Classroom activity Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics
Rate Hearing Role-Play: The Rockvale Water Board Decides
A grade 10 role-play in which students take stakeholder roles at a fictional town's water rate hearing, deliver testimony, and vote on a proposed increase.
Objectives
- Students will present structured testimony from an assigned stakeholder role at a simulated water rate hearing.
- Students will weigh the costs and benefits of a proposed rate increase from multiple community perspectives.
- Students will reach and justify a board decision using evidence raised during the hearing.
Vocabulary
- Rate hearing
- A public meeting where a water utility explains why it wants to change the price of water. Customers can ask questions and speak up before leaders vote on the new rates.
Also: testimony, public comment, deliberation, stakeholder
Teacher overview
In most towns, a water rate increase must go through a public hearing where residents testify and an elected or appointed board decides. This role-play recreates that process. In the fictional town of Rockvale, the water board has proposed an 18 percent rate increase to replace aging water mains that keep breaking. Students take stakeholder roles, deliver testimony, hear public comment, and then, as the board, vote. The activity teaches the concept directly, because the rules of the hearing are the same structured deliberative process a real board follows, and each role feels the increase differently.
Activity Directions
Setup (5 min): Group students into hearings of eight to ten. In each group, assign three students to the water board (one serves as chair) and give the remaining students one stakeholder role card each. There are five stakeholder cards, so in a group with more than five stakeholders, two students share a card. If the class is large, run two or three hearings at once. Explain the single question before every board: should Rockvale approve the 18 percent increase, reject it, or approve a smaller increase instead?
Role preparation (8 min): Each stakeholder reads their card and writes two sentences of testimony: what they want the board to do and one reason tied to their situation. The board members write two questions they will ask during the hearing. Remind students that in the fictional town of Rockvale the current average bill is about $50 per month, and the proposed increase would raise it by about $9 per month.
Round of testimony (10 min): The chair calls each stakeholder in turn. Each has up to one minute to give testimony without interruption. After each stakeholder speaks, the board may ask one question. The chair keeps time and keeps order with the gavel.
Public comment (7 min): The chair opens a shorter public comment period. Any stakeholder may respond to another's testimony in 30 seconds or less, addressing remarks to the chair rather than arguing directly with another resident. This models the rule most real hearings follow.
Board deliberation (5 min): The three board members talk through what they heard while the stakeholders listen silently. The board must name at least two pieces of testimony that influenced them before moving to a vote.
Vote (3 min): Each board member marks a ballot for approve, reject, or approve a smaller increase, then states the decision aloud with a one-sentence reason. The hearing ends when the board announces its decision.
Debrief (7 min): Bring the class together and use the debrief questions in the Answer Key to connect the role-play back to how real rate decisions balance costs, benefits, and competing interests.
Student Handout
Print and cut apart these role cards for the fictional town of Rockvale. Give one to each stakeholder.
Water utility manager: You proposed the increase. Old mains are breaking, and every emergency repair costs more than planned replacement would. You want the full 18 percent so the work can start this year.
Retired resident on a fixed income: Your income does not rise with rates. A $9 jump each month is real money to you. You want the board to reject the increase or make it much smaller.
Laundromat owner: Your business uses a lot of water, so a percentage increase hits you harder than most homes. You worry about staying open, and you want a smaller increase phased in over time.
Parent of young children: You are torn. You do not want lead or contamination from failing pipes near your kids, but your budget is tight. You want the board to protect safety while easing the cost.
Public-health advocate: You argue that aging mains risk contamination and lose treated water through leaks. You support the full increase because delay puts health and water supply at risk.
Board members (three): You did not write the proposal, and you can approve it, reject it, or approve a smaller increase. Your job is to weigh the testimony and justify your vote with evidence from the hearing.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Debrief question 1: Which stakeholders gained the most from the increase, and which paid the most? Answer: The public-health advocate and, over time, all residents gain from fewer breaks and safer water. The retired resident and the laundromat owner pay the most relative to their budgets, since a percentage increase falls hardest on a fixed income and a high-use business.
Debrief question 2: Why might a board approve a smaller increase rather than the full amount or nothing? Answer: A smaller increase is a compromise. It begins the pipe work and shows the utility that repairs matter, while easing the immediate burden on residents who testified that they cannot absorb the full jump at once.
Debrief question 3: How did the structure of the hearing, with timed testimony and public comment addressed to the chair, shape the discussion? Answer: The structure kept the debate orderly and gave every stakeholder an equal chance to be heard, which is the purpose of a deliberative process; it prevented the loudest voice from dominating and forced the board to weigh evidence rather than react to argument.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a role card with the two testimony sentences already started as sentence frames ("I want the board to ___ because in my situation ___"). Pair a support student with a confident partner who shares the same role in a larger hearing.
Extension
Ask a student to serve as a reporter who writes a short news summary of the hearing afterward, quoting two stakeholders and explaining the board's reasoning, or to add a new role, such as a landlord who passes water costs to tenants.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "rate hearing," "testimony," "public comment," "deliberation," and "stakeholder" with a simple diagram of a hearing room. Provide each role with a short vocabulary list and allow testimony to be read from written notes rather than delivered from memory.