Launch the Community Challenge

Overview

Students begin the ten-lesson “Design a Sustainable Community” project by unpacking the brief, exploring examples of sustainable community spaces and identifying local needs. They formulate measurable mathematical questions that could guide later data collection, modelling and design decisions, while establishing mentoring teams and project roles.

Learning intentions

• WALT understand and explain the sustainable community design challenge.
• WALT identify community needs, constraints and possible sources of evidence.
• WALT formulate measurable mathematical questions for an investigation.
• WALT collaborate effectively by establishing team roles and using a design journal.

Success criteria

• I can describe the design challenge in my own words.
• I can identify community needs and distinguish needs from preferences.
• I can propose measurable questions that could be answered with data.
• I can identify constraints and explain how they may affect a design.

Curriculum links

• Measurement — use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving ratios and rates, formulate problems, and review whether a model is appropriate.
• Statistics — plan investigations using samples, fair methods and questions that support reasonable inferences.
• Algebra — create and simplify expressions that may later represent costs, quantities or design relationships.
• Measurement — solve area and perimeter problems for irregular and composite shapes, supporting future community-space planning.

Lesson structure (90 minutes)

1. 0–8 min · Hook and purpose. Open with the provocative community challenge opening showing a striking before-and-after image of an underused space transformed into a sustainable community area; students silently note what they notice, wonder about and think the community might need. Briefly introduce the WALT and explain that today’s questions will shape the project.

2. 8–23 min · Unpack the brief. Display the project brief and success criteria and distribute the community challenge planning sheet. Teacher reads the brief aloud, clarifies that teams will design a sustainable shared space for a defined community, and models highlighting the purpose, audience, constraints and required evidence. Students annotate the brief and complete a “must include / may choose / need to find out” table.

Suggested brief: “Design a sustainable community space that responds to identified local needs. Your proposal must use evidence, include a labelled plan, justify important decisions mathematically and stay within stated space, material and budget constraints.”

3. 23–40 min · Gallery walk: sustainable spaces. Place six visual examples around the room, such as a community garden, shaded seating area, water-sensitive park, accessible recreation space, bicycle hub and pollinator garden. Use gallery-walk instructions and discussion prompts to establish a silent viewing round followed by discussion. In pairs, students record observed features, possible users, sustainability benefits, questions and potential constraints on the worksheet. Regroup the class of six to compare observations and identify recurring needs.

4. 40–55 min · From needs to mathematical questions. Teacher explicitly distinguishes a broad question (“Would people like a garden?”) from a measurable mathematical question (“How much planting area could fit if the available space is 12 m by 8 m?”). Model turning needs into questions about area, perimeter, ratios, rates, costs, capacity, travel distance or survey results. Students improve three provided examples and write at least three questions of their own, checking that each has a measurable variable, possible data source and clear unit where appropriate.

5. 55–70 min · Team formation and roles. Form two mentoring teams of three, balancing confidence, communication and support needs. Display team roles and collaboration routine. Each team selects or allocates facilitator, evidence manager and design-mathematician roles, with roles rotating in later lessons. Students create a team name, agree on respectful discussion norms and record individual responsibilities in their design journals. Teacher conferences briefly with each student to check understanding and clarify a preferred role.

6. 70–83 min · Prioritise needs and plan investigation. Teams list their five most important possible community needs and select two or three to investigate first. They identify whose views or measurements are needed, what could be sampled fairly and what mathematical information would help. For extension, students rank competing needs using a justified scoring system, explaining criteria such as community benefit, sustainability, accessibility, cost and feasibility. Teams prepare a short verbal proposal using the sentence frame: “We think ___ is important because ___. We will investigate it by measuring/collecting ___.”

7. 83–90 min · Share and exit check. Each team gives a one-minute proposal while peers identify one strength and one question. Revisit plenary and exit-ticket prompts. Students complete the final section of the community challenge planning sheet: describe the challenge, name one constraint and submit their strongest measurable mathematical question. Collect journals or photograph pages for planning Lesson 2.

Resources

• the sustainable community introduction and activity deck
• the community challenge planning sheet
• Introductory slides or display screen
• Six printed photographs or visual examples of sustainable community spaces
• Design journals or mathematics exercise books
• Highlighters, sticky notes and coloured pens
• Briefly prepared team-role cards or board display
• Whiteboard and markers

Assessment

• Listen for students’ ability to identify the audience, purpose and constraints during brief annotation and questioning.
• Check whether proposed questions are measurable, include a variable or quantity, and identify a possible data source or unit.
• Use the exit response to group students for Lesson 2: secure understanding, needs clarification, or ready for independent investigation planning.

Differentiation

• Provide a visual brief with key information colour-coded, a vocabulary bank including community need, constraint, evidence, variable, sample, area, perimeter, ratio and sentence starters such as “We could measure…” and “This matters because…”.
• Keep the worked questioning examples visible and conference with students who need support to turn broad opinions into measurable questions.
• Allow students to respond through labelled sketches, oral explanation, bullet points or speech-to-text; pair readers with supportive peers and read the brief aloud.
• Extend confident students by requiring a scoring system with named criteria, assigned weights or points, and a short justification of why the ranking is fair and appropriate.