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
Tools, Safety & the Ethics of Dissection
Holding the scalpel, scissors, forceps, and probe safely, bench setup and cleanup, and the ethics of working with a once-living specimen.
Unit 02
The Earthworm
The first internal dissection — a clean dorsal-midline opening, then locating and naming the segmentation, blood vessel, crop, gizzard, and nerve cord.
Unit 03
The Grasshopper
Opening an arthropod — the exoskeleton, jointed legs, and the open circulatory and tracheal systems of an insect.
Unit 04
The Clam or Squid
A mollusk dissection — mantle, gills, and foot, and the contrast between the clam’s shell and the squid’s active body plan.
Unit 05
The Perch
The first vertebrate — gills, the two-chambered heart, swim bladder, and the fish’s single-loop circulation.
Unit 06
The Frog
An amphibian dissection — the three-chambered heart, paired lungs, and the digestive and urogenital systems.
Unit 07
The Fetal Pig
The mammalian capstone specimen — the four-chambered heart, diaphragm, and the full thoracic and abdominal organ layout.
Unit 08
Comparative Anatomy & the Dissection Defense
Reading the whole ladder together — tracing homologous structures across specimens and defending the common-descent argument aloud.
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
Dissection defense
Locating, identifying, and explaining a structure’s function on a real specimen, out loud, under questioning.
Demonstration
Timed structure identification
Finding and naming specified structures on prepared and freshly opened specimens, against the clock.
Demonstration
Oral lab-notebook defense
Standing behind your own drawings, dissection notes, and structure labels out loud.