A FIFO worker with backpack and tool bag walking toward a charter plane at dawn, past FIFO signage
Year 7 · Unit 04 · Lesson 03

Live In or Fly In?

This is not a misery lesson. Both lives are good lives with different price tags — the game lets students feel the price tags for themselves.

The liveability decision resource workers actually make — and Year 7 gets to make it in a game. Gut-locks from Lesson 2 go on the board first. Then LIVE THE SWING: the teacher reads ten day-cards with theatre — a week of FIFO life, a week of town life — and after every day students score four meters: MATES · MONEY · FREEDOM · SLEEP. Two warm fictional diaries get the scout treatment, a 4-minute town myth-buster discovers that Karratha has a waterpark, the meters turn out to have official Geography names — and the closing re-vote reveals whose gut survived contact with the evidence. The exit harvests one question for a real worker: next lesson’s script, written by the class itself.

First

The sensitivity check — before anything else

Some students live this lesson at home — a FIFO parent means the game is about THEIR kitchen table. The handout names it warmly: “you’re today’s expert — share as much as you want to, and nothing you don’t.” Never single anyone out; if a student volunteers expertise, give it the floor.

It will be better than the day cards.
Spark

Gut-locks + crack the code

Locks tallied on the board — the class re-votes at the end and the swing is the story. Then roster code: 8/6, 2/1, “swing.” The representation check lands as a quiz question, not a lecture: all kinds of workers fly, women and men.

Core

LIVE THE SWING

Ten day-cards read aloud, about a minute each, meters scored after every day. The room should be laughing at Day 5’s confused dog and quiet at Day 5’s video call — that contrast IS the lesson. Week verdicts counted: could I live this?

When one student pluses what another minuses, point at it: “THAT is perception of liveability. Same day, different verdict.” The game teaches what a lecture can’t.
Land it

Diaries · myth-buster · the re-vote

Sam (FIFO, 8/6) and Priya (town, five-minute commute) read aloud — best thing underlined, hardest boxed, both present in both lives by design. The myth-buster sends pairs to real towns — Karratha, Tom Price, Newman — for one sourced surprise. Then the re-vote against the opening tally, and the L4 harvest: one question Google can’t answer, for a real worker who’ll answer it next lesson.

Gut-locks that MOVED get celebrated: “changing your mind on evidence is the most senior skill in this room.” Collect the questions — they are next week’s script.

Teacher intel

“Your meters disagree with your neighbour’s — who’s right?” (Both. That’s the point. Let them find it.)
“Which meter would your parents score differently to you?”
“Sam’s pay is Priya’s pay — so what’s the FIFO premium actually buying?” (Lesson 2’s honest question, now felt.)
“Your myth-buster town — would YOUR top five from Unit 1 survive there?” (The whole year in one question.)
Watch for“FIFO = sad, town = boring” (both lives are chosen happily by thousands — the diaries show why) · “mining towns have nothing” (the myth-buster kills it with sources) · “you pick once, forever” (workers switch all the time — doors connect).
Running shortPlay four days per week (cut Day 3 in both). Protect the re-vote and the question harvest — those questions are Lesson 4’s script.
SupportMeters use symbols, not sentences — every reader can play. Diaries read aloud by volunteers before independent marking.
ExtendWrite Day 11 for Sam or Day 8 for Priya — same warmth, same honesty, no misery allowed. The best ones read aloud.