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Water Infrastructure Commission

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Grades 9-122 hoursSource: Creative Dad Company

Teens design a simple water system for a mock town, balancing the real costs of treatment, pipe distribution, and making sure every neighborhood gets fair access. It's civil engineering with a strong ethics thread running through it.

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Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.

Prep: 10 minActivity: 30 min1 session~$2/groupOne table for the Water Infrastructure Commission evidence and prototypeBeginner-friendly

Setup

Print or handwrite the four Water Infrastructure Commission challenge steps and place common paper supplies on one table. Prepare one small sample, dataset, scenario, or recycled-material model drawn directly from the project description; no device, paid tool, room decoration, or purchased kit is required.

Activity

  1. Read the Water Infrastructure Commission challenge aloud, then sketch a mock town map with neighborhoods at different distances from a water source and predict where distribution will be hardest.
  2. Use paper, index cards, recycled objects, or facilitator-provided sample data to build a simple filtration setup with charcoal and filters to model the treatment stage, and design a pipe network on paper.
  3. Run one tabletop trial and calculate treatment and pipe costs and discover the budget can't reach every neighborhood equally, then decide how to allocate fairly.
  4. Finish by present the water plan to a mock commission, defending both the engineering choices and the equity tradeoffs made; record the evidence that supports the decision.

Done when: The group completes a defensible Water Infrastructure Commission solution, records at least one test result or comparison, changes one claim or design in response, and supports its final decision with that evidence.

Materials

clear vinyl tubing, cups, funnel, activated charcoal, coffee filters, graph paper

Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.

Disclosure: Materials links below go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, Creative Dad Company earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Steps

  1. Sketch a mock town map with neighborhoods at different distances from a water source and predict where distribution will be hardest.
  2. Build a simple filtration setup with charcoal and filters to model the treatment stage, and design a pipe network on paper.
  3. Calculate treatment and pipe costs and discover the budget can't reach every neighborhood equally, then decide how to allocate fairly.
  4. Present the water plan to a mock commission, defending both the engineering choices and the equity tradeoffs made.