Preview · the opening missionRead this to the class:
Millbrook's landfill will be full in eight years, and nobody wants a new one next door. The mayor says, "Other towns have fixed this. Find out what they did, and tell us what will work here. We can't afford everything, and we need to know if it's working." Your team's job: be the town council's science team. Compare four real solutions, choose a plan that fits Millbrook, and design a way to measure whether it works.
Teams of three, with jobs that rotate at every station: Reader (reads the card aloud), Recorder (fills in the table) and Questioner (asks "would this work in Millbrook?").
Look inside the PDF
Sample pages, stamped “preview”. The download is the clean, full lesson.
In the full lesson PDF
10 printable pages
- Predict (5–10 min)
- Hunt (20 min)
- Reveal (10–15 min)
- Act (10 min)
- Background for the teacher
- Assessment
- Student sheet
- Worksheet: Millbrook fact file
- Worksheet: Solution cards
- Worksheet: Label it
- Worksheet: Try it at home
On the student sheet
- My prediction
- Solution stations
- Scores (1 to 3)
- Our plan and how we will monitor it
- Exit ticket
- Millbrook fact file
- Solution cards
- Label it
- Try it at home
US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white. The student sheet is on its own page, ready to photocopy.
Free with an account (any 3 lessons), or US$19 for all 4 lessons in this unit.
What students show by the end
- Uses evidence
- Criteria and constraints
- Monitoring
From the lesson’s rubric, which scores each one as not yet, getting there or got it.
Questions teachers ask
How long does “How can a town use less and waste less?” take?
50–60 min. Group size: teams of 3.
How much prep does it need?
10 minutes. Print one set of solution cards and tape each card at its own station around the room (print a second set for classes over 24). Print the town fact file and the student sheet for everyone.
What materials do I need?
None. No materials needed: just the printed sheets.
Which curriculum standards does it cover?
NGSS (US): MS-ESS3-3 (partly) and 5-ESS3-1. It also matches England National Curriculum, Key Stage 3 and Cambridge Primary Science and Lower Secondary Science (not endorsed by Cambridge).
What’s in the lesson PDF?
A teacher guide that walks you through predict, hunt, reveal, act, background for the teacher and assessment, then a student sheet (“My prediction”, “Solution stations”, “Scores (1 to 3)”, “Our plan and how we will monitor it”, “Exit ticket”, “Millbrook fact file”, “Solution cards”, “Label it” and “Try it at home”) on its own page, ready to photocopy. It’s US Letter and prints cleanly in black and white.
Can I try it for free?
Yes. A free account includes any 3 full lessons of your choice, and this can be one of them. After that, this unit is US$19 for all 4 lessons, yours to keep, or every lesson is US$199 a year.