 lesson where students trace nitrogen and phosphorus as both crop nutrients and lake pollutants, then evaluate cleanup steps for a fictional lake.
Grade 9 Lesson plan
Selby's Water Reclamation Plant: BOD Removal by Microbes
A 50-minute grade 9 lesson where students calculate biochemical oxygen demand removal at a fictional plant and link microbial treatment to a healthy river.
Grade 11 Lesson plan
Bramblewood Creek Farms: Cutting Nitrogen Runoff to the Stream
A grade 11 lesson where students calculate a fictional farm's nitrate reduction from cover crops and design an added practice to cut nitrogen runoff to a stream.
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 12 Worksheet
Wren Hollow: A Wet-Weather Month Against Secondary Treatment Limits
A grade 12 worksheet in which students audit a fictional plant's wet February against 7-day, 30-day and 85 percent removal limits, then trace storm loads downstream.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Hollowbrook Treatment Wetland: Sizing a Natural System
A grade 9 worksheet where students size a constructed treatment wetland for a fictional small community, finding area, removal efficiency, and detention time.
Grade 12 Worksheet
Effluent Toxicity and Dilution at the Marledge Outfall
A grade 12 science worksheet on whole effluent toxicity: students find the instream waste concentration, interpolate an LC50, and convert it to toxic units.
Grade 10 Worksheet
Copper Bend Lake: Nutrient Loading and Biological Nutrient Removal
A grade 10 worksheet where students calculate dissolved oxygen loss and phosphorus removal at a fictional lake facing nutrient pollution and algal blooms.
Grade 11 Worksheet
Fenwick Hollow's Bacteria: Nitrification, Denitrification, and Removal
Grade 11 students trace how two bacterial processes strip nitrogen from wastewater at a fictional plant and calculate removal efficiency and pounds removed per day.
Grade 9 Worksheet
Marrow Creek's Constructed Wetland: Nitrate Removal and Detention Time
A grade 9 worksheet where students calculate nitrate removal efficiency, loading, and detention time for a fictional constructed wetland treating farm runoff.
Labs & experiments
Grade 9 Lab / experiment
Bell Creek Nutrient Pollution: A Grade 9 Dissolved Oxygen Lab
A grade 9 lab where students test three simulated creek samples for nitrate, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity to investigate how farm runoff drives eutrophication.
Classroom activities
Grade 11 Classroom activity
Vellacott Lake's Mussels: Modeling How Fast a Lake Clears
A grade 11 activity where teams calculate the clearance time of a fictional lake invaded by filter-feeding mussels, then evaluate three management responses.
Reading passages
Grade 10 Reading passage
Mussels in the Carrowmere Intake: A Biofouling Case Study
A grade 10 science passage on how invasive quagga mussels colonize a lake intake, what they do to the food web, and how a utility weighs treatment against prevention.
Debate kits
Grade 12 Debate kit
Stannard Weir: Removal or a Fish Passage Retrofit
A grade 12 science debate on whether a fictional river authority should remove an aging weir or retrofit it for fish passage, with two-sided ecological evidence.
Grade 9 Debate kit
Stock Trout or Plant Shade Along Tessleton Brook
A grade 9 science debate kit on whether a fictional county should spend its stream grant on stocking trout each spring or on shade trees and floodplain reconnection.
Grade 10 Debate kit
Kestrel Dam: Fish Passage Restoration Versus Continued Hydropower
A grade 10 debate kit on whether a fictional dam should be removed for fish passage, weighing ecosystem restoration against continued hydropower generation.
Projects
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
Dissolved Oxygen Below Cedar Mill Outfall: A Capstone Investigation
A grade 12 capstone project where students sample dissolved oxygen above and below a fictional outfall, then use statistics to recommend action to a watershed council.
Quizzes & test questions
Grade 11 Quiz & test questions
Ripplebrook Estuary Unit Test: Salinity, Oxygen, and Nutrients
A 50-point grade 11 unit test on estuary stratification, summer oxygen loss, and nitrogen loading, mixing multiple choice, computation, and an extended evaluation item.
Grade 12 Quiz & test questions
Woldmere Regional: A Wastewater and Receiving Water Test
A grade 12 science unit test worth 50 points on wastewater unit processes, loading and detention calculations, and how a discharge affects oxygen in the receiving stream.
Grade 9 Quiz & test questions
Sturgeon Lake Nutrients: A Grade 9 Eutrophication Unit Test
A grade 9 test on nutrients as pollutant and resource, mixing multiple-choice, short-answer, and pounds-formula computation around a fictional lake's nutrient loading.
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.