This is Problem-Based Learning. Students don't answer questions about rivers — they step inside the problem as stakeholders, and the teacher guides rather than tells. The whole phase runs the problem-solving process named in §113.14(c)(16)(B).
Read the narrative aloud. Read it once for the story, then again for details students will need.
First reaction (not answers yet): what did you notice? What do you wonder? Keep it open — the point is to pull students into the problem.
🌊 What is a flood? Ready Kids · Flood facts ↗ · National Weather Service · Flood safety ↗
Assign or let students choose a stakeholder. Each will reason from that person's point of view. Every role has something real at stake.
Your home got wet again. You want to stay safe and dry. Should the town protect your street, or should you move?
Your store floods and you lose business. You want the water stopped — but who pays for the fix?
You love the riverside park. Moving it costs a lot and takes away a special place. Can you save it?
You watch the town's budget. There is not enough money for everything. Which choice is worth the cost?
You know why the river floods and how wetlands, trees, and walls each work. You share facts, not sides.
The riverside park is your favorite place to play. You want it to stay — but you also want to be safe.
Build three shared columns on chart paper. This defines the problem and plans the inquiry — the first moves of §113.14(c)(16)(B).
| 💭 Hunches | ✅ Know (from the text) | ❓ Need to know |
|---|---|---|
| Our guesses about what is happening and what might help. | Facts we can point to in the story (it's spring; the river rose; Main Street, the park, and two homes flooded; this has happened before). | Questions we must answer to help — Why does the river flood? How much does a wall cost? Do wetlands really soak up water? Where is higher ground? |
Turn "Need to know" into the H of KWHL: How will we find out? (which sources, whom to ask). Record it — this is the class's research plan.
Groups pursue their "Need to know" questions using vetted sources (see the facilitator guide for suggested free sources). Students gather and compare information, using the compare-and-contrast moves they practiced in Phase 2. Keep filling the Learned column of KWHL as answers come in.
Teacher-as-guide moves: answer a question with a question; point to a source, not the answer; ask "How do you know?" and "Whose view is missing?"
📚 Investigation sources: Ready.gov · Floods ↗ · NWS · Flood safety ↗ · EPA · Wetlands ↗ · NOAA · Freshwater ↗. Full list + how-to in the facilitator guide.
From their stakeholder's point of view, each group develops a recommendation for what Willow Bend should do to live safely with the river — and defends it with evidence. They must weigh safety, cost, and nature, using a simple budget (§(c)(5)(A)). Assessment happens throughout the process, not only here (the reasoning is the point).
Groups present an 8-part problem/solution brief (poster, drawing, or spoken):
Class vote: after the briefs, the whole class votes on what Willow Bend should do — good citizenship in action.
Close the loop — the evaluate step of the problem-solving process. Discuss across roles so students hear how the same problem looked from every side.
Connect to today & to the standards: communities everywhere weigh safety, cost, and nature when they decide how to live with their environment. Name the six steps students just used — that is §113.14(c)(16)(B).
Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.14; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This scenario is a teaching fiction.