Skill: course-build → write-mcqs → write-explanation, design-check-sequence @ cb79e2e
Topic 28 — Using and conserving natural resources — the PP100's ten question types, with their exemplars
What this page is. James approves a bank's question TYPES before the bank is generated (vault: A bank is reviewed as its question types first, one exemplar each, 28 Sep 2026). This sheet writes the exemplars in full, exactly as they sit in content/G3T28.py (PP100, flagged TYPE_SHEET_ONLY). Ten types for four atoms, one exemplar each — the ceiling. No other bank item exists yet. Once the types stand, about fifty items are generated from them, varying the product, the resource, the counts, the wasted thing and the action, easy-heavy.
Revised 29 Sep 2026 after the non-author review (REVIEW_G3T28_2026-09-29.md; the coordinator's rulings applied): two exemplars were lesson cases in a coat and are re-instanced — PP-9 (hard, typed) now sits on a washed ice-cream tub kept for leftovers, not the taught crayon jar (Q1); PP-4's key and three distractors are fresh actions the page never uses (last year's school books read again; a two-minute shower; the car washed with one bucket; cereal boxes made into new paper) (Q2). EAR3-042's second half — what happens to what is left for everyone — had no type; it is now type 2, and the reverse trace (resource → product) it replaces is dropped to keep ten (the coordinator asked for the type; James's ceiling is ten, and EAR3-040 already had three types). PP-10 accepts "wood" as well as "trees" — the two-step trace is the skill, not the tree / wood boundary (Q3, the coordinator's ruling). The alt text of every card now says which bar is longer (F3). Every exemplar was re-read against the page: no lesson, quiz, attached or practice scene reappears.
James's rulings applied. Hard items are typed, never MCQs (28 Sep night): two text-entry types (the class of a boundary action; the resource a cardboard box started as). Easy and medium are four-option MCQs. Every exemplar is a FRESH scene; no headache character (Zora, Saul, Enid, Ori) appears in any item; the bank exemplars carry no names at all. No stem leans on a video; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem is a positive question; no item figure carries a verdict chip; every count on a drawn card is a whole number and the card's verdict follows the rule (figures.py asserts it). Nothing James has rejected appears here.
How to read a type line. Each says what the stem asks, what the four options are (the kind of thing), and gives its exemplar scene. Every MCQ has a why (no per-option feedback in the bank; the engine prints Correct / Not quite). Tags follow depth of reasoning: easy = one product traced to its resource, one drawn card read, one wasted thing named to what runs short, one action picked for a named class; medium = what is left for everyone (the consequence, one step past what runs short), the reason for running short picked from four, or two atoms chained; hard = the class or the resource PRODUCED, on a boundary case or a two-step trace.
The ten types
| Type | Item | Atom | Tag | Form | The stem asks… | The options / the accept | Exemplar scene |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PP-1 | EAR3-040 | easy | MCQ, photo | a named product: what natural resource did it start as | four resources: a tree / oil from under the ground / sand / rock from the ground | a plastic beach bucket standing on sand (sand is the trap) |
| 2 | PP-5 | EAR3-042 | medium | MCQ | everyone in a town wastes a resource in a dry summer: what happens to what is left for everyone | four outcomes in order: more is left / the same amount / less is left / less is left, but only for the families who waste it (the "only who wastes pays" belief) | every family hoses down its driveway every evening |
| 3 | PP-2 | EAR3-041 | easy | MCQ, drawn | a drawn take-and-replace card: what happens to the resource over the years | four outcomes in order: all gone after one year / less and less / the same / more and more | the riverbed's gravel: 40 loads dug, 10 washed down |
| 4 | PP-6 | EAR3-041 | medium | MCQ | a named resource running short: which sentence says why | four reasons, one the rule: faster than nature makes it / slower / only in winter / found in few places | coal, a rock people dig up and burn |
