Ships and Currents

This worksheet is designed for students in Grades 6 and 7 to apply distance, rate, and time formulas to realistic upstream and downstream travel scenarios. Through progressive, multi-part problems involving current-assisted and current-opposed motion, learners practice unit conversion, time computation, equation writing, and quantitative modeling while reasoning carefully about effective speed, still-water speed, and total travel time.

Learning Goals

• Distance-Rate-Time Applications (Gr. 6-7): Use the relationship (speed = distance / time) to solve motion problems with currents.
• Relative Motion in Fluids: Analyze upstream vs. downstream travel to determine effective speed and infer still-water and current speeds.
• Multi-Step Reasoning: Solve layered problems that include stops, delays, mixed conditions, and round trips.
• Unit Conversion & Time Computation: Work accurately with hours and minutes and maintain unit consistency throughout solutions.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource: Designed by educators to align with middle school math and science standards.
• Progressive Structure: Problems build in complexity, culminating in a comprehensive challenge scenario.
• Equation Writing & Justification: Encourages clear setup, reasoning, and explanation of calculations.
• Flexible Use: Ideal for math or science lessons, small groups, enrichment, assessment practice, homework, or homeschool instruction.

This Ships and Currents worksheet helps students synthesize rate reasoning with real-world fluid motion. By modeling effective speeds, accounting for delays, and justifying solutions, learners strengthen algebraic thinking, precision, and confidence with complex motion problems. Whether used in the classroom or a homeschool setting, this printable provides rigorous, no-prep practice that supports mastery of relative speed and quantitative reasoning.

This worksheet is part of our Speed, Distance, and Time collection.