Project Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Drafting Drayfield's Four-Stage Drought Ordinance
A five-session grade 7 project in which teams draft a fictional town's drought ordinance, test it against nine cases, and amend it after a public hearing.
Objectives
- Students will write a four-stage drought ordinance that places every listed water use in a stage.
- Students will apply their own ordinance to nine cases and name the section that decides each one.
- Students will amend the ordinance after a public hearing and give a written reason for each change.
Vocabulary
- Reservoir
- A human-made lake, usually created by a dam, that stores water for later. Reservoirs supply cities and farms and help control floods.
Also: ordinance, drought stage, exemption, enforcement, amendment, public hearing
Teacher overview
When a town restricts water use in a dry summer, it does so through an ordinance, which is a local law with numbered sections, penalties, and exemptions. Drafting one differs from listing good habits, because the text has to settle cases its authors never pictured, and the rule does not reach a use it does not name. Over five sessions, teams serve as the drafting committee for the fictional town of Drayfield, write a four-stage drought ordinance, test their own draft against nine cases, and amend it after a public hearing. One misconception worth correcting at the start is the belief that a town rule automatically covers everyone who uses water inside the town line. An ordinance of this kind binds the customers of the town water system and the uses it names, while a household on a private well and a farm pumping from a creek answer to other bodies, which is why two of the nine cases have no clean answer under most drafts. The deliverables are a one-page ordinance, a completed case-test table, an amendment log, and a three-minute presentation to the council.
Project Brief
Driving question. What should Drayfield's water rules say at each stage of a drought, and how would you know whether your own rule answers a case?
Client. You are the drafting committee for the fictional town of Drayfield. The council will hear your ordinance in Session 5 and may adopt it.
The situation. Drayfield has about 6,800 people. The town water system serves about 2,300 accounts. All of that water comes from Wenlock Reservoir, which Pyle Creek fills. Some homes outside the system draw from private wells. Two farms inside the town line pump straight from the creek. In dry summers the reservoir drops, and right now the town has no drought rule at all.
The reservoir readings. The town reads the reservoir every Monday. The reading is how far the water sits below the top of the spillway. The figures below are set for this project.
| Monday reading | Share of storage left | Days of supply left at the summer use rate |
|---|---|---|
| 2 feet below full | 92 percent | about 150 days |
| 5 feet below full | 80 percent | about 120 days |
| 9 feet below full | 61 percent | about 85 days |
| 13 feet below full | 42 percent | about 55 days |
| 17 feet below full | 25 percent | about 30 days |
| 21 feet below full | 11 percent | about 14 days |
The twelve uses. Your ordinance must place every use on this list.
| Number | Water use |
|---|---|
| 1 | Drinking, cooking, bathing, and laundry inside a home |
| 2 | Watering a lawn with a sprinkler |
| 3 | Watering a vegetable garden with a hose or a bucket |
| 4 | Filling a private swimming pool |
| 5 | Washing a car in a driveway |
| 6 | Washing cars at the town car wash, which reuses most of its water |
| 7 | Watering a lawn that was planted this spring |
| 8 | Watering the grass at the town ball field |
| 9 | Running the splash pad at the town park |
| 10 | Watering plants held for sale at a plant nursery |
| 11 | Washing sidewalks and shop fronts downtown |
| 12 | Spraying water on a building site to hold down dust |
Constraints.
- Your ordinance has exactly four stages, and Stage 1 is the mildest.
- You choose the Monday reading that starts each stage. Stage 1 may not start before the 5-foot reading. Stage 4 must start by the 17-foot reading.
- Every stage must say what happens to each of the twelve uses. A use may be allowed, limited to stated hours or days, or banned.
- The text must say who reports a violation and who checks it.
- A first violation must bring a written warning, and later penalties must rise. In our scenario no single fine may pass $200.
- The text must name at least two exemptions, say who grants them, and say how long they last.
- The whole ordinance fits on one page, in numbered sections, in about 400 words.
The nine cases. You will test your own draft against all nine.
| Case | What the person asks the town |
|---|---|
| A | A homeowner waters a lawn planted in April, one hour every evening. |
| B | A landscaping company holds contracts to water new lawns at six houses. |
| C | The ball field association wants to water the infield before a July tournament. |
| D | A restaurant hoses down its patio each morning and says health rules require it. |
| E | A family fills a small wading pool for young children twice a week. |
| F | A car dealer washes about twenty cars a week on the lot with a hose. |
| G | A household on a private well waters its lawn every day. |
| H | The fire department wants to open hydrants to test water flow. |
| I | A farm inside the town line pumps from Pyle Creek to water its fields. |
The hearing roles. Three classmates speak at the Session 5 hearing.
| Role | What this person wants |
|---|---|
| A plant nursery owner | Watering the stock is how the business earns money, so the owner asks for a business exemption at every stage. |
| A ball field parent | The tournament brings families to town, so this parent wants the infield watered in July whatever the reading says. |
| A town water customer | Neighbors on private wells face no limits at all, so this customer asks why town accounts carry the whole rule. |
Final deliverable. Each team turns in four things. The first is the one-page ordinance. The second is the case-test table, with a ruling and a section number for all nine cases. The third is the amendment log. The fourth is a three-minute presentation to the council.
