This packet is everything a parent or guide needs to assess Unit 05 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 running a water-quality test — dissolved oxygen, nitrate, turbidity, and pH — and reading the results as a diagnosis of the water’s health.
By the end of the Water Resources & Pollution unit, a student should be able to:
Six criteria, each judged Not yet / Approaching / Mastered (Page 3).
Test DO, nitrate, turbidity, and pH; read the water’s health.
The student reads the test results as a diagnosis (Page 4).
Sample source, readings, and diagnosis kept distinct.
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 take the measurement and defend the diagnosis it supports. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Water & where it goes | ||
| Watershed | drainage basin | Land that drains to one water body; distinct from an aquifer |
| Aquifer | groundwater store | Underground water-bearing rock; recharged from the surface |
| Point source pollution | pipe / outfall source | A single, identifiable source you can name and locate |
| Nonpoint source pollution | runoff pollution | Diffuse runoff with no single origin — harder to control |
| Reading a stream’s health | ||
| Eutrophication | nutrient over-enrichment | Nutrients feed an algal bloom whose decay crashes the oxygen |
| Dissolved oxygen (DO) | O₂ in water | The oxygen aquatic life breathes; low DO means a stressed stream |
| Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) | oxygen demand | Oxygen decomposers use up; high BOD drives DO down |
| Turbidity | water cloudiness | Suspended sediment; distinct from color or dissolved pollutants |
| Criterion | Not yet | Approaching | Mastered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watersheds & groundwater | Cannot say where the water in a stream comes from. | Names watersheds and aquifers but cannot trace flow between them. | Traces water through a watershed into groundwater and aquifers and explains how recharge and withdrawal balance. |
| Point vs nonpoint pollution | Treats all pollution as one kind. | Defines point and nonpoint sources but misclassifies examples. | Classifies a pollution source as point or nonpoint and explains why nonpoint runoff is harder to control. |
| Eutrophication & dissolved oxygen | Cannot connect nutrients to a dead zone. | Names eutrophication but not the oxygen crash behind it. | Explains how nutrient loading drives eutrophication, algal bloom, decomposition, and the BOD-driven collapse of dissolved oxygen. |
| Water treatment & scarcity | Assumes water is limitless and always clean. | Lists treatment steps but cannot link them to scarcity. | Outlines how water is treated and explains what drives water scarcity and competition for it. |
| Field technique (water-quality testing) | Misreads the test kit or contaminates the sample. | Runs the tests but records dissolved oxygen, nitrate, or pH inconsistently. | Tests dissolved oxygen, nitrate, turbidity, and pH cleanly and reads the results as a diagnosis of the water’s health. |
| Integration (cross-domain) | Treats the science as isolated facts; makes no cross-domain connection. | Names a link to history, reading, or writing but cannot defend why it matters. | Connects the unit to its anchor across History · Reading · Writing (plus chosen electives) and defends why the connection matters. |
The split between Approaching and Mastered is the reading is a diagnosis: a kit number isn’t mastery until it names the source and the pollution. Ask “what does this dissolved-oxygen reading tell you about the stream?”
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 | Watersheds & groundwater | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 2 | Point vs nonpoint pollution | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 3 | Eutrophication & dissolved oxygen | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 4 | Water treatment & scarcity | NY / Appr / Mast | |
| 5 | Field technique (water-quality testing) | 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.