NGSS · Middle School (6–8)

MS-ESS3-3 Design a method to monitor and minimize a human impact

Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

Clarification statement: Examples of the design process include examining human environmental impacts, assessing the kinds of solutions that are feasible, and designing and evaluating solutions that could reduce that impact. Examples of human impacts can include water usage (such as the withdrawal of water from streams and aquifers or the construction of dams and levees), land usage (such as urban development, agriculture, or the removal of wetlands), and pollution (such as of the air, water, or land).

Why water teaches this standard well

This is the most water-explicit standard in all of NGSS: its clarification names water withdrawal from streams and aquifers, dams and levees, wetland removal, and water pollution as the very impacts to monitor and minimize. A water quality monitoring plan or a conservation design meets it head-on, and it pairs naturally with the engineering ETS1 standards on a filter challenge.

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.

106 materials aligned to MS-ESS3-3

Lesson plans

Grade 6 Lesson plan

Where to Build Post-and-Brush Dams on Sedge Run

Students weigh three stream reaches against a post supply and a one-day work limit, then choose where a fictional crew should build low post-and-brush dams.

Engineering & Design 55 min Answer key

Grade 6 Lesson plan

Netherstone Salt Shed Runoff Containment Lesson

A 55-minute lesson in which students size a containment curb and a roof for a fictional town's road-salt pile, then budget the monitoring visits that follow construction.

Engineering & Design 55 min Answer key

Grade 7 Lesson plan

Ballantry School Taps: A Lead Sampling and Retrofit Plan

A grade 7 lesson where students build a proportional sampling plan for a fictional school's drinking taps, infer how many exceed the action level, and size a retrofit.

Engineering & Design 55 min Answer key

Grade 6 Lesson plan

Cutter Hollow Erosion Barrier Design and Sediment Test

Teams model a hillside in a tray, measure sediment reaching a downstream cup, then design and test a barrier that reduces erosion for the fictional town of Cutter Hollow.

Engineering & Design 50 min Answer key

Worksheets

Math problem sets

Grade 7 Math problem set

Harlow Heights Roof Runoff: A Rain-Capture Problem Set

A grade 7 science problem set on a fictional school's rooftop rain capture, finding runoff gallons, cistern percent captured, and how surface type changes runoff.

Science 45 min Answer key

Labs & experiments

Grade 7 Lab / experiment

Lake Tamsett Beach Clarity: A Lifeguard Visibility Test

Students cloud water with measured soil, record the depth where a marked disk disappears, and use the data to judge when a lake beach is too murky to guard.

Health & Consumer Science 55 min Answer key

Grades 7–8 Lab / experiment

Coagulation and Sedimentation: A Jar Test for Cloudy Water

A two-session lab where teams make standardized muddy water, dose one jar with a coagulant, and graph clarity over time as treatment operators do in a daily jar test.

Science 2 sessions, ~90 min total Answer key

Classroom activities

Grade 6 Classroom activity

Run the Plant: Marlow Bend Water Treatment Rotation

A grade 6 station-rotation where teams act as plant operators, rotating through the five stages of drinking-water treatment and making one decision at each.

Science 45 min Answer key

Grade 6 Classroom activity

The Otter Run Stream Survey: A Water Quality Bug Hunt

A grade 6 science station activity where students sort stream-bug cards from three sites and rate each site's water quality using sensitive and tolerant bugs.

Science 45 min Answer key

Grade 8 Classroom activity

Bickerton Brook Macroinvertebrate Index: A Card Sort

A grade 8 science activity where groups sort stream insect cards by pollution tolerance and calculate a biotic index for three sites on a fictional brook.

Science 45 min Answer key

Reading passages

Grade 8 Reading passage

A Week of Samples at the Ferrous Bend Water Lab

A grade 8 science reading passage following a fictional water quality analyst through sample handling, holding times, and the career paths into water lab work.

Science 35 min Answer key

Grade 6 Reading passage

Where the Rain Goes: Pebble Lane's New Rain Gardens

A grade 6 science reading passage about a fictional street's flooding, tracing how storm drains, rain gardens, and permeable pavement move and soak up rainwater.

Science 35 min Answer key

Grade 7 Reading passage

Tiny Cleaners: How Microbes Break Down Water Pollution

A grade 7 science reading passage on bioremediation, tracing how microbes clean sewage and a fictional fuel-leak site, and why PFAS resist the same living cleanup.

Science 35 min Answer key

Writing prompts

Debate kits

Grade 6 Debate kit

Braymere Lake's Swim Beach: Close It After Every Storm?

A grade 6 science debate on whether a fictional town should close its swim beach by a rainfall rule or wait for bacteria test results, with two-sided evidence.

Science 2 sessions, ~90 min total Answer key

Grade 8 Debate kit

Should Havering County Spread Biosolids on Farm Fields?

A grade 8 science debate kit on land-applying treated sewage solids, weighing recycled nutrients against PFAS and runoff concerns, with a four-level rubric.

Science 2 sessions, ~90 min total Answer key

Projects

Grades 6–7 Project

Schoolyard Stormwater Runoff: An Audit and Design Project

Teams map their schoolyard's hard and soft surfaces, calculate real stormwater runoff in gallons, trace where it drains, and pitch a fix to a real school decision-maker.

Engineering & Design 5 sessions, ~250 min total Answer key

Grade 7 Project

Millbrandt Drainage District: A Nutrient Interception Design

A five-session grade 7 project where teams screen four nitrate-cutting designs against land, budget, and drainage limits, then pitch one to a fictional drainage board.

Engineering & Design 5 sessions, ~300 min total Answer key

Grade 7 Project

Ravensgill Creek Shade Structures: Cooling a Trout Reach

A five-session grade 7 build-and-test project where teams design bank shade structures on a model reach, run three timed heat trials, and combine the best features.

Engineering & Design 5 sessions, ~300 min total Answer key

Grade 8 Project

Stonebeck Creek Monitoring: Designing a Sampling Network

A three-session grade 8 project in which teams design, pilot, and defend a creek sampling network that can detect whether a street-sweeping program is working.

Engineering & Design 3 sessions, ~150 min total Answer key

Quizzes & test questions

Grade 7 Quiz & test questions

Willow Creek Water Quality Monitoring Assessment

A grade 7 science assessment on dissolved oxygen, pH, and sampling design, using data from two fictional Willow Creek monitoring sites to test water-quality reasoning.

Science 30 min Answer key

Graphic organizers

Grade 6 Graphic organizer

Refining a Silt Fence at the Rookhill Ridge Build Site

A grade 6 iteration log for a fictional construction site, tracking four silt fence trials against a clarity target and a standing target, with a completed exemplar.

Engineering & Design 30 min Answer key

Grade 7 Graphic organizer

Verrell Farms to the Lunch Tray: An Irrigation Safety Chain

A six-link cause-and-effect organizer tracing how germs can move from a fictional pasture into irrigation water and onto school salad, with a control step for each link.

Health & Consumer Science 25 min Answer key