A proposed mining operation rendered as 3D terrain: open pit, water systems, rail line, town, river and conservation area
Year 7 · Unit 03 · Lesson 04

The Proposal

One idea must land: every witness tells the truth — and chooses which truth to tell. A fair judge listens for what isn't said.

The fictional world closes its loop: Marla Creek Minerals — the company Joan built in her ute, now listed — wants to dig at Kambaria Ridge. An official briefing document lands (every figure invented, and it says so), engineered so every fact casts a shadow: 240 jobs with a 15-year end date, a clinic riding on royalties, a water promise that monitors but doesn’t map. Then the room becomes a public hearing: six witnesses, sixty seconds each, fire-back questions from the judges — and every witness card carries a secret they must never say aloud, but must let shape how they speak.

Spark

The briefing lands

The Kambaria terrain projected — pit, town, river, conservation area on one map, with a find-it map check first. Then the briefing, read aloud while students make four marks: circle what impresses, box what worries, underline the promise to test — and a ? beside anything the briefing does NOT say. First-read gut lean recorded against the Lesson 3 gut-lock.

The 400 metres and the 15 years usually fight for the box. And the sharpest students will underline “we will leave Kambaria better than we found it” — untestable as written, deliberately. When one demands to know who measures “better,” stop the room and say so.
Core

Witness prep — become your card

Six witness cards, one per pair: the Project Director, the store owner, the 72-year-old nearest resident, the Year 12 student, the environmental scientist, the Shire President. Each card holds who you are, what you want, your strongest briefing fact — and a “for your eyes only” secret.

The secrets rule, said plainly: “never speak it — but let it leak into HOW you speak. The judges will try to guess it.” This single rule turns acting into thinking.
Workshop

The hearing

Witness chair faces the room; judges in a loose arc; the terrain stays projected so witnesses can point: “that’s MY street.” Order matters — Director first, Shire President last. Sixty seconds each, then two fire-backs, with judges pushed to use their own Lesson 3 test questions. Everyone not testifying fills the ledger: criterion leaned on, fact used, fire-back ready.

Close with the secrets round: judges guess the unspoken worries — and unguessed secrets stay sealed. They’ll beg. Hold the line. Hearings never show you everything; that’s the lesson inside the game.
Land it

The analysis + the tracker

The airtime check — which criterion dominated, which went ignored (usually Governance goes quiet, and that silence is gold for the Verdict). The moved-or-held tracker updates the gut-lock. And the homework thought that defines an open mind: what evidence would change my mind? Next lesson: the Verdict.

Teacher intel

Your witness wants X — what would they trade to get it?
That’s your opinion talking — what would your CARD say? (The discipline of the lesson.)
Which witness has the most to lose? Is it who you expected?
The scientist and the director both used the same water number — how? (Same fact, different frames.)
Watch for“The loudest witness wins” (the ledger judges criteria, not volume) · “having an interest = lying” (every witness told the truth — selectively) · “the scientist is neutral” (even she chooses what to emphasise; her secret says so).
Running shortFour witnesses: Director, Resident, Student, Scientist — and read the Shire President’s card aloud yourself as the closer. Protect the four marks, the secrets rule, and the exit tracker.
SupportStatements read from plan lines are professional, not cheating; pair a confident speaker with a strong writer; a frozen witness gets their opening line fed back, or a partner tag-in.
ExtendThe seventh witness: write the card the hearing was missing — a Traditional Owner, a downstream farmer, a worker from the company’s last mine — including their unspoken line, handled with respect.