Module 3 - Example

Meet the Problem

"Quick, Jennie-girl," cried Grandma, "cover the beds!" The clouds appeared on the horizons with a thunderous roar. The turbulent dust clouds came in from the North and dumped a fine silt over the land. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and I stayed inside the house.

Sheriff Marcus would always come by afterwards--"How you farmers doing?"--to check on us after a dust storm. Each of us wore a handkerchief over our nose and mouth. When Pa went outside, he wore googles over his eyes because the wind was so hard. My job was to plug up all the holes, ripping up cloth and sticking them into cracks in the walls, doors and windows. It didn't make much of a difference, though. The silt, like Ma's talcum powder, found its way into everything.

During a storm, Ma waved wet gunny sack through the air and tied damp sheets over our beds so the dust wouldn't settle into our sleeping sheets. Pa's face was gray; the wheat crop was dead. "Oh," I cried, "how can we stop this from happening?" (Adapted from 1930's Dust Bowl web page)

Teacher Asks: What hunches, or guesses, can we make about the problems, the people in the problem?

• When the wind blew, dust would get into the house?
• Maybe houses didn't have insulation?
• They lived in a place where there was a lot of dirt?
• The wind blew hard?
• If their wheat crop died, would they make any money that season?

Teacher Asks: What do we know for certain about the problem? Be sure to explain to students that these are certainly in the text kinds of answers rather than extrapolations based on what they have read.

• Jennie and her parents are farmers.
• Sheriff Marcus visited after dust storm.
• Dust clouds came from the North.
• Everyone wore handkerchiefs over their noses during a dust storm.
• They trapped dust with a wet gunny sack.

Teacher Asks: What do we need to know in order to help Jennie?

• Where do they live?
• How could we stop the dust from getting in the house?
• How could we protect people like Jennie from living some place with so much dust?
• How can we stop the dirt from turning into wind-blown dust?
• What happens if the wheat crop dies?
• How do the farmers replant their fields?
• What other crops are there?
• How did the land get so dry to turn into dust?
• Is there irrigation?