Skill: write-like-james @ cb79e2e · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ cb79e2e

Topic 28 "Using and conserving natural resources" — your read (29 September 2026)

The last-but-three Earth & Space topic. Four lessons: everything you own started as a natural resource (the plastic car as oil, the paper cup as a tree, the glass jar as sand, the spoon as rock — before the wooden chair); a resource runs short when people use it faster than nature replaces it; why conserving matters (the reservoir, and less water for everyone); reduce, reuse or recycle. Read by the author as you, then a non-author review (31 findings, all applied), then a cold read of every changed item (23 of 23 keys agreed). Reply by number.

The three that unblock the bank

1. Do the ten question types stand?

A type is one design move — "a drawn card of what people take and what nature makes back: what happens over the years" — with one exemplar written in full.

Ten here: four easy MCQ types, four medium (two pair two atoms; one is new after the review — what happens to the water left for everyone), two hard TYPED (the class of a washed ice-cream tub kept for leftovers; the resource a cardboard box started as).

Every exemplar is a fresh scene: two that were lesson cases in a coat were re-instanced after the review.

Recommendation: approve as they are. The ten types, coverage, the design-move inventory

Approve all / strike these / edit these

2. Does bread (wheat in a field) stay as a member of L01?

TEKS 3.11A's examples include "production of food"; without bread, no food is a natural resource anywhere in Grade 3.

Farmed wheat is grown, not simply taken, so it sits on the edge of "a thing we take from nature". It is in the lesson and held out of bank items until you rule.

Recommendation: keep it in L01; keep it out of the bank.

Keep in L01 and the bank / keep in L01 only / cut

3. Does the animal member stay — a wool hat started as a sheep?

The Grade 4 register says "animals as a resource are EAR3-040's (wool, leather)". The first draft had no animal; the reviewer caught it.

Two lines and one picture were added to L01 ("Here is a wool hat. Wool is cut from a sheep's coat, so the hat started as a sheep."), and one clause to the video, which is now at the 75 s cap. Leather is not named.

Recommendation: keep — so Grade 4 does not lean on a member Grade 3 never taught.

Keep / cut (Grade 4 teaches it) / keep, and add leather as a quiz item

The lessons

4. L01 Everything you own started as a natural resource — Zora's red plastic car "came from the store". Where did the store get it? Plastic is made from oil, deep under the ground: the car started as oil. The paper cup started as a tree, the glass jar as sand, the metal spoon as rock; then the wooden chair, the bread (wheat), the wool hat (a sheep) and the water in the glass (a lake). The name last: a thing we take from nature to make things or to use. Quiz: a comb, a book, a window, a nail, tap water, flour; Yves's "it started at the store" (no); Bex's "water is free, so it is not a resource" (no). Article · script · quiz Fine / say where

5. L02 A natural resource can run short — Saul's wood has 100 trees; the town cuts 20 a year and 5 grow back, so 85, 70, 55: the wood is running short. The same wood with 5 cut and 5 grown stays at 100. A river's fish (10 caught, 10 grow big) do not run short; oil (a lot pumped, almost none made back) does. The rule: faster than nature replaces it. "Renewable" is not said — that is Grade 4's word. Quiz on drawn cards: a lake's fish 30/10, a wood 8/8, a quarry, a berry patch; Remy's "a forest can never run short" (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

6. L03 Why conserving matters — a dry August; Enid's hose runs all afternoon. The town's water sits in a reservoir (a big lake people built); spring rain filled it, and this August it is low because the town uses water faster than rain refills it. If every family leaves a hose running, it runs short sooner and there is less water for everyone; the same with paper towels and trees. Using it carefully is called conserving. The honest close stays: foresters plant new trees, towns build reservoirs, conserving is the part you can do. Quiz: what runs short (the faucet, napkins, plastic bags), what is left for everyone, Quill's "the reservoir is so big it can never run low" (no), a river town. Article · quiz Fine / say where

7. L04 Reduce, reuse, or recycle? — Ori's kitchen: an empty can, an empty jar, the faucet running. Using less is called reducing (the faucet off, a three-minute shower); using the same thing again is called reusing (one bottle refilled all week); sending a used thing off to be made into a new thing is called recycling (the can, melted into new cans). The same jar two ways: kept for crayons (reusing) or melted into new glass (recycling) — with the two sorting sentences before any check sorts it. Quiz on fresh actions: a hand-me-down coat, a full dishwasher, cereal boxes, worksheets made into new paper; Idun's "a jar in the bin is reusing" (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where

Applied without asking

Your rulings of 28 Sep: hard bank items typed, easy and medium four-option MCQs · every attached question stands alone on its own drawing · no option bundles a verdict with a reason · every stem a positive question · a stem of three or more sentences is hard · colour in figures · scene changes spoken with "let's", never an imperative · the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson · three questions on the summary · the surprising members first · no coined word beyond the atoms' (no "renewable") · a headache child never appears in an item, a claim-maker once · names grepped course-wide. The coordinator's rulings on the review (29 Sep): "wood" AND "trees" accepted for the cardboard box; the honest close stays; the fresh bank exemplars; the "less for everyone" type.

<details><summary>The non-author review and its adjudication</summary>

Reviewer: grade3/topic28_build/records/REVIEW_G3T28_2026-09-29.md — 3 blocks (the card said Finn's wood, the lesson says Saul; the hard typed bank item sat on the taught crayon jar; "which is reusing?" reused a quiz key and three taught distractors), 10 fix, 18 suggestion. Every row accepted; the adjudication table is the last section of records/BUILD_RECORD_G3T28.md. Science checked sentence by sentence: no error; three simplifications left as they are (flour from wheat; a lake filled by rain; the reservoir filled by spring rain).

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One fresh reader answered the 24 items changed after the review, cold, from blind/2026-09-29/BUNDLE_CHANGED_ONLY.md: 23 of 23 keyed items agreed with the key; the written answer matched the model. Nine flags, all adjudicated in BUILD_RECORD_G3T28.md: two options judged absurd were replaced or dropped (a two-option reason item in L03; a sharper fourth option on the new bank type), the lunch-box item no longer names the paper bags it saves, "class books" became "school books". Two re-worded items (L04 q6, PP-5) are owed a second cold read.

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<details><summary>Where everything is</summary>

Content: grade3/topic28_build/content/G3T28.py, G3T28_lessons.py, figures.py (66 figures: 40 drawn, 20 photo briefs, 6 cartoon briefs). Records: BUILD_RECORD_G3T28.md (the James stage, check design, sentence tables, the adjudication), TYPES_G3T28.md, FIGURES_G3T28_2026-09-28.md, ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T28.md (no new atom; four register notes). Blueprint: course_preview/review/BLUEPRINT_G3T28.html. Checker: 0 FAIL. Blind bundle: grade3/topic28_build/blind/2026-09-29/.

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