Graphic organizer Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics
Five Ways Torrington Could Cut Outdoor Water Use
A grade 12 policy-tool comparison frame in which students weigh five ways a fictional city could reduce summer lawn watering, by cost, enforcement, and objection.
Objectives
- Students will classify five policy tools by the incentive each one creates.
- Students will identify who bears the direct cost of each tool and what enforcement it requires.
- Students will state the strongest objection to each tool in one sentence.
Vocabulary
Key words: mandate, price signal, rebate, building code, enforcement
Teacher overview
This organizer is a comparison matrix, five rows by five columns, that sets five different policy tools side by side against the same problem: summer lawn watering in the fictional city of Torrington. Governments have more than one way to change a behavior, and the choice among a rule, a price, a subsidy, a building requirement, and information is a choice about who is affected, who pays, and what the city has to do to make the policy stick. The misconception worth naming before students begin is the assumption that a fine and a higher price accomplish the same thing. A fine punishes an act and needs someone to observe it, while a price changes the cost of every gallon and needs only a meter, and the two reach different households in different ways.
Organizer
Fill in every cell. Keep each entry to one sentence.
| Policy tool | How it is meant to change behavior | Who pays the direct cost | What enforcement it requires | Strongest objection to it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Watering-day ordinance with fines for violations | ||||
| 2. Drought surcharge on water used above a stated monthly allowance | ||||
| 3. Rebate paid to households that replace lawn with low-water planting | ||||
| 4. Landscape requirement in the building code for new construction | ||||
| 5. Comparative use message printed on each bill showing a household against its neighbors |
After the table, answer these two prompts in the space below it.
- Which two tools would reach the households that use the most water outdoors, and why those two?
- Which single tool would you recommend to the Torrington council first, and what is the one condition that would change your recommendation?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
| Policy tool | How it is meant to change behavior | Who pays the direct cost | What enforcement it requires | Strongest objection to it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Watering-day ordinance with fines for violations | Makes watering on the wrong day unlawful, so the household stops to avoid the penalty. | Households that water outside the allowed days, plus the city for staff time. | Someone must observe the violation, issue notices, and hear appeals. | Enforcement is uneven and complaint-driven, so neighbors report neighbors and the same use goes unpunished elsewhere. |
| 2. Drought surcharge on water used above a stated monthly allowance | Raises the price of each gallon above the allowance, so heavy users cut back on their own. | Households that exceed the allowance, in proportion to how far they exceed it. | Only the existing meter and billing system, plus an appeals process for the allowance. | Large households can exceed an allowance without wasting anything, so the charge can land on family size rather than on lawns. |
| 3. Rebate paid to households that replace lawn with low-water planting | Lowers the up-front cost of a permanent change, so more households make it. | All ratepayers, because the rebate comes out of utility revenue. | Verification that the lawn was actually replaced, and an audit of claims. | It pays some households for work they would have done anyway, and renters and low-income owners rarely apply. |
| 4. Landscape requirement in the building code for new construction | Sets the water demand of a house before anyone lives in it, so no behavior change is needed later. | Builders first, and then buyers of new homes through the price. | Plan review and a final inspection, both already part of permitting. | It reaches only new construction, so it does nothing about the existing homes that use most of the water today. |
| 5. Comparative use message printed on each bill showing a household against its neighbors | Uses social comparison to prompt voluntary reduction without any charge or rule. | The utility, for the data work and printing; no household pays directly. | None beyond accurate billing data and a way to opt out. | The effect is usually modest and can fade, and it does nothing about a household that does not care how it compares. |
Which two tools reach the heaviest outdoor users. The drought surcharge and the watering-day ordinance, because both apply directly to the act of using water, while the rebate and the code requirement work only when a household chooses to remodel or a house is newly built.
A recommended first step. The drought surcharge, because Torrington already has meters and billing, so it needs no new enforcement staff, and the cost falls in proportion to use. The recommendation would change if the city could not set an allowance that fairly reflects household size, in which case the watering-day ordinance becomes the more defensible tool.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the first row completed and a word bank for the cost column containing "the household," "all ratepayers," "builders and buyers," and "the utility," so their task is to match rather than to generate. Ask them to complete rows 2 and 3 only, then join a pair that has finished the table.
Extension
Ask students to add a sixth row for a tool the organizer does not list, such as a limit on the irrigated area allowed per lot or a tiered rate that rises with each block of use, and to fill every column for it. Then have them argue in a paragraph for combining two tools rather than choosing one.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "mandate," "surcharge," "rebate," and "enforcement" with one image and one short sentence each. Allow the four content columns to be completed with phrases rather than sentences, and provide the frame "This tool works because it ___, and the cost falls on ___."
Extensions
Have students find whether their own city or water utility uses any of these five tools, using the utility's conservation page, and mark the organizer with a check for the tools already in place. Students may then write one paragraph on which unused tool would fit their community and which objection from the table its council would raise first.