Lesson plan Grade 6 Social Studies & Civics
Granthorpe's Choice: Sewer Line or New Septic Tanks?
A grade 6 lesson where students read three stakeholder statements about failing septic systems on a lake, fill a decision matrix, and recommend an option to the board.
Objectives
- Students will identify the interest each stakeholder brings to a local wastewater decision.
- Students will compare three options for the same problem using cost, speed, and who pays.
- Students will write a recommendation that states a claim and cites two pieces of evidence.
Vocabulary
- Septic system
- A septic system is a small, private wastewater treatment setup buried in the yard of a home that is not connected to city sewers. A tank settles the solids, and the soil in the yard filters the water.
- Ratepayer
- A person or business that pays a utility bill. Ratepayers provide most of the money that keeps a water system running.
Also: sewer main, connection fee, stakeholder, recommendation
Teacher overview
Many homes send their wastewater to a septic system in the yard rather than to a sewer main, and those systems eventually wear out. When several fail at once beside a lake, the community has to decide whether the repair is a private cost or a public one. This lesson uses the fictional town of Granthorpe, where sixty homes in the Pinner's Cove neighborhood sit on aging septic systems above Lake Norrell. Students read three stakeholder statements, complete a decision matrix, and write a recommendation to the town board. A common misconception is that a failing septic system is only the homeowner's problem; the lesson makes the shared water body visible so students can see why neighbors and the town end up in the argument.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students where the water goes after it leaves a sink or a toilet in their own building. Collect answers, then explain the two common paths, a sewer main that runs to a treatment plant and a septic system that treats waste in a tank and a drain field on the property. Tell students that one town's lake beach has closed twice this summer.
Reading the stakeholder statements (12 min): Students read the three statements on the handout, which come from the engineer for the fictional town of Granthorpe, a Pinner's Cove homeowner, and a downtown ratepayer. As they read, they underline each speaker's main concern and circle any cost the speaker names.
Decision matrix (15 min): In pairs, students complete the matrix on the handout, entering what each of the three options would cost a Cove homeowner, what it would cost the rest of the town, and how quickly it would stop waste from reaching the lake. Remind students that "do nothing this year" is a real option that appears on real agendas, and that it also has costs. For the teacher, a completed matrix reads as follows. Option A costs a Cove homeowner the $3,000 fee plus $4 a month for twenty years, costs every other household $4 a month for twenty years, and stops the waste in about a year. Option B costs a Cove homeowner about $18,000 and the rest of the town nothing; the handout does not say how long it takes, because each owner replaces a system separately, so accept any reasonable estimate the student explains. Option C costs no one anything now, though both groups may pay more later, and it does not stop the waste, since more systems are likely to fail during the wait.
Small-group discussion (10 min): Groups of four compare matrices and take a straw vote using sticky notes on chart paper. Each group must name one group of people who would be worse off under their chosen option, which keeps the discussion from becoming a simple popularity vote.
Writing the recommendation (10 min): Each student writes a short paragraph addressed to the Granthorpe town board: one sentence stating which option to fund, two sentences giving evidence from the statements, and one sentence naming a fair way to soften the cost for whoever pays most.
Formative check (3 min): Collect the paragraphs at the door and sort them into two piles, those that cite at least two pieces of evidence from the statements and those that do not. If fewer than three quarters of the class lands in the first pile, reteach evidence citing with the handout before the next writing task.
Student Handout
The fictional town of Granthorpe sits on the north shore of Lake Norrell. Sixty homes in the Pinner's Cove neighborhood use septic systems. A septic system holds waste in a tank in the yard and lets treated liquid soak into the ground. The county tested the lake near Pinner's Cove and found bacteria above the safe level for swimming. The beach has closed twice this summer.
The town board is looking at three options.
Option A. Build a sewer main out to Pinner's Cove and connect all sixty homes. Every household in Granthorpe would pay $4 more each month on the water bill for twenty years. Each Cove home would also pay a one-time connection fee of $3,000.
Option B. Order each Cove homeowner to replace their own septic system. A new system in this scenario costs about $18,000, and the homeowner pays all of it.
