This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 04 at home — learning targets, the answers that count as correct, the mastery rubric, calibration examples, and a clipboard score sheet. No multiple-choice test: the student shows mastery by reading mitotic stages under the microscope and explaining how cells signal and regulate division.
By the end of the Cell Communication & Cell Cycle unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Identify mitotic stages in prepared slides — observed live.
The student explains signaling and regulation in their own words (Page 4).
Labeled sketches of each mitotic stage, observation kept from inference.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Not yet, Approaching, or Mastered — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both do the technique and justify the biology behind it. A student carries three tokens per term; one token buys a re-do of one criterion on another day, so a single bad afternoon never sinks the unit.
Accept any answer in the synonyms column — they are pre-approved as equivalent. The third column flags the confusions that look close but are not yet, so you can coach precisely.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| The cell cycle | ||
| Interphase | G1, S, G2 | The cell grows and copies DNA here — not part of mitosis |
| Mitosis | PMAT: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase | Divides the nucleus; cytokinesis divides the cell |
| Cytokinesis | cytoplasm division | Splits the cell; separate from mitosis itself |
| Signaling | ||
| Signal transduction | signaling pathway; relay | Reception → transduction → response, not a single step |
| Receptor | protein that binds the signal | Binds the ligand; not the signal molecule itself |
| Ligand | signal molecule | The messenger; binds the receptor |
| Regulation & cancer | ||
| Checkpoint | cell-cycle control point | Stops the cycle until conditions are right |
| Cancer | uncontrolled cell division | A failure of regulation, not a single mutation in isolation |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cell cycle & mitosis stages | Cannot order the phases. | Names stages but misorders or skips interphase. | Orders the cycle and names what happens in each mitotic stage. |
| Signal transduction | No idea how cells communicate. | Knows signals exist; cannot trace the relay. | Traces a signal from receptor to cellular response. |
| Feedback regulation | Unaware the cycle is controlled. | Mentions checkpoints vaguely. | Explains how checkpoints and feedback keep division in check. |
| Cancer as cycle dysregulation | Thinks cancer is just “bad cells.” | Links cancer to division but not to control loss. | Describes cancer as a breakdown of cell-cycle regulation. |
| Microscopy of mitotic stages | Cannot find or identify stages. | Finds cells but mislabels stages. | Identifies mitotic stages in prepared slides under the scope. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend it. | Connects the unit across History · Reading · Writing and defends why it matters. |
The split between Approaching and Mastered is mechanism: not the name of the stage, but what the chromosomes and controls are doing. Ask “what is happening to the DNA here, and what would go wrong if it skipped?”
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastered and Not yet actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cell cycle & mitosis stages | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Signal transduction | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Feedback regulation | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Cancer as cycle dysregulation | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Microscopy of mitotic stages | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | NY / Appr / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________ Tokens remaining: ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ 0
NY = Not yet · Appr = Approaching · Mast = Mastered · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.