| 5 | PP-3 | EAR3-042 | easy | MCQ | a wasted thing, if everyone does it: what runs short | four resources: the trees / the oil / the sand / the water in the reservoir | a paddling pool emptied and refilled every day of a dry summer |
| 6 | PP-7 | EAR3-040 + EAR3-042 (pair) | medium | MCQ | a careful use of a product: why does that matter | four "so less X is taken" reasons, one per resource | a class prints on both sides → fewer trees are cut |
| 7 | PP-4 | EAR3-043 | easy | MCQ | which of four actions is a named class | four actions, one of the named class, the others from the other two classes | which is reusing: last year's school books read again this year |
| 8 | PP-9 | EAR3-043 | hard | text, photo | a boundary action: which of the three ways is it — type the word | reusing and its forms (reuse, reused, re-using…) | a washed ice-cream tub kept for leftovers (a plastic tub is a thing most children send for recycling) |
| 9 | PP-10 | EAR3-040 | hard | text, photo | a product two steps from its resource: type the resource | acc_term("trees", "tree", "wood", "forest") — wood AND trees accepted (the coordinator's ruling, 29 Sep) | a cardboard box (cardboard → paper → trees) |
| 10 | PP-8 | EAR3-041 + EAR3-043 (pair) | medium | MCQ | a resource running short: which action means less of it is taken | four actions from the three classes, one on the named resource | trees cut faster than they grow → a cloth towel instead of paper towels |
Hard because (type 8): the class is produced, not picked, and the case sits on the reusing / recycling boundary that L04's sorting sentence draws — a plastic tub is a thing most children send for recycling, so the student must read what happens to the tub (it stays a tub) and not what tubs usually do. Hard because (type 9): two steps — cardboard is paper, paper started as a tree — and the resource is typed. Medium because (type 2): the consequence one step past what runs short, with the "only the families who waste it" belief as a live distractor. Medium because (type 4): the reason is picked from four, with the reversed rate as the nameable error. Medium because (types 6 and 10): two atoms chained.
Bank notes for the generator. Type 1: the photo shows the product on a surface that is itself a resource where possible (the bucket on sand; a paper kite in a tree; a glass on a rock) so the "where it sits" trap is live; vary the product across oil, trees, sand, rock, lake water and sheep's wool — hold wheat (bread, flour) out of bank items until James rules on the food member (blueprint decision 2); never name the material in a way that gives the resource away ("wooden" is fine — wood → tree is the skill). Type 2: vary the wasted thing (hoses, sprinklers, baths, taps) and the resource (water, paper); the fourth option is always the "only the families who waste it" belief. Type 3: whole-number counts, the take bar red and the make-back bar green from one line; vary the resource (fish, trees, clams, gravel, stone, berries, well water) and include take < back (more and more) and take = back (the same), so "less and less" is not the only key. Type 5: vary the wasted thing across water, paper and plastic; the reservoir is water's home word. Type 7: one option per class plus one more from a different class than the key; never two options of the key's class; never Ori's six taught cases (faucet off while brushing, the three-minute shower, the refilled bottle, the can to the bin, the crayon jar, the jar to the bin) and never a quiz case. Type 8: the typed class sits on a boundary case (a tub kept; a hand-me-down; a half sheet of paper used again) — never a plain case (a shorter shower), and never the taught jar. Type 9: the product is two steps from its resource (cardboard; a steel can → rock and a glass marble → sand are one step and belong to a medium typed form if James wants one). No exemplar names a child; a bank item may, from the course-wide free list (build_tools_names.py).
Draw constraints (⟂ pairs, one per test — review Q17). PP-8 ⟂ PP-6 (PP-8's stem states the running-short rule PP-6 asks for); PP-8 ⟂ PP-7 (PP-8's stem states the paper → trees link PP-7 tests). The test builder draws one of each pair.
