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).
Population density and biodiversity estimated in the field.
The student reasons from energy flow aloud (Page 4 anchors).
Contemporaneous record of counts, transect data, and NPP estimates.
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 survey and justify the ecology 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Trophic structure | ||
| Producer | autotroph; primary producer | Makes its own food by photosynthesis; the base of every food web |
| Consumer | heterotroph | Primary = herbivore; secondary and tertiary = carnivore |
| Decomposer | detritivore; saprotroph | Recycles matter back to producers; not a dead-end |
| Food web | interlocking food chains | A web of many linked chains, not one single line |
| Energy flow | ||
| Trophic level | feeding level | Each step up a food chain; energy shrinks at every one |
| 10% rule | ten-percent law | About 90% of energy is lost as heat between levels |
| Gross primary productivity | GPP | Total energy fixed by producers, before their own respiration |
| Net primary productivity | NPP | GPP minus respiration; the energy left for consumers |
| Community structure | ||
| Keystone species | disproportionate driver | Its removal collapses a community out of proportion to its numbers |
| Niche | ecological role | An organism’s role, not just its habitat (where it lives) |
| Biome | major ecosystem type | Set by climate — e.g. tundra, desert, rainforest |
| Limiting factor | constraint on growth | The resource that caps a population or its productivity |
| Criterion | Developing | Proficient | Mastery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trophic levels and food webs | Reverses resource-to-consumer arrows. | Traces a chain with prompting. | Traces energy through producers, consumers and decomposers; distinguishes energy flow from matter cycling. |
| Trophic transfer efficiency | Treats ten percent as universal. | Applies a supplied efficiency with help. | Calculates individual and combined transfer efficiencies and states the limits of the 10% approximation. |
| Primary productivity | Mixes stocks and annual flows. | Calculates NPP with reminders. | Computes NPP = GPP minus autotrophic respiration using compatible units and reports uncertainty. |
| Biomes, niches and keystone effects | Lists species without mechanisms. | Names a limiting factor. | Compares terrestrial/aquatic biome limits and ecological interactions; defends controlled contrasts and a testable keystone response. |
| Quadrat and transect technique | Omits area or selection rules. | Records plots with inconsistent boundaries. | Demonstrates approved sampling, calculates density and observed richness, and defends placement, boundary rules and limits. |
| 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. |
Ask for the area and time denominator, the actual transfer ratio, and the evidence that plot placement represents the stated site.
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.
Student: ______________________________________ Date: _______________ Guide: _________________________
Integration is reported separately and cannot lower the science grade or block a science demonstration pass. Science and practical criteria determine that pass.
| # | Criterion | Decision | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trophic levels and food webs | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 2 | Trophic transfer efficiency | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 3 | Primary productivity | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 4 | Biomes, niches and keystone effects | Dev / Prof / Mast | |
| 5 | Quadrat and transect technique | 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.