Resources · Mastery
Mastery rubrics.
One rubric per unit, plus the three demonstration rubrics. Every rubric uses the same three levels — Not yet, Approaching, Mastered — so the bar is identical for every student.
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How the rubrics work
The grading philosophy behind every rubric — decisions not points, a vocabulary published in advance, three tokens that absorb a bad day, and how unit mastery becomes a letter grade.
Unit rubrics
A mastery rubric for each of the eight units. Each one names exactly what a student must be able to do — not how many points they earned — to reach Mastered.
Unit 01
Plant Cells & Tissues
Cell walls, chloroplasts, and the specialized tissues — dermal, ground, and vascular.
Unit 02
Roots, Stems & Leaves
The three vegetative organs — how roots anchor and absorb, stems support and transport, and leaves capture light.
Unit 03
Photosynthesis & Plant Energy
The light reactions, the Calvin cycle, and how a leaf turns sunlight, water, and CO₂ into sugar.
Unit 04
Water & Nutrient Transport
Xylem and phloem, transpiration, and how water is pulled from root to leaf against gravity.
Unit 05
Plant Growth & Hormones
Tropisms, auxins and other hormones, germination, and how plants sense and respond to their world.
Unit 06
Flowers, Seeds & Fruit
Flower structure, pollination and fertilization, seed development, and how fruit disperses the next generation.
Unit 07
Plant Diversity & Classification
Mosses to flowering plants, the major plant groups, and reading a dichotomous key.
Unit 08
Plants, Ecosystems & People
Plants in food webs, the carbon and nitrogen cycles, agriculture, and human dependence on plants.
Demonstration rubrics
The three live demonstrations a student defends in person. These are the AI-proof assessments — you can't paste your way through any of them.
Demonstration
Plant dissection defense
Defending your technique, structures, and interpretation over the dissected specimen.
Demonstration
Timed plant identification
Keying out an unknown plant with a dichotomous key, against the clock.
Demonstration
Oral lab-notebook defense
Standing behind your recorded methods, data, and reasoning out loud.