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Debate kit Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics

Should Gallowmere County Ban New Septic Systems?

A grade 7 debate kit on whether a fictional county should require new homes over a shallow aquifer to connect to the sewer instead of using septic systems.

Objectives

  1. Students will build an argument on a county building rule using named evidence from both sides.
  2. Students will rebut a specific opposing point rather than restating their own case.
  3. Students will distinguish a documented regulatory standard from an illustrative local estimate.

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.
Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
Secondary treatment
Secondary treatment uses billions of helpful microbes that eat the dissolved waste in the water. The plant keeps the microbes supplied with air, then settles them out, leaving much cleaner water.

Also: drain field, hookup fee

Teacher overview

This is a two-team structured debate that runs across two class periods, with the first period used for reading and preparation and the second for the debate itself. The resolution asks whether a county should stop allowing septic systems on new homes built over a shallow aquifer that supplies private wells. It stays genuinely contested because both sides are defending drinking water: one team argues that a regulated treatment plant protects wells better than a drain field, and the other argues that the same protection can be bought for far less through inspections and better septic design.

Should Gallowmere County Ban New Septic Systems? — Grade 7 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Resolution & Background

Resolution: New homes on Ospreywick Ridge should connect to the Gallowmere County sewer instead of using a septic system.

Background. Gallowmere County and Ospreywick Ridge are fictional places used for this debate. A septic system treats a home's wastewater on its own property. Solids settle in a buried tank. The liquid flows out to a drain field. There, soil and microbes break down what is left before the water reaches the groundwater. A public sewer works differently. Pipes carry the wastewater to a treatment plant. The plant treats it in one place and releases it under a permit.

Ospreywick Ridge sits above a shallow aquifer. Most homes there draw drinking water from private wells in that same aquifer. Building on the ridge has picked up over the last ten years. The county must now decide what to require of the next houses.

Roles. Divide the class into two teams of four or five. One team argues for the rule and one argues against it. One student serves as moderator and keeps time. Three students serve as judges. Judges score with the rubric below and give one reason for each score.

Format. Session one is preparation. Each team reads the whole Evidence File, including the other side's case. Each team then writes an opening and two rebuttals it expects to need. Session two is the debate. Each team gives a four-minute opening. Both teams then get six minutes to prepare. Each team gives a three-minute rebuttal and a two-minute closing.

Evidence File

Case for requiring the sewer connection

  1. A treatment plant must meet a published national standard. A backyard drain field does not. Federal rules set a monthly average of 30 mg/L or less for both BOD and TSS in the water a plant releases. That is roughly 85 percent removal. Raw wastewater usually carries 200 to 300 mg/L of BOD. (Source: EPA secondary treatment regulation, 40 CFR 133.)
  2. Homes on Ospreywick Ridge draw drinking water from private wells. Those wells sit in the same shallow aquifer the drain fields feed. A failure does not send its pollution toward a distant river, because the nearest water it can reach is a neighbor's well.
  3. The fictional Gallowmere County health department wrote a memo for this debate. It reports that one in five septic inspections on the ridge failed last year. (Illustrative figure created for this debate, not a documented statistic.)
  4. Requiring the connection now costs less than adding it later. Once a house is finished, its drain field is buried. Connecting that house later means tearing up a planted yard. It also means giving up a system the owner already paid for.

Case against requiring the sewer connection

  1. A fictional county builders' association prepared an estimate for this debate. It puts the hookup fee and each new home's share of the pipe at about $18,000. That cost is added to the price of the house. It falls hardest on first-time buyers. (Illustrative figure created for this debate, not a documented statistic.)
  2. A household on sewer pays a bill every month for as long as it lives there. A household on septic pays for pumping every few years. Over thirty years the sewer bill can add up to more than the septic costs it replaced.
  3. Extending sewer lines up the ridge makes more land buildable. More houses usually means more roofs, driveways, and streets. All of that sends more stormwater into the watershed the rule is meant to protect.
  4. The county could reach the same goal without a pipe project. Advanced septic systems that remove nitrogen already exist. The county could require one on every new lot. It could also set an inspection schedule. That approach targets the risk directly and leaves the choice of system with the owner.

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
Use of evidence States a position with no evidence from the file Names one piece of evidence but does not explain it Names at least two pieces of evidence and explains how each supports the team's position Names several pieces of evidence, explains each, and shows how they fit together into one argument
Rebuttal Does not respond to the other team Mentions an opposing point without answering it Answers one specific opposing point using evidence Answers more than one opposing point and explains why the team's evidence outweighs them
Handling of sources Treats every figure in the file as equally settled Notices that some figures are illustrative but does not use that distinction Identifies which figures are documented and which were created for this debate Uses the distinction in argument, such as pressing the other team on an illustrative figure
Organization and delivery Hard to follow; no clear order Has an order, but the connections are unclear Follows a clear claim, evidence, and conclusion order and stays in time Clear and well paced, speaks from notes rather than reading, and closes by returning to the resolution

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Give these students a one-page card carrying the single strongest point for their assigned side in the fictional county's dispute, with the source line already marked. Provide rebuttal sentence frames that read "The other team says ___, but the evidence file shows ___."

Extension (above grade level)

Ask students to write the ordinance language the county would actually have to adopt, in three or four numbered provisions, including which homes it covers, what it requires, who inspects, and what happens when an owner cannot pay. Then have them identify the provision the opposing team would attack first.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "septic system," "drain field," "aquifer," and "hookup fee" with a labeled cross-section drawing showing a house, a tank, a drain field, the water table, and a neighboring well. Provide the Evidence File with each point summarized in one short sentence above the full text, and allow judges to deliver scores using the rubric wording itself.