Unit 1 project: Scope a real problem

For five lessons you worked on the club's winter attendance problem. Now your group picks a problem of its own — something real, in your school, street or village — and scopes it so well that someone else could check it's true, and tell when it was solved.

You are not building anything. Scoping is the part most projects skip, and the reason most projects fail.

Work in groups of 3–4. One period. Everything goes in scope-it.ods (four sheets).

Start from the problems.ods lists you each made in the refresher. Pick one problem the group can find evidence for. Good ones are small and local: the tap near the ground, the bus that arrives after the bell, rubbish behind the canteen, the library that's shut at break.

Not allowed: anything that needs data about named people.

Sheet 1 — 4Ws canvas. Who · What · Where · Why. The What block needs evidence you actually have or can get, and how you know: "I counted 14 days out of 20", not "it's always broken".

Sheet 2 — Problem statement. Our [Who] has a problem that [What] while/when [Where]. An ideal solution would [Why].

Sheet 3 — Data plan. At least five precise features. For each: what exactly · source · how often · whose permission. Delete any that needs a parent's consent, and say what you lost.

Sheet 4 — System map and access check. Draw at least four boxes with + and − arrows. Mark one arrow you can't yet prove, and write how you'd check it. Then one line: who would a solution to this problem leave out, and why? — bias, access, or both.

Each person writes the one piece of evidence they would go and collect first, where from, and why it matters most. Sign with your roll number. This part is marked for you alone.

Each group reads out its problem statement. The class asks one question: could we check that?