Phase 3 — Meet the problem

⛔ Gate check: only open this phase once students have finished Surface and Deep. This is where they transfer everything they built into a real, messy decision.

This is Problem-Based Learning. Students don't answer questions about development — they step inside the problem as stakeholders in the region, and the teacher guides rather than tells. The whole phase runs the problem-solving process named in §113.18(c)(22)(B).

Problem-solving teaching · d 0.61§113.18(c)(16), (c)(22)(B)

Step 1 · Meet the Problem

Read the narrative aloud. Read it once for the story, then again for details students will need.

For as long as anyone can remember, the valley region of Maravi has lived from its terraces — steps of green farmland cut into the hillsides by hand, generations ago — and from the old stone city of Karun that watches over them. Families farm, herd, and weave the way their grandparents did. Each year a few more visitors arrive to see the terraces and Karun, and each year a few more young people leave the valley to find work in far-off cities.

Now a large company has made the region an offer. It wants to build a factory-and-tourism project just outside Karun: a plant that would make goods for export, new hotels and roads, and a visitor center. The company promises thousands of jobs and money the government could spend on schools, clinics, and roads. Young people could stay. Families could earn more than farming ever paid.

But the project would rise right next to Karun's ancient walls and terraces. It would bring crowds, trucks, and building. Elders worry it would change a way of life — the crafts, the language, the quiet of the old city — that has lasted for generations. A heritage group warns the site could lose what makes it special. The company warns that if the region says no, the jobs will go somewhere else.

The region's leaders have called a public meeting. Every stakeholder will speak. The only thing left to decide is whether the project should go ahead — and if so, how.

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.

📚 Sources: UNESCO · a real terraced-landscape World Heritage site ↗ · World Bank · Tourism & development ↗

Multiple perspectives · d 0.75§113.18(c)(10), (c)(13), (c)(15)

Step 2 · Take a stakeholder role

Assign or let students choose a stakeholder. Each will reason from that person's point of view. Every role has something real at stake.

🧑‍🔧 A young worker who wants a job

You are tired of watching friends leave the valley for far-off cities. A steady wage would let you stay near family. What do you need from this project — and what would make you say no?

🧓 An elder & cultural leader

You protect Karun, the terraces, and the crafts and language passed down for generations. What must be protected no matter what — and could any project be worth the risk?

🏛️ A government official

You weigh growth for the whole region: jobs, schools, roads. You also answer to citizens and to the law. How much say should the people of Maravi have, and who finally decides?

🏭 The business & developer

You believe the project brings real jobs and money. You need it to be profitable. What can you change or promise to win the region's trust — and what are your limits?

🌾 A farmer or artisan in the traditional economy

Your work is the terraces, the herds, or the crafts tourists come to see. Development could raise your income or replace your way of life. What is fair for the people who make the culture?

🌿 A heritage-and-environment advocate

You speak for the old city, the land, and the future. If the site or the valley is harmed, it cannot be undone. What conditions would you insist on before anything is built?

📚 Sources: UNESCO · what makes a site worth protecting ↗ · CIA World Factbook · how governments are organized ↗

Problem-based learning · d 0.53§113.18(c)(22)(B), (c)(19)

Step 3 · Hunches → Know → Need-to-Know

Build three shared columns on chart paper. This defines the problem and plans the inquiry — the first moves of §113.18(c)(22)(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 (Maravi lives from terraces & crafts; a company offers a factory-and-tourism project; it promises jobs & money; it would sit next to ancient Karun; elders and a heritage group worry).	Questions we must answer to help — How many jobs and how much money, really? What could the project do to the heritage site and the land? How do other regions protect a site and still grow? Who has the legal power to decide?

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.

📚 Sources: Our World in Data · Tourism ↗ · World Bank · Cultural heritage ↗

Transfer strategies · d 0.75§113.18(c)(8), (c)(19), (c)(20)

Step 4 · Inquiry & investigation

Groups pursue their “Need to know” questions using vetted sources (see the facilitator guide for suggested public sources). Students gather and use valid information, applying the source routine 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 point of view is missing?”

📚 Sources: World Bank · Tourism ↗ · UNESCO · World Heritage List ↗ · CIA World Factbook ↗ · Our World in Data · Economic growth ↗. Full list + how-to in the facilitator guide.

Weigh & choose · d 0.75§113.18(c)(22)(B), (c)(19)

Step 5 · Propose & defend a decision

From their stakeholder's point of view, each group develops a recommendation for whether the project should go ahead, and how — and defends it with evidence, trade-offs, and conditions. Assessment happens throughout the process, not only here (the reasoning is the point).

Groups present an 8-part problem/solution brief (poster, slides, or spoken):

Title & group members (and your stakeholder role)
What is the problem?
Why is it a problem — and for whom?
Who are the stakeholders?
Options we considered (advantages & disadvantages of each)
Our recommended decision — including the trade-offs and conditions it asks each side to accept
The evidence and sources behind it
How we'd know if it worked (for jobs, for the heritage site, and for the way of life)

📚 Sources: UNESCO · protecting World Heritage ↗ · United Nations · Sustainable Development Goals ↗

Evaluation & reflection · d 0.75§113.18(c)(22)(B), (c)(15)

Step 6 · Debrief & metacognition

Close the loop — the evaluate step of the problem-solving process. Discuss across roles so students hear how the same offer looked from every side.

Did our decision address the real problem — jobs, heritage, and a way of life — or just one side's wish?
Did we use evidence from more than one source? Whose point of view did we still miss?
How did the offer look different from a young worker's chair than an elder's? What did development mean for identity here?
Transfer: where else does this problem-solving process fit — a growth-vs-heritage choice in our own town or region today?

Connect to today & to the standards: real regions around the world — from terraced valleys to old cities — weigh these same trade-offs between development and heritage. Name the six steps students just used — that is §113.18(c)(22)(B).

📚 Sources: World Bank · Cultural heritage ↗ · Nat Geo Kids · Peru (heritage & tourism) ↗

🧑‍🏫 Facilitator guide & sources ✅ Assessment pack

‹ Phase 2 — Deep Unit home

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.18; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This region and scenario are a teaching fiction based on real development-vs-heritage dilemmas.