Milestones
- Session 1, purpose and stage triggers. Read the reservoir table. Choose the Monday reading that starts each of the four stages. Write Section 1 of your ordinance. It states the purpose of the rule and lists the four readings. Add one sentence of reasoning for each reading. Output: Section 1, with four triggers and four reasons.
- Session 2, placing the twelve uses. Build a grid with the twelve uses down the side and the four stages across the top. In each box write allowed, limited, or banned. When you write limited, state the limit in the box. Then turn the grid into Section 2 of the ordinance. Output: the finished grid and Section 2.
- Session 3, enforcement and exemptions. Write Section 3 on reporting, checking, warnings, and fines. Write Section 4 on exemptions and who grants them. Then assemble the full draft. Output: a complete numbered ordinance of about 400 words on one page.
- Session 4, testing the draft on the nine cases. Take the cases in order. For each one, write the ruling, the number of the section that decides it, and one sentence of reasoning. Mark any case your text does not decide. Each mark is a gap. Close every gap by changing the text, and record each change in the amendment log. Output: the case-test table for all nine cases and an amendment log listing every gap.
- Session 5, hearing, amendments, and council presentation. Three classmates read the hearing roles to your committee. Write down each objection. Adopt or reject at least one amendment and write the reason in the log. Then present the final ordinance in three minutes. Name one group your rule treats harder than the rest, and say what the town owes that group. Output: the amendment log with the hearing objections and the final ordinance, presented to the council.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage triggers | Fewer than four stages, or triggers that ignore the reservoir readings | Four triggers appear, yet one falls outside the allowed range or carries no reason | Four triggers sit inside the stated range, each tied to a reading, each with a stated reason | All of Proficient, and the reasons refer to the days of supply left at that reading rather than to the depth alone |
| Coverage of the twelve uses | Several uses are never mentioned in any stage | Every use appears, yet some entries are too vague to apply, such as "use less" | All twelve uses are placed in all four stages, and every limit names an hour, a day, or a method | All of Proficient, and the team explains why two uses that look alike are treated differently |
| Enforcement and exemptions | No reporting path, no penalties, or no exemptions | Penalties or exemptions appear, yet nobody is named as the person who acts | Reporting, checking, a first written warning, rising penalties inside the stated cap, and two exemptions with a named grantor and a time limit | All of Proficient, and the exemptions are written narrowly enough that the team can say which of the nine cases would fail to qualify |
| Case test and amendment log | Fewer than half the cases are ruled on, or rulings cite no section | Most cases are ruled on, yet gaps are noted without being closed | All nine cases carry a ruling, a section number, and a reason, and every gap found is closed by a recorded change | All of Proficient, and the log states plainly which cases fall outside a town ordinance rather than forcing a ruling onto them |
| Hearing and council presentation | The team does not record objections, or one member speaks throughout | Objections are recorded, yet no amendment is adopted or rejected in writing | Every objection is recorded, at least one amendment is decided with a written reason, all members speak, and the team names a group its rule treats harder | All of Proficient, and the team answers a council question without giving up a constraint it had already defended |
Differentiation
Support
Give these teams Section 1 already drafted, with the four fictional trigger readings filled in, so Session 1 becomes reading and reasoning rather than drafting. Cut the use list from twelve to eight by removing the town car wash, the splash pad, the downtown sidewalks, and the building site, and hand out the use grid with the first column and the stage headings already printed. Supply a sentence frame for each ordinance section, such as "Stage 2 begins when the Monday reading reaches ___ feet below full." For Session 4, reduce the case set to five and mark in advance which two of them the ordinance may not reach.
Extension
Ask the team to add a fifth section covering the money side of the fictional ordinance. Restrictions cut water sales, yet the town still owes the same debt on its pipes and plant, so the team should state what happens to rates during a long Stage 4 and who decides. The team should also write a short repeal section saying which readings end each stage, and explain why the reading that ends a stage might sensibly sit higher than the reading that started it.
ELL supports
Pre-teach ordinance, stage, exemption, enforcement, and amendment against a labeled sample section from a short fictional ordinance about parking, which keeps the structure visible without adding water vocabulary. Keep that sample posted for all five sessions. Provide a bilingual card for those five terms plus reservoir, spillway, and hearing. Allow the case-test table to be completed with the single words allowed, limited, or banned plus the section number, with the reasoning given aloud to the teacher rather than written. In the hearing, let a student read a prepared objection card rather than speak without notes.
Extensions
Many water utilities publish their own drought or water shortage ordinance online, often as part of a water shortage plan. Have each team find one, compare its stages with the stages the team wrote for the fictional town, and list two uses the real ordinance names that the class list left out. Each team then writes one question for the person who administers that rule, and the class sends the three best questions to the utility.