Coverage (every atom alone, and the pairs)
| Atom | Types testing it alone | Pair types |
|---|---|---|
| EAR3-040 spot the resource behind a product | 1 (and 9, hard typed) | 6 (with EAR3-042) |
| EAR3-041 resources can run short | 3, 4 | 10 (with EAR3-043) |
| EAR3-042 why conserving matters: what runs short (5) and less for everyone (2) | 5, 2 | 6 (with EAR3-040) |
| EAR3-043 reduce, reuse or recycle | 7, 8 (hard typed) | 10 (with EAR3-041) |
At most two alone MCQ types per atom (James: "unlikely that you're going to need more than two question types per atom"). Order in the file: easy PP-1…PP-4 → medium PP-5…PP-8 → hard PP-9, PP-10. Keys of the eight MCQs, in file order: PP-1 B · PP-2 B · PP-3 D · PP-4 D · PP-5 C · PP-6 A · PP-7 A · PP-8 C (two of each letter). Typed items: 2 of 10 on the sheet; in a bank of about fifty, types 8 and 9 supply 12–15 typed items on fresh boundary actions and two-step products.
Design-move inventory (every move on the page, then the bank's)
| Move (what the student does with what) | Lesson-side instances (taught cases included) | Bank exemplar |
|---|---|---|
| trace a named product to the resource it started as | L01 lesson: car, cup, jar, spoon, chair, bread, wool hat, water; L01 q2 comb, q3 book, q4 window, q6 nail, q7 tap water, q9 flour; L01-V ruler; PR-1 lunch box; PR-5 marble (typed); SUMMARY-1 glass bottle | PP-1: a plastic beach bucket on sand — a new product, and the surface it sits on is the trap |
| read a drawn take-and-replace card and say whether it runs short | L02 lesson: Saul's wood 20 / 5 and 5 / 5, the river's fish 10 / 10, oil; L02 q1 lake fish 30 / 10, q2 wood 8 / 8, q5 quarry 50 / none, q7 Nuala's river 25 / 10 (a claim on a case), q8 wood 12 / 20, q9 berries 40 / 40; L02-V wood 30 / 10; PR-2 clams 25 / 5; SUMMARY-2 pond 20 / 5 | PP-2: the riverbed's gravel 40 / 10, asked as what happens over the years (four outcomes, not yes / no) |
| what happens to a resource used faster than it is replaced | L02 q3 the well | (folded into PP-2's option form) |
| why a resource runs short (reasons) | L02 q6 oil (two reasons); PR-7 the quarry | PP-6: coal, four reasons |
| the never-runs-short claim | L02 q4 Remy | none — claims are bare yes / no, two options |
| name what runs short if everyone wastes a thing | L03 lesson: the hose (water), paper towels (trees); L03 q1 faucet while washing a cup, q2 napkins, q5 plastic bags; L03-V faucet while brushing; PR-4 sprinklers; PR-8 notebooks | PP-3: a paddling pool emptied and refilled — a new wasted thing |
| what happens to what is left for everyone | L03 lesson: "less water for everyone", "less wood for everyone"; L03 q3 (a town wastes water) | PP-5: every family hoses its driveway — the four outcomes with the only-who-wastes-pays belief (new type 2) |
| why a careful use matters (reasons) | L03 q7 the faucet off while soaping, q8 the river town | PP-7: printing on both sides — the reason is traced through the product to its resource (pair) |
| the reservoir-is-huge claim; the true claim | L03 q4 Quill, q6 Ottie | none — claims |
| sort a named action into reducing / reusing / recycling | L04 lesson (taught): faucet off while brushing, three-minute shower, refilled bottle, can to the bin, crayon jar, jar to the bin; L04 q1 big brother's coat, q2 cardboard boxes, q3 the full dishwasher, q4 gift bag, q6 lunch box, q7 worksheets, q8 shower off while soaping, q10 newspapers; L04-V bottle every morning; PR-3 wrapping paper; PR-6 half-full bath / pencil jar / newspapers; PR-11 glass bottles; SUMMARY-3 shoebox | PP-4: which of four actions is reusing — last year's school books, a two-minute shower, one bucket for the car, cereal boxes to new paper: none on the page |
| the jar claim; the bike claim; the jar pair | L04 q5 Idun, q9 Beck, q11 | PP-9: the ice-cream tub kept for leftovers, the class TYPED (hard) — a fresh boundary case |
| which action slows the taking of a named resource | none on the page | PP-8: a cloth towel instead of paper towels, for trees (pair) |
| the resource two steps away, typed | PR-5 marble (one step, typed) | PP-10: the cardboard box (two steps, typed, hard) |
| the term by recall | L01 q11, L03 q9–q10, L04 q12, PR-12…PR-15 | none — the practice set's job |
No bank exemplar shares a scene with a lesson case, quiz, attached or practice item, and no two exemplars share a move.
