Use these targets, vocabulary, rubrics, examples, and score sheet with the instructor's approved lesson and procedure. This is an assessment companion, not a complete lesson or safety authorization.
Student lessons, data, and worked answers: Unit 01 learning pathway.
The student demonstrates the following:
Five science criteria plus separately reported integration (Page 3).
Emission colors linked to electron transitions — observed live.
The student reasons from electron structure aloud (Page 4 anchors).
Contemporaneous record of flame colors, spectra, and the unknown ID.
You are making a decision, not adding up points. For each criterion, decide whether the work is Developing, Proficient, or Mastery — the column language tells you which. A criterion counts as mastered only when the student can both run the technique and justify the atomic chemistry behind it. Each student has three tokens per term; each token retries one rubric criterion. Approved accommodations, equipment failures, and approved absences are handled separately and do not consume these tokens.
Accept listed synonyms; use the distinction column to resolve near-matches.
| Canonical answer | Accepted synonyms | Common confusion / discriminator |
|---|---|---|
| The atom & notation | ||
| Atomic number | proton number; Z | Defines the element; never changes for a given element |
| Mass number | protons + neutrons; A | Not the same as atomic mass on the table (that is a weighted average) |
| Isotope | same element, different neutrons | Different mass number, same atomic number |
| Ion | charged atom; cation / anion | Charge comes from electrons gained/lost, not protons |
| Electrons & orbitals | ||
| Electron configuration | orbital filling; e⁻ arrangement | Follows Aufbau order; 4s fills before 3d |
| Valence electrons | outer-shell electrons | Drive bonding; set by the group number for main-group elements |
| Ground state | lowest-energy arrangement | Excited state = an electron bumped up a level (the flame-test cause) |
| Hund’s rule | one per orbital first | Fill singly before pairing within a sublevel |
| Periodic trends | ||
| Effective nuclear charge | Zeff; net pull on outer e⁻ | The “why” behind every trend on the table |
| Atomic radius | atom size | Decreases left-to-right; increases top-to-bottom |
| Ionization energy | energy to remove an electron | Opposite trend to radius — smaller atom, harder to ionize |
| Electronegativity | pull on shared electrons | Highest near fluorine, top-right (excluding noble gases) |
| Criterion | Developing | Proficient | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subatomic particles & atomic notation | Confuses protons, neutrons, and electrons or their charges. | Names the particles but stumbles reading mass number vs. atomic number. | Interprets atomic notation, electron counts and signed ion charge; derives simplest neutral ionic formulas from justified or supplied ion identities. |
| Isotopes & average atomic mass | Thinks all atoms of an element are identical. | Defines isotopes but cannot weight a mass average. | Calculates average atomic mass from isotope abundances and explains why it is rarely a whole number. |
| Electron configuration & orbitals | Writes configurations as random letters and numbers. | Fills orbitals but violates Hund's rule or the Aufbau order. | Writes ground-state, noble-gas, and orbital-diagram configurations correctly, including exceptions like Cr and Cu; relates corrected photoelectron peaks to subshell populations. |
| Periodic trends | Cannot state whether a property rises or falls across a period. | Recalls a trend's direction but not its cause. | Predicts and ranks radius, ionization energy, and electronegativity using effective nuclear charge and shielding. |
| Lab technique (flame tests / spectra) | Skips or contaminates the flame-test loop. | Runs the test but misassigns colors to elements. | Performs clean flame tests, links emission colors to electron transitions, and identifies an unknown salt. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Makes no supported connection between the source and the science. | Uses the source but needs help connecting evidence, writing, or limitations to the science. | Independently connects History, Reading, and Writing using a cited source, appropriate evidence, a limitation, and a scientific explanation. |
Work down the criteria one at a time. Ask the student to reason it out rather than recall — “why is chlorine smaller than silicon?” The cause (effective nuclear charge, shielding) is where Proficient and Mastery separate. Reading the table is Proficient; explaining why the table looks that way is Mastery.
Read these before you grade. They show what Mastery and Developing actually sound like, plus the edge cases where you should coach rather than decide on the spot.
Evidence record for Page 5: Level: ______ Case/dataset: ______ Criterion: ______ Work/source/date: ______ Assumptions/units/uncertainty: ______ Transfer/variant: ______ (Attach independent calculations; practical observation is separate.)
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subatomic particles & atomic notation | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 2 | Isotopes & average atomic mass | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 3 | Electron configuration & orbitals | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 4 | Periodic trends | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 5 | Lab technique (flame tests / spectra) | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 6 | Integration (cross-domain) | Dev / Prof / Mast |
☐ No ☐ Yes — for criterion: __________
Tokens left this term after this session (choose one): ☐ 3 ☐ 2 ☐ 1 ☐ None left
Dev = Developing · Prof = Proficient · Mast = Mastery · Unsure between two levels? Circle the lower one and note what a re-do would need.