Option C. Wait one year, test the lake again, and decide later. No one pays anything now.
Statement from Dana Fell, Granthorpe town engineer: "Six of the sixty systems have already failed, and most of the rest were installed at the same time. The soil at the Cove is thin over rock, which is why the drain fields do not work well there. A sewer main would take about a year to build and would end the problem for good. Waiting means more failures and a longer beach closure."
Statement from Roy Absher, Pinner's Cove homeowner: "I am not against fixing this. I am against a bill I cannot pay. A new septic system costs more than my truck is worth. The connection fee under Option A is far smaller, and I can pay it over time. My family has swum in that lake for three generations, and I want it clean."
Statement from Mira Sunda, downtown ratepayer: "My house has been on the town sewer since it was built, and I have paid for that line in my bill every month. Now I am asked to pay for pipes to sixty homes on the lake, and some of those are large houses. If the town does this for the Cove, it should say plainly when it will do the same for the next neighborhood."
Fill in the decision matrix, then answer the questions.
| Option | Cost to one Cove homeowner | Cost to the rest of the town | How soon the lake stops getting waste |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Build the sewer main | |||
| B. Replace each septic system | |||
| C. Wait a year and retest |
- What problem did the county find at Lake Norrell, and where did it find it?
- Which option would cost one Cove homeowner the most money up front?
- Which option spreads the cost across every household in Granthorpe?
- Give one reason Mira Sunda might vote against Option A.
- Give one reason the town engineer thinks Option C is risky.
- Under Option C, who pays nothing now, and who might pay more later?
- Roy Absher says he is not against fixing the problem. What is he against, and how does that shape which option he prefers?
- Which group of people does each option ask to carry the heaviest cost? Name the group for Option A and for Option B.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Bacteria above the safe swimming level, in the lake water near the Pinner's Cove shore. The county tested the lake there, and the beach has closed twice this summer.
- Answer: Option B. Replacing a septic system costs the homeowner about $18,000 in this scenario, while the connection fee under Option A is $3,000.
- Answer: Option A. Every household in the town would pay $4 more each month on the water bill for twenty years.
- Answer: She has already paid for her own sewer line through her monthly bill, so she would be paying twice. Accept any answer drawn from her statement, including her point that some Cove houses are large or her request that the town say when the next neighborhood gets the same help.
- Answer: More septic systems will fail while the town waits, because most were installed at the same time and the thin soil over rock drains poorly. Accept also that the beach would stay closed longer.
- Answer: No one pays now, and both the Cove homeowners and the rest of the town could pay more later. Accept answers naming lake users or the town budget as bearing a later cost.
- Answer: He is against a bill he cannot pay, which is why he prefers Option A with its smaller connection fee spread over time rather than Option B.
- Answer: Option A puts the heaviest cost on every ratepayer in town, and Option B puts it on the sixty Cove homeowners. Accept wording that names the townwide ratepayers for A and the Cove households for B. Also accept the Cove homeowners for Option A if the student explains that they pay the $3,000 connection fee on top of the same monthly charge every household pays.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a matrix with the first row already completed and with the three cost figures highlighted inside the option descriptions, so their work is comparison rather than searching. Pair them with a partner for the reading, and allow them to answer questions 4 through 7 by pointing to and copying the sentence in the statement that supports the answer before putting it in their own words.
Extension
Have students draft a fourth option the board did not consider, such as a shared cluster system for a group of homes or a town loan that Cove homeowners repay over ten years. They must state who pays, how long it takes, and one weakness a board member would raise, then defend the option against Mira Sunda's fairness objection in writing.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "septic," "sewer," "fee," "ratepayer," and "board" with a labeled cross-section of a yard showing the tank and the drain field beside a house connected to a street main. Provide the sentence frame "I recommend Option ___ because ___ and because ___." Allow students to complete the matrix with short phrases or drawings rather than full sentences.
Extensions
Look up whether your own community runs on sewer mains, septic systems, or a mix, using the local health department or public works page. Students can then map their own school's block and mark which path its wastewater takes, and compare the age of that system to the sixty systems in the lesson scenario.