The exemplars, in full
Type 1 — PP-1 · EAR3-040 · easy · photo photo_bucket_pp
Stem: This beach bucket is plastic. What natural resource did it start as?
- a tree
- oil from under the ground ← key
- sand
- rock from the ground
Why: The bucket's material is plastic. / Plastic is made from oil. / So the bucket started as oil from under the ground, not as the sand it stands on.
Type 3 — PP-2 · EAR3-041 · easy · drawing card_pp_gravel
Stem: People dig 40 loads of gravel from this riverbed each year, and the river washes down 10 new loads. What happens to the gravel over the years?
- All the gravel is gone after one year.
- Less and less gravel is left. ← key
- The same amount of gravel stays.
- More and more gravel is left.
Why: People dig out 40 loads a year. / The river washes down 10 loads a year. / People use the gravel faster than the river replaces it. / So less and less gravel is left: it is running short.
Type 5 — PP-3 · EAR3-042 · easy
Stem: A family empties and refills its paddling pool every day of a dry summer. If every family does this, what runs short?
- the trees in the woods
- the oil under the ground
- the sand on the beach
- the water in the reservoir ← key
Why: The pool's water comes from the town's reservoir. / In a dry summer, rain refills the reservoir slowly. / If every family wastes water, the town uses it faster than rain replaces it. / So the water in the reservoir runs short.
Type 7 — PP-4 · EAR3-043 · easy
Stem: Which of these is reusing?
- taking a two-minute shower
- washing the car with one bucket instead of a hose
- sending flattened cereal boxes off to be made into new paper
- reading last year's school books again this year ← key
Why: A two-minute shower and one bucket use less water: reducing. / Cereal boxes made into new paper are made into a new thing: recycling. / The school books stay books and are read again. / So reading last year's school books again is reusing.
Type 2 — PP-5 · EAR3-042 · medium
Stem: In a dry summer, every family in a town hoses down its driveway every evening. What happens to the water left for everyone?
- More water is left for everyone.
- The same amount of water is left for everyone.
- Less water is left for everyone. ← key
- Less water is left, but only for the families who waste it.
Why: The hoses' water comes from the town's reservoir. / In a dry summer, rain refills the reservoir slowly. / If every family wastes water, the reservoir runs short sooner. / So less water is left for everyone, not only for the families who waste it.
Type 4 — PP-6 · EAR3-041 · medium
Stem: Coal is a rock that people dig up and burn. Which sentence says why the coal under the ground is running short?
- People dig it up faster than nature makes new coal. ← key
- Nature makes new coal faster than people dig it up.
- People dig it up only in winter.
- Coal is found in only a few places.
Why: A natural resource runs short when people use it faster than nature replaces it. / Nature makes new coal very slowly, and people dig up a lot. / So the coal is running short because people dig it up faster than nature makes new coal.
Type 6 — PP-7 · EAR3-040 + EAR3-042 · medium
Stem: A class prints on both sides of every sheet of paper. Why does that matter?
- So fewer trees are cut down. ← key
- So less sand is dug up.
- So less oil is pumped up.
- So less water is taken from the reservoir.
Why: Paper started as a tree. / Printing on both sides uses less paper. / Less paper means fewer trees are cut down, so the woods do not run short of trees.
Type 10 — PP-8 · EAR3-041 + EAR3-043 · medium
Stem: People are cutting trees faster than new ones grow. Which action means fewer trees are cut?
