# Open a habitat help desk

Help a made-up courtyard team ask better questions about living things. You can make a map, follow a record, repair a claim or leave a useful guide. Use the complete [ordinary sources](ORDINARY-SOURCES.md). You do not need a garden, plants, a device or a printer. Speak, sign, use AAC, point, direct a helper, draw, type or write. Choose a quiet/private response and change route when helpful.

## Your ten jobs

| Day | Start here | Leave something useful |
| ---: | --- | --- |
| 1 | Which question can O2 answer? | Your question, measure, period and one unknown. |
| 2 | How much did each mean height change? | Working or a labelled graph, plus a separate survival count. |
| 3 | Where does “height” begin? | A clear measurement rule; mark your own measured or supplied values. |
| 4 | What changes at the same time in O3? | A fairer paper plan and a blank record, with no invented outcome. |
| 5 | Your teacher gives one new first source. | Your first answer; after it is collected, a separate review of the later source. |
| 6 | What do two people’s different contributions add? | A source-backed reason from a dated real-world card. |
| 7 | Is the goal more height or more alive at the check? | A criterion-specific decision from O4, with sample and time. |
| 8 | How can knowledge help people choose a response? | Problem, science idea, reviewed next step and a local unknown. |
| 9 | Who would use your guide? | An own help-desk guide and one revision you can explain. |
| 10 | Your teacher gives a different new first source. | A conditional decision, then a separate later response after first collection. |

Your teacher can offer three different jobs at each start. The scientific question may differ between routes; choose one you want to work on. A helper can record your exact ideas without deciding for you. A response made after a hint is still useful learning; it is recorded separately from the first attempt.

## A small starter

A fictional stem is 10 mm on Day 0 and 14 mm on Day 3. It has increased **4 mm over three days**. If three of four seedlings are alive at Day 3, write **3 of 4 alive at that check**. Taller and alive are different measures. What might happen next is still unknown.

Try your own: a made-up stem starts at 8 mm and finishes at 11 mm after two days; 2 of 3 are alive. Show the size increase and the alive count/time. Ask for counters, a calculator or read-aloud if useful.

## Keep your guide honest

Use `The record shows… / It does not yet show… / Next we could ask…`. Put unit and period beside a number. A supplied record is different from your own measurement; a paper plan is different from a completed investigation. You may conclude “neither meets the requirements”, “keep this prediction with a limit” or “we need another check”. You do not have to promise success or share a personal story.

Your work can stay private. No home return, photograph, public post, plant collection, wildlife visit or change to a habitat is required. Optional [home offers](HOME-OFFERS.md) use only supplied ideas and things already available.