Since the middle 14 students of the class are usually rather homogeneous for achievement, they fill in the remaining spaces to even out gender participation for each group, based on job preference. Students move to their expert groups to read and discuss the introduction pages of their expert booklets. The beginning of the mission is played on the laserdisc player, while each set of experts looks for pertinent clues for the problem location. Discussion takes place in the expert groups pulling together the evidence from the transmission to collectively decide on a location. Students move back to their cooperative groups.
Experts write their opinion on the data sheet before discussion takes place.
Groups choosing the correct location will be billed 10,000 dollars and wrong choices cost 20,000 dollars. Groups write their decision on the data sheet. Based on the information given in the transmission, cooperative groups rank order the sampling tests they would like to see completed. The teacher plays the test transmission and groups record the information on side two of the data sheet. Steps 13-15 are repeated for groups until everyone has solved and been billed for the number of tests needed.