- turning the faucet off while brushing
- taking a shorter shower
- using a cloth towel instead of paper towels ← key
- sending cans off to be melted into new cans
Why: Paper towels started as trees. / A cloth towel instead of paper towels means less paper is used: reducing. / Less paper means fewer trees are cut. / The faucet, the shower and the cans save water and rock, not trees.
Type 8 — PP-10 (was PP-9 until 29 Sep) · EAR3-043 · hard · text entry · photo photo_tub_pp
Stem: A family washes an empty ice-cream tub and keeps leftovers in it in the fridge. Which of the three ways of conserving is that? Type the word.
Accept: reusing · reuse · reused · re-using · re-use · they are reusing · reusing it (the grader folds case)
Why: The tub stays a tub, and the family uses it again. / Using the same thing again is called reusing. / Recycling would break the tub down into new plastic; reducing would mean using less in the first place. / So that is reusing.
Hard because: the class is produced, not picked, on the reusing / recycling boundary — a plastic tub is a thing most children send for recycling.
Type 9 — PP-9 (was PP-10 until 29 Sep) · EAR3-040 · medium · MCQ from 29 Sep 2026 — the block below is superseded by the dated section at the end · photo photo_cardboard_pp
Stem: This cardboard box started as a natural resource. Type the name of that resource.
Accept: acc_term("trees", "tree", "wood", "forest") — trees · a tree · the trees · tree · wood · a wood · the wood · forest · a forest · the forest (the grader folds case)
Why: Cardboard is a thick paper. / Paper is made from wood, and wood comes from trees. / So the cardboard box started as a tree.
Hard because: two steps — cardboard is paper, and paper started as a tree — and the resource is typed.
Typed items (James, 29 Sep 2026) — type 9 is an MCQ, medium; the two hard-block items swap numbers
Skill: write-mcqs → review-questions (check 53) @ 5584bfd
James's ruling (29 Sep 2026; vault 10 Rules/A typed answer is asked only where the question is closed, and every correct answer is accepted.md): a text-entry item only where the question is CLOSED — one coined term, one name or one number — and every correct answer in the accept list; a direction, description, comparative or reason is OPEN and becomes a four-option MCQ. The sweep is S30; the course-wide audit is grade3/records/TYPED_ITEMS_AUDIT_2026-09-29.md. Bank items converted to MCQ drop to medium and move to the end of the medium block, because the bank's hard tier is typed entry only (S26 fails a hard MCQ) — the reasoning steps are unchanged, only the response mode; the type sheet says so per item.
Type 9 asked the student to type the resource a cardboard box started as — trees, wood, a forest, plants, paper…: an OPEN answer with no set in view — so it is a four-option MCQ over the lesson's four resources (the run's fixed set, as PP-1 uses), tagged medium, at the end of the medium block as PP-9. The typed ice-cream-tub item (type 8, reusing) is the bank's one hard item and is now PP-10.
PP-9 (was PP-10) · atom EAR3-040 · tag medium · type 9 · MCQ · photo photo_cardboard_pp
Stem: This cardboard box started as a natural resource. Which natural resource did it start as?
- a) a tree ← key
- b) oil from under the ground
- c) sand
- d) rock from the ground
Why: Cardboard is a thick paper. / Paper is made from wood, and wood comes from trees. / So the cardboard box started as a tree.
Medium (was hard because): the two steps stand — cardboard is paper, and paper started as a tree — but the resource is picked from four, not produced (a student who knows the other three products can also reach it by ruling them out), and the bank's hard tier is typed entry only. Type-9 bank items keep the form: a product two steps from its resource (a cardboard box, a paper straw, a wooden spoon's handle…), the four resources offered.
PP-10 (was PP-9, the tub) · accept list widened: + re using / reuseing / re-useing / they reuse it / reusing the tub / reusing them / reuse it.
Key string of the 9 MCQs, bank order: B B D D C A A C A — A 3 · B 2 · C 2